Advertisers Come Home For The Holidays

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After some advertisers took a breath for the election, Week 45 saw the highest revenue of the year, up 23% W/W. Some of the most significant gains came from advertisers outside of the Top 50 (and some we called out in this newsletter as ones to watch in Q4). With holiday campaigns already in full force, retail and luxury brands started to make gains we haven't seen since pre-covid. 

It will be interesting to see how the potential for a vaccine in Q4, will impact categories like travel, food, airlines etc. and we’ll have more analysis on this in the next few weeks. We’re seeing early signs of a comeback, but will these advertisers who are usually heavy spenders in Q4, finally show up in a significant way? Or, after being on the sidelines for so long, hold off until after Xmas/Q1? Regardless, we are excited for the return of more advertisers into the mix, and what’s sure to help drive the Open Market.

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At A Glance: 

  • All eyes on Pharma. Even before the big announcement, Pfizer had a big W/W increase, up 62%. Bayer, absent since the end of May, had a huge week, up over 500% driven by OTC Cold & Flu meds.

  • ‘Tis the season for Retail. Macy’s, L Brands, and Kohl’s showed significant W/W gains. We expect this category, especially brands with an e-comm strategy like Wayfair (up 62% W/W) to continue spending until Xmas. 

  • Save or Spend. Finance category up 29% W/W with its highest week of the year. Citigroup and BofA hitting high weeks, and AmEx up 27% and likely to break the Top 50 before EOY.

  • Zoom envy. For the first time since March, Luxury advertisers are spending. After slowly increasing over the last 8 weeks, Tiffany up 26% W/W. LVMH, Richemont, and Kering (Gucci, YSL) also saw gains this week. 

Below is a view of the top 50 advertisers, based on spend. The right column compares Y/Y trends of the 4 week average of Weeks 42-45 2020 vs 2019. The left column compares W/W trends from Week 45 vs Week 44.

The Grand Total represents the entire Advertiser dataset.

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