Early into the pandemic MediaRadar began tracking how our new lifestyle was impacting TV advertising. We saw increased spending from categories like toys and games and household cleaning products. At the same time, sports advertising plummeted. 

It’s been nearly a year and a half since the beginning of the pandemic—have these impacted TV categories leveled off or recovered?

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Traditional TV viewership reportedly decreased, but networks want trust and accuracy

With the widespread stay-at-home orders, Americans initially watched more cable TV last spring. TV ratings were surging. Even younger generations, who are more likely to use streaming platforms, were watching more traditional TV. 

This mattered because it appeared to counter the shift to streaming. 

“Widespread ratings surges are exceedingly rare in the age of cord-cutting to begin with,” reported Adam Epstein at Quartz. “Especially now, at the time of the year when days get longer and warmer and we spend more time outdoors.” 

However, the increase in viewership proved temporal. Thinner programming, tighter bills and the increase of streaming options likely led to the decrease of viewership.

By Q3 of 2020, viewership of traditional TV was decreasing across age groups, according to Nielsen. But here’s the trouble: according to broadcast networks, Nielsen was undercounting viewership. 

When TV networks called for Nielsen to lose its accreditation, the ratings firm submitted a hiatus request to the Media Rating Council (MRC).

“Nielsen has essentially announced ‘you can’t fire me, I quit’ just hours before the MRC suspension vote process is activated,” said Sean Cunningham, CEO of the VAB, in a statement. With less trust in Nielsen’s tracking, it’s hard to accurately assess just how much TV viewership decreased.

What does it mean when the top TV ratings firm isn’t held accountable with accreditation? Nielsen will still release ratings—which will still be considered by the TV industry— but perhaps with a grain of salt. How big will that grain of salt be? Time will tell. 

MediaRadar Insights

Last year, news and entertainment programming held steady compared to 2019. This year, we’re seeing that it’s up slightly over 2020, $3.44 billion in 2021 vs $3.4 billion in 2020 (January – July).

As kids stayed home, parents were buying more puzzles, activities and toys. We saw this sector grow 101% between February and March 2020. Now, it’s slowing down. Kids entertainment is down 27% YoY (January – July). 2020 saw $238.2 million across 21 networks, where 2021 advertising spend is at $174.5 million across 19 networks.

Sports programming—which took a nosedive with the cancellation of events— is now up 67% YoY. This is largely due to the Summer Olympics, which accounts for $1.15 billion of advertising spend in 2021.

Without the Olympics, sports advertising would be up 38% YoY. 2020 saw $3.93 billion across 30 networks, where 2021 increased that ad spend to $5.43 billion across 31 networks.

Viewership data is becoming harder to access across screens, streaming platforms and paid TV. But using MediaRadar, ad sales reps can easily see which categories and brands are spending most and across which formats. For more information, reach out to us or try a free demo. 

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But the struggle is real. 

A study from Allison+Partners found that nearly all B2B marketers—97% of their respondents—wanted to humanize their brand, but roughly two-thirds found the process difficult. 

Building warm and approachable B2B brands requires creative thinking and the ability to capitalize on key moments in the human experience. 

Enter: The Olympics. 

This year, we saw more B2B brands advertising at the Olympics—an event usually supported by B2C brands—than we have in the past.

This leads us to the question: who were the most notable B2B spenders at Tokyo 2020?

B2B brands showed up at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

All too often, B2B brands think about their buyers as ‘personas’ that fit into narrow boxes, only having professional needs and interests. In reality, these ‘personas’ or ‘ideal customer profiles’ are real humans experiencing life in and out of the office. 

This is partially why B2B brands have been trying to take advantage of “moment marketing,” following the lead of B2C brands. Moment marketing is the process of using cultural events or trends to inspire relevant campaigns. The Olympics, just like any major sporting event, is an opportunity for this type of campaign planning.

From medical companies to insurance brokers for small businesses, the events provided a spark to capture buyer attention in a very human way. Companies like Intel, Cisco, GE and Allianz all showed up. 

Their sponsorships at the event are part of a bigger trend: many B2B companies are entering the sports landscape.

