At a time when more advertisers are allocating the bulk of their spending to digital, not every sector is following suit. In fact, data from WARC shows that the Alcoholic Drink sector is still allocating the largest share of its spend to TV.
Alcoholic Drinks brands allocate some 44% of their media budgets to TV, compared to their 30% invested in digital. The sector’s allocation of budget to TV is the largest of all the sectors WARC analyzed. Soft Drink brands allot the second-highest share of budget to TV at 34%, per the analysis, although the Soft Drink sector allocates a larger share (43%) of its media budget to digital.
The other sectors analyzed consistently allocate the largest share of their media budgets to digital. In fact, the Toiletries & Cosmetic sector dedicates two-thirds (67%) of its budget to digital, with 22% set aside for TV and only a negligible share being used on print media. This finding backs up earlier data from Zenith that showed beauty advertisers have been shifting their spend away from print magazine advertising and towards digital and television.
Other sectors that are investing at least half of their media budgets in digital include Transport & Tourism (61%), Food (56%), Telecoms & Utilities (52%), Automotive (51%) and Pharma & Healthcare (50%).
Out-of-home (OOH)/experiential had a less than stellar year in 2020 but is expected to see some recovery this year. Although the allocation of budget to this form of media is considerably less than that of digital or TV, some sectors such as Government & Non-profit (23%) and Media & Publishing (20%) dedicate at least one-fifth of their budgets to it. Indeed, in the case of the Government & Non-profit sector, more budget is allocated to OOH media than to TV (14%).
About the Data: Findings are based on data from WARC’s case study database of successful campaigns covering more than 1,400 case studies.
