Retail Media Ads Have Grown Nearly 50x Over the Past Decade, Challenging the Dominance of Linear TV.
It’s not just viewers getting tired of traditional TV commercials; advertisers are also tuning out. Hershey’s US head of media and analytics revealed that the portion of ad dollars allocated to TV has fallen from 80% to 30% over the past few years (WSJ), a trend mirrored across other consumer goods companies. Instead, advertisers are redirecting their marketing budgets towards social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which are increasingly making their way into “retail media.”
- Mondelez is among those doubling down on platforms such as Amazon and Walmart, whose advertising sectors have emerged as some of the fastest-growing segments.
- By 2025, expenditures on retail media ads are projected to surpass traditional TV advertising for the first time.
The last pillar of TV: One aspect of linear TV that remains resilient is sports programming. In 2023, sports broadcasts accounted for a staggering 96 out of the 100 most-watched broadcasts. Yet, even this arena is witnessing a transition to streaming platforms like Amazon and Apple — and ad dollars could follow. Molson Coors, for instance, has significantly adjusted the portion of its TV ad budgets allocated to sports, from nearly half to 80% over the past five years. That’s sent the value of TV deal rights skyrocketing — with the NBA set to sign a $76B broadcasting deal over 11 years, marking a threefold increase in value from its current agreement.