Sentry Insurance, an 115 year old insurance company, signed its first sports contract with the Professional Golf Association. 

“It’s not just the interest in golf that we are tapping into. It’s the role that golf plays in our audience’s lives that we’re tapping into as well,” says Amanda Schuneman, brand strategy director. “After all, golf is an arena where watchers and players can merge their professional and personal lives. They can discuss business on the course. And they can connect more directly with others who watch and play golf as well.”

If brands can find a creative way to link business to a specific event or out-of-office experience, they’ll likely be able to build a bigger community of customers. We saw numerous B2B brands sponsoring the Olympics doing this by drawing on themes of global connectedness, a new future or other narratives appropriate for the societal transition we’re in.

MediaRadar Insights

As B2B companies invest in the sports space, we can see which companies are more willing to innovate and perhaps try out other spaces that are traditionally considered “consumer media.”

In July, ad spending from B2B Olympic sponsors totaled $5.5mm in the B2B space. This spending comes from 14 sponsors, including: Cisco, Samsung, Google, GE, and Mitsubishi.

In the month of the Olympics, the top spending sponsors were: 

• Visa
• Toyota
• Google

Other notable Olympics sponsors that made up a significant chunk of B2B Olympic sponsorships include: Cisco, GE, Bridgestone, and Dow Chemical. 

Together, these four companies spent $2.36mm in the month of July, accounting for 43% of Olympic B2B Sponsors spending.

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We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

How is March Madness 2021 Different?

March Madness is back—but with COVID-related changes.

This year, the tournament will have an adjusted schedule and protocols to ensure the safety of teams and fans. The games will take place in a bubble setup located in different locations across the Indianapolis region. This is the first time that the tournament has been hosted in one city.  

“This year’s tournament will be like no other, and while we know it won’t be the same for anyone, we are looking forward to providing a memorable experience for the student-athletes, coaches and fans at a once-in-a-lifetime tournament,” announced Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball. “After the cancellation of the 2020 tournament, we are happy to welcome some fans back to all rounds of the Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.”

Seating will be limited to 25% capacity or less depending on the individual venue. With limited attendance, buying a ticket is more complicated. Fans are buying blind in some cases, not knowing which teams will be playing. Resale prices are the highest they’ve been in ten seasons. 

Another noteworthy change is that Lisa Byington will be the first woman to call play-by-play at a NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Announcers Reggie Miller and Chris Webber will not be covering the games for personal reasons. 

John Bogusz, executive vice president/sports sales and marketing at CBS Television Network, said that advertisement slots are “virtually sold out.” Only a couple of units were available in the final games. “There were [price] increases in all rounds through the championship weekend,” he noted.

MediaRadar Insights

For context, the last March Madness tournament in 2019 generated $1.28 billion in television ad spend from 539 brands across 8 networks. These networks included CBS, Turner, Fox, and ESPN.

This was a 8% decline in the number of brands, and a 15% decline in ad spend over 2018, where 586 brands spent $1.5bn across the same networks.

Though there were hundreds of brands spending, spend from the top 10 brands advertising during March Madness accounted for 28% of all reported TV spend. These brands include: AT&T, Geico, Capital One, Infiti QX, and Lowe’s.

Between 2017 and 2019, there was an average of 576 brands advertising during March Madness on CBS and Turner networks. Though there was a dip in 2019, the absence of the games in 2020 and the pandemic-related limitations in 2021 may make the number of brands and/or spending increase this year. We’ll be able to track the data as it comes in. 

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How are consumers responding and what does that mean for advertising?

We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

Mixed predictions: A complicated return of sports and advertising

Sports are a boon for networks. The NFL alone created $4.6 billion in national TV ad revenue in 2019.  But this year is unlike any other—and it’s difficult to say with confidence if scheduled games will fully pull through, how fans will engage, and which advertisers will come back.   

For many fans, it’s strange—if not disturbing—to watch a game with fake cardboard or virtual fans in the stadium, or seats covered in a blue backdrop with the Delta logo, reminding them of times when they travelled by plane. The consumer response will largely impact TV networks and their sponsors.

According to some analysts, the return of sports will be great for networks.

