Ad spending shrinks 2.5% for UK's traditional media

UK advertisers spent 2.5% less on traditional advertising methods last year, though half of the top 100 advertisers increased their emphasis on TV, radio, direct mail, outdoor and press.

Overall the major advertisers cut their spending on non-online ads by 3.5%, with Sky overtaking Procter & Gamble as the biggest spender on traditional advertising in the UK, as the broadcaster increased spending 2.7% to £197.1m, data from Nielsen showed on Monday. US consumer goods giant P&G’s spend dropped 1.4% versus 2016 to £196.8m to leave it in second place.

Of other listed companies, BT Group spent 3.8% less on traditional advertising at £144.1m, while Tesco increased its share by 71.6% to £89.5m, making the supermarket group the fastest rising spender, ahead of Samsung which upped trad spend 43.5% to £66.6m.

Amazon spent 16.5% less on offline ads, while Aldi's spend was down 32.0% and Virgin Media down 30.1%.

Waitrose, Confused.com and Google completed the top five in terms of the biggest percentage rise in traditional ad spend.

“It was quite a chalk and cheese year in terms of how the very biggest advertisers changed their emphasis on traditional advertising,” says Barney Farmer, Nielsen’s UK commercial director.

He said it was difficult to pick out an overarching trend other than the advertising dominance of the home media/telecoms providers and household goods manufacturers.

“Half spent more, half spent less, with the likes of Tesco and Samsung ramping up spend dramatically, in complete contrast to that of Virgin and Aldi. Of course, the differences are due to many factors including the competitive state of their sector, the changing allocation towards digital but also the wider uncertainty caused by Brexit."