Coca-Cola cuts ad budgets by a third, spends less than PepsiCo

Rob Clapp

An overview of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's advertising spend since 1989.

The steep decline in Coca-Cola advertising spend last year means major competitor PepsiCo invested more for the first time since 2000. This is according to a WARC Data analysis of company reports.

Coca-Cola cut its advertising costs by 35% to just $2.8bn in 2020, the lowest level since 2007. In contrast, PepsiCo maintained budgets, with advertising spend remaining at $3.0bn.

Notably, Coca-Cola saw net revenue drop 11.3% to $33.0bn last year, while PepsiCo grew 4.8% to reach $70.4bn.

The Coca-Cola Company cut its advertising budget during the worstof the coronavirus pandemic citing limited effectiveness, loss of live events...

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