COVID-19 IMPACT

The Fastest Intel for a Dynamic Advertising Landscape, Period

The Numerator Advertising Index

Numerator is now publishing a weekly Advertising Index to provide needed visibility to shifts that are occurring in media spend driven by the Coronavirus.

The Numerator Advertising Index leverages Numerator Ad Intel’s fast, complete and granular data to track media spend versus a year ago across media types and categories. This provides visibility into how categories are changing their overall spend and shifting their advertising dollars across media types with the spread of the Coronavirus and ensuing changes in consumer behavior. This report will be available during the duration of the outbreak only.

Notable Changes:

Mobile data has been excluded from the week ending May 31th due to delays in processing caused by COVID-19.

Online Video over-indexes in week 21

  • The top advertisers by spend in online video were Progressive, IBM, and Credible
  • Total spending decreased this week vs last week  and remains lower for the same time period last year
coronavirus advertising index

The Retail category over-indexes for the first time since week-ending March 15th

  • Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, and Kettering Health Network all released new ads in the past two weeks to help push the Hospital category into the top-10 in category spend.
  • The Brand Image category dropped out of the top-10  spending categories for the first time in the last six weeks with a 40% decrease in spending this week vs last week.
coronavirus advertising index

The Delivery Systems Category - consisting primarily of online and mobile banking ads - enters the top-10 growing categories

  • The Software category continues to index above its spending from last year due to increased advertising from Microsoft Teams.
  • The RX: Cancer category is led in ad spend by Ibrance, Kisqali, Piqray, and Bristol Myers.
coronavirus advertising index

The Beverages: Tea category pauses nearly all spend compared to this time year ago

  • Cruise Line spending remains down but new online creatives focused on destinations and offers/promotions are being released by Norweigan Cruises and Royal Caribbean.
  • Coca Cola advertising is in line with its spend from this time last year, but the advertising for all other brands in the category is nearly non-existent.
coronavirus advertising index

Covid themed ad spending drops after two weeks of growth

  • New creatives featuring Covid-19 messaging dropped by ~500 creatives across all media types to 1,366 new COVID-19 themed ads in week 21.
  • Auto: Retail & Events, Retail, and Fast Food (QSR) were the top three categories with COVID-19 themed messaging by spend.
coronavirus advertising index
coronavirus impact on advertising

The Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Advertising Strategy

We’ve been tracking changes in print and online promotions and adjustments made in advertisers’ media spend and messaging. 

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NUM-WR-2020 Coronavirus Updates