Ad investment is shifting towards internet formats, but the rate at which that is happening depends on the sector: food and soft drinks, for example, still pour around two thirds of advertising investment into TV, a new WARC report points out.

The latest Global Ad Trends, from the newly relaunched WARC Data product, focuses on benchmarking ad investment by product category, based on a new industry-standard measure of net advertising investment data across 19 product categories in 23 markets, including the United States, United Kingdom and China.

Food and soft drinks are far less likely to have been disrupted by e-commerce, so the need for high levels of digital adspend to facilitate a path to purchase is reduced, the report says.

On the other hand, the pivot to online advertising is particularly stark within financial services and retail, with both sectors having invested heavily in developing digital platforms to serve their customers in recent years.

Global Ad Trends highlights these trends and more in 11 of the 19 categories available to clients, including the following:

Food

• Total global adspend in 2018: $25.3bn (+1.4% year-on-year)

• Median revenue ROI for successful campaigns: 2.93

• Media spend: TV $16.5bn (+1.0% year-on-year). Internet $3.7bn (+7.9%). Print $2.8bn (-12.7%). Other $2.3bn (+15.3%).

• Ad/sales ratios: Food (2.6%). Confectionery (5.6%). Dairy (0.6%). Meat, fish, poultry (0.7%).

Soft drinks

• Total global adspend in 2018: $15.1bn (+1.1% year-on-year)

• Median revenue ROI for successful campaigns: 2.84

• Media spend: TV $10.5bn (+1.1% year-on-year). Internet $1.9bn (+28.3%). OOH $1.3bn (-24.1%). Other $1.4bn (+1.3%).

• Ad/sales ratios: Soft drinks (5.9%). Bottled water (5.9%). Carbonated (5.9%).

Financial Services

• Total global adspend in 2018: $43.2bn (+13.0% year-on-year)

• Median revenue ROI for successful campaigns: 2.93

• Media spend: Internet $19.7bn (+24.4% year-on-year). TV $12.9bn (+4.0%). Radio $3.7bn (+5.1%). Other $7.0bn (+6.7%).

• Ad/sales ratios: Financial services (3.6%). Banks, credit, loans (6.7%). Insurance (0.8%). Investment (1.5%).

Retail

• Total global adspend in 2018: $62.3bn (+0.0% year-on-year)

• Median revenue ROI for successful campaigns: 4.40

• Media spend: Internet $21.5bn (+9.1% year-on-year). TV $20.3bn (-0.6%). Print $9.6bn (-15.5%). Other $10.9bn (+0.8%).

• Ad/sales ratios: Retail 2.3%. Clothing & fashion (2.9%). Restaurants (2.0%). Supermarkets (1.2%).

James McDonald, Managing Editor, WARC Data, and author of the research, comments: “In a multichannel world, it has become harder than ever to track campaign performance, to measure ROI, or to even trust third-party data. The problem is compounded by an environment of ad blocking, fraud, and consumer distrust, and is hazed by walled gardens, programmatic stacks and opaque practice. This results in millions of ad dollars wasted each year.

“But it is essential that ad investment works harder in the media mix to obtain optimal reach and effectiveness. As such, our latest research into product category insights provides vital data to help brand owners, agencies and media strategists and planners inform their decision making.” 

WARC Data is available by subscription only. A sample report of WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends report on Benchmarking ad investment for your product category is available here

Global Ad Trends is part of the newly relaunched WARC Data, a dedicated independent and objective one-stop online service which rigorously harmonises, aggregates, verifies and evaluates data from over 100 reputable sources, including new category data drawn from a collaboration with Nielsen.

Sourced from WARC Data