Marketing spending in 2020 - the Internet is strengthening its position, while other media are declining!
source: own elaboration
2020 was a breakthrough year for the whole world and will be marked by a pandemic. Remote work, closing of shopping malls, cinemas, clubs, pubs, restaurants, theaters, gyms, swimming pools and many other places and on top of that children taking lessons in front of a monitor screen - all this two years earlier would sound like science fiction, and now it has become our everyday life. Due to the lockdown, most of the sales took place online, which prompted even small local producers to appear online. The habits of consumers have also changed, they are now forced to order products online, which they used to buy at stores. Marketing specialists know that their work requires flexibility and finding themselves in unusual situations - but last year they had to stand on their eyelashes to keep up with changes. In the following text, we will summarize what the spending on marketing in 2020 looked like in Poland.
How much was spent on advertising in each media in 2020?
On the website interaktywnie.com, in the article entitled „WARTOŚĆ RYNKU REKLAMOWEGO W POLSCE W 2020 ROKU.REKLAMA INTERNETOWA LIDEREM WZROSTU” we can read that all expenditures on marketing in our country fell by 8.6% year to year and amounted to PLN 9 billion. The text refers to the results of a survey conducted by Publicis Groupe and describes the advertising market in Poland in 2020.
Although in each of the quarters the situation was different, after a full year, declines in marketing expenses compared to the previous year were recorded by all media, except for the Internet. In 2020, advertising on radio was allocated 9.5% less than in 2019, while advertising spots broadcast on television were as much as 10.1% less. The press was in a more difficult situation - 29.6% less was spent on advertising space in dailies and 37.4% less in magazines than in the previous year. It was even worse in the case of outdoor - outdoor advertising operators earned less by 38.8%, which amounted to almost PLN 211 million! The biggest drops, however, were noticed by cinemas - they earned 79.2% less on marketing than in 2019. In total, over one PLN billion less were spent on advertising in these media than in the previous year.
The only medium that recorded an increase was the Internet - funds allocated to e-marketing increased by PLN 160.8 million and totaled PLN 3.7 billion. It is worth mentioning that this result doesn’t include announcements, so these amounts are certainly underestimated. As a percentage, internet advertising earned 4.6% more than in 2019, and in the second quarter, for the first time in our country’s history, spending on online marketing was higher than that spent on TV spots. The share of online advertising in marketing budgets also increased from 35.9% in 2019 to 41.1% in 2020.
Which industries spent less and which more on advertising?
2020 was the first year when as many as 75% of industries reduced their marketing expenses. It was certainly related to lower revenues or the need to invest in other areas. It was most noticeable in the financial industry, which spent on advertising less by 23.9% (which amounted to over PLN 175 million!) And in the sector named in the survey. „TRAVEL AND TOURISM, HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS” - marketing expenses in this category were in total 23.8% lower than in the previous year (which corresponded to the amount of PLN 65 million). Companies related to Media (by 20.1% or otherwise almost PLN 103 million less), Free Time (less by 19.9% or PLN 80 million) and Automotive (less by 16.6%, which corresponded to PLN 131 million). The drops in these categories are quite obvious - bank branches were closed for a large part of the year or could host fewer customers, in addition, banks offered their clients online cash loans, which made the offers of shadow banking institutions no longer as attractive as before. Traveling in 2020 was also very difficult, which meant that the entire tourism industry had to reduce expenses. You can also easily understand why companies related to Media, Free Time and even Automotive saved on marketing (although many representatives of that category tried to use the pandemic to promote holidays in the car or encourage customers to buy cars online). However, the results of other industries are surprising - companies offering products that are theoretically less sensitive to changes, in categories such as: Hygiene and Care (13.2%), Alcoholic Drinks (12.7% decrease), Clothing and Accessories (11.1%), Food (10.4%) or Pharmaceuticals and Medicines (8.1%) also donated less funds for advertising.
This doesn’t mean, however, that ad spend fell in all sectors of the economy. More free time encouraged consumers to buy online, so it should come as no surprise that . It was almost PLN 104 million. Growth was also recorded in three smaller sectors: household products (+ 24.7%), computers and audio-video (+ 7.9%) and home appliances, furniture and decorations (+ 2.2%).
In 2020, marketing had to be particularly sensitive to the changes brought by the coronavirus pandemic. As you can see in the above summary, 12 months of last year are serious losses for companies dealing with advertising in almost every medium. 75% of industries have limited their advertising budgets, which means that marketers received over a PLN billion less than in 2019. The only marketing channel that recorded an increase was the Internet, but higher expenses in this area didn’t compensate for the losses in the remaining ones. Nevertheless, it is worth noting how important this medium was in 2020, and its position in 2021 is only strengthening - as IAB Polska claims, in the first quarter of this year, the online advertising market earned almost PLN 200 million more than in the same time a year earlier. This proves that the internet is and will be a marketing power, and thus all internet ad frauds are becoming a growing threat.
