Ad research firm MediaRadar’s just-released “10 Brands to Watch in Q2 2021” includes at least three key radio advertisers. The report forecasts a higher ad spend in Q2 for home improvement chain Lowe’s, sports betting site FanDuel and prescription drug manufacturer AbbVie.
Lowe’s, consistently top 10 among radio advertisers according to Media Monitors, reported a net income increase in 2020 due to the rise in home improvement projects since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the chain has increased its overall ad spend by 20% from Q1 to Q2 for each of the past three years, MediaRadar predicts an expenditure of at least $40 million in Q2 2021. Lowe’s total spend during January and February 2021 was $25 million, 72% of which went to broadcast media, suggesting that radio could benefit from an estimated $28.7 million broadcast spend by Lowe’s in Q2.
FanDuel, which MediaRadar notes has also benefited from the pandemic due to limits on travel to states with legal sports betting, reported a 106% revenue increase in 2020 and a 171% increase in its ad spend in Q1 2021 compared to 2020. More than three-fourths (78%) of FanDuel’s $30 million budget for the first two months of 2021 went to broadcast, with some of that going to radio given FanDuel’s partnership with Entercom announced last October. The deal, which Entercom CEO David Field called “the largest in the history of the radio industry,” made FanDuel the official sportsbook partner across Entercom’s sports stations and Radio.com audio streaming platform. Field predicted advertising would “grow substantially over the six years of the deal.”
AbbVie, among the top 10 pharma advertisers on radio in the 110 markets tracked by Media Monitors, was powered by subsidiary Allergan’s network radio spend of $8.1 million during the first eight months of 2020, a 171% increase over the same period in 2019 based on Miller Kaplan data. Given the FDA’s recent approval of pediatric drug Humira as well as the company’s Botox product lines, AbbVie’s steady overall ad spend increase during each quarter of 2020 should continue in 2021, according to MediaRadar. With 93% of AbbVie’s $186 million ad spend for January and February 2021 split between broadcast and cable, this could be good news for radio in Q2.
Among the remaining seven brands in MediaRadar’s report, five – mental health counseling site BetterHelp, IBM Cloud Solutions, Southwest Airlines, General Mills and Eggo Waffles – set aside anywhere from 22% to 76% of their ad expenditure for broadcast media, with BetterHelp having spent 61% of its $4.6 million budget in January and February on podcasts. Also among the “10 Brands to Watch” are shoe retailer allbirds and pet food delivery service The Farmer’s Dog, both of which rely heavily on cable advertising.
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