LiveIntent and MediaRadar release report revealing COVID-19’s impact on holiday ad spending
New York, NY, Dec. 31, 2020 — LiveIntent, the people-based marketing platform that reaches 250 million logged-in users each month via its 2,500 brands and publisher partners, and MediaRadar, the leading advertising intelligence and sales enablement platform, today released their joint report, revealing how COVID-19 impacted holiday advertising in 2020.
The study analyzed ad spending across email, digital, TV and print between October – November, 2020, discovering that retail digital ad spend was up 22% year-over-year (YoY), fitness ad spend across digital, TV and print is up over 2x YoY, and much more.
Retail
LiveIntent’s analysis found that conversion rates for advertisers skyrocketed on email Black Friday weekend, 2020. Particularly, the conversion rate for retail advertisers was 32% higher this year than it was in 2019, likely reflecting advertisers taking advantage of identity solutions to help bring intent and targeting to their advertising across devices, channels and platforms. In particular, Style & Fashion had the highest conversions on the LiveIntent platform: 2X the click-through rates compared to average.
MediaRadar’s analysis found that retail’s digital ad spending is up across formats, as well.
“Our data revealed that retailers have increased digital advertising spend by 22%, YoY,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and Co-Founder of MediaRadar.
In regard to the top publisher categories for retail advertisers, LiveIntent discovered that shopping and hard news newsletters had the most impressions – 10X and 5X the impressions compared to average, respectively. LiveIntent also found that retail ads that were in newsletters devoted to Personal Finance and Law, as well as Government and Politics, had the highest click-through rate- 2x above average, which may be a reflection of disposable income. However, retail ads that were in newsletters devoted to Family and Parenting and Shopping had the highest conversion rates – 2X and 1.5X higher, compared to average, which reflected target audiences intent to stock up on gifts for the holidays.
“Despite the pandemic decreasing ad spend overall this year, this holiday season saw relatively healthy digital spend numbers,” said Kerel Cooper, Chief Marketing Officer at LiveIntent. “As we saw earlier this year at the beginning of the pandemic, people are continuing to engage with ads served in emails. This engagement gave advertisers the confidence to know that they would be able to reach and convert consumers ahead of the holidays on email.”
MediaRadar’s data also revealed that Apparel & Accessory advertisers increased digital ad spend, YoY.
LiveIntent data found that Shopping and Style & Fashion advertisers spent significantly more than normal for Black Friday pushes and were more aggressive about getting in front of customers within the platform – spending 3X and 4X times their average spend.
Health & Fitness
MediaRadar’s deep dive revealed that holiday fitness ad spending was up over 2X, YoY, across all media, with large increases in TV & Digital ad spending.
LiveIntent’s analysis found that Health and Fitness advertisers saw 2X the click-through rates compared to average on the platform for November, as consumers took to exercising while largely confined to their homes.
“This aligns with our findings– that fitness ad spending was up 43% YoY, looking at TV & Digital spend over the entire year,” added Krizelman.
To learn more about LiveIntent and MediaRadar, visit www.liveintent.com and www.mediaradar.com.
About LiveIntent
LiveIntent, one of the world’s largest people-based marketing platforms, connects 2,500 publishing and advertising brands with over 250MM verified people every month across all types of media. With the anonymized email address at the center of its industry-leading identity graph, LiveIntent provides brands with solutions that help them monetize, acquire, and retain real people, even where cookies don’t work. LiveIntentenriches a brands’ data, making it possible for them to deepen their understanding of their audiences, and more effectively market to people wherever they are present and paying attention. LiveIntent is home to over 160 people worldwide with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Berlin, and Copenhagen.
About MediaRadar
MediaRadar offers a suite of tools that provide sales intelligence and enablement directly to media and ad tech sales personnel, as well as new business development executives at agencies. The company tailors its products to support broadcasters, dotcoms, ad tech companies, magazines, newspapers, mobile media companies and events. The platform’s intelligence capabilities are powered by a proprietary combination of AI and machine learning. Through its technology, MediaRadar distills multi-channel campaign intelligence into actionable competitive insights, brand analysis, and prospecting reports, all in one easy-to-use platform. Ad sales teams leverage these insights to identify the best prospects, build and nurture stronger relationships with clients, and close more business.