Tesco last year remained the UK’s biggest spender in traditional advertising in the grocery sector, according to new data released from Nielsen AdIntel. The retailer, which also led the way in 2018, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019 by increasing its spend from £74.8m in the previous year to over £80.8m.
The data covers the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 and relates to Cinema, Outdoor, Press, Radio and TV advertising spend only.
Both Asda (down -4.9% to £65.3m) and Lidl (down -11.0% to £54m) maintained their positions in second and third place respectively, despite both decreasing their spend.
However, the most significant mover in grocery retail was Sainsbury’s, which increased its spend across these channels by 82.6% to £51.9m. This was driven by its 150th anniversary campaign ‘Proudly doing our bit’, which was then reinforced in its ‘Nicholas the Sweep’ Christmas campaign.
In contrast, Morrisons dropped from fourth to seventh after decreasing its spend by 21.2% to £36.1m in 2019. The Co-op and Waitrose also chose to cut back their spend. However, traditional advertising was given more of a priority in the marketing plans for Aldi (up 15.3% to £52.7m), Marks & Spencer (up 1.0% to £37m) and Iceland (up 9.0% to £25.6m), who all upped their spend from the previous year.
In terms of advertising spenders overall, Sky was the UK’s biggest spender in traditional advertising in 2019 overall, increasing its spend by 44.1% to £178.8m. McDonald’s, which came third in 2018, increased advertising spend significantly by 23.7%, taking the overall second spot ahead of Procter & Gamble, which had the biggest decline of the overall top spenders, decreasing by 26.8%.
Top 10 UK grocery retail advertisers in 2019 versus spend in 2018
| Advertiser | 2019 | 2018 |
| Grand Total | £443,208,879 | £431,807,962 |
| Tesco | £80,829,122 | £74,745,677 |
| Asda | £65,342,776 | £68,692,306 |
| Lidl | £54,039,493 | £60,746,058 |
| Aldi | £52,690,583 | £45,690,873 |
| Sainsbury’s | £51,897,187 | £28,425,374 |
| Marks & Spencer | £36,998,968 | £36,649,850 |
| Morrisons | £36,149,330 | £45,857,907 |
| Iceland | £25,602,522 | £23,496,687 |
| Cooperative | £23,078,652 | £24,688,461 |
| Waitrose | £16,580,246 | £22,814,769 |
Barney Farmer, UK Commercial Director at Nielsen, said: “Last year, Tesco celebrated its 100th anniversary, whilst Sainsbury’s also marked its 150th birthday in 2019. These two milestone events have likely been the main contributors for the increased spend from these two retailers across trusted media channels.
“However, there was less consistency across the supermarket chains in terms of traditional advertising spend overall. As Aldi, Marks & Spencer and Iceland invested more, while Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, The Co-operative and Waitrose all shifted budgets away. Many grocery retailers are choosing to experiment in other channels, while some have reinvested back into traditional media as a trusted way to reach their consumers. It will be interesting to see which way this shifts throughout 2020.”