“We believe that the return of seven pro sports in July and August plus the NFL in September suggests higher linear TV sub ads in the second half, including by cord-nevers, and higher subscriber churn for streaming services,” explained Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin.

However, it might not be that simple. Others say that ratings have been all over the place—and for many reasons. The lack of real human emotion in the stadiums, the strange timing of the seasons, political advocacy at the forefront of the games, all amid a pandemic don’t make an environment where sports feel as fun or relaxing as they normally do. 

It gets even more complicated for college sports. For example, the University of North Carolina moved all classes online for undergraduate students, but planned to continue football, raising questions asking which comes first: “student” or “athlete.”

College football generated $1.2 billion in ad revenue for U.S. television networks last year, and if the season gets cut, networks would experience big losses.

The cancellation of the season would have bigger implications than football advertising itself. 14% of cable-TV customers in a UBS Securities survey said they’d cancel their service if college football didn’t happen. If the seasons are cut short or don’t continue, networks will have less value to offer advertisers. 

MediaRadar Insights: Most, but not all, advertisers returned to sports networks

In response to these different concerns and predictions, we took a look at our data to understand how advertisers are actually spending.

Methodology 

For the three major sports that already returned (NBA, MLB, NHL), we compared the advertisers running ads during the game Pre-COVID* to the advertisers running ads after games returned.

*Notes:

• For the NBA and NHL Pre-COVID is considered the entire regular season prior to the pause, for the MLB we used the 2019 regular season
• To account for the large difference in the number of games played between the sample sets, most data figures will refer to % of total spend.
• Return to play is defined as July 23rd (opening day for the MLB) to August 15th (latest data)

Findings

Since sports came back to national TV, 527 companies have spent nearly $100M on TV ads during games. Looking at the top 100 advertisers across all three sports prior to COVID-19, 83% returned to advertising during the return to play.

Of the 17 companies who haven’t yet returned to advertising, only 5 come from the top 50 prior to COVID-19. Notable companies that didn’t return include:

• Microsoft
• LVMH
• Expedia
• Sprint

Brands that are running ads during the return to play, but did not pre-COVID include:

• Quibi
• Biden for President
• Slack

There have been changes in the makeup of advertisers who are buying the ads. For example, financial firms and alcohol brands are making up a larger share of the spend during return to play.

One category not pictured above (because they were not in the top 10) is travel companies. Prior to COVID-19, across the three major sports, travel companies accounted for 2.1% of ad spending. Since the return to play, they account for only 0.2%, as companies like Expedia and Marriott have not returned their advertising.

Networks have done a good job retaining their top sports advertisers. Looking at the top twenty-five advertisers pre-COVID across each league, both the MLB & NBA have seen twenty-three return, while the NHL saw twenty-four return.

While the loss of live sports during summer was a hit for networks, advertisers are coming back. This is good news—especially as the NFL prepares for its Kickoff game on September 10th and a regular (as can be) season to follow. There may be many questions lingering, but based on the data, it seems that brands are ready to place ads.

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“While they are proceeding with caution, there has been more progress in the last 10 days than in the previous 10 weeks,” explain Ben Cohen and Louise Radnofsky at The Wall Street Journal. “There is now real momentum behind the comeback of American sports.”

Leagues have made tentative announcements, but with conversations surrounding racial justice and the pandemic, there is a lot of uncertainty.

Here is where each league currently stands and the ad dollars at stake. 

We encourage you to subscribe to our blog for the latest data surrounding the advertising industry. We will provide daily updates as COVID-19 continues to make its mark on the US economy.

Sports are likely to come back, but not without stumbling blocks

The NBA, NHL and MLS were all forced to suspend their in-progress seasons due to COVID-19 and are making plans to finish off their seasons. The MLB never began and labor disputes have prevented an official opening day announcement. 

The NBA

The NBA plans to return in July in Orlando. A big point of discussion among players has been how returning to basketball will affect the movement for racial justice in the United States. Some players believe it will distract from the movement, while others explore how the return could be a powerful advocacy tool. 

“It’s not a question of play or not play,” National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts said to ESPN. “It’s a question of, does playing again harm a movement that we absolutely, unequivocally embrace? And then whether our play can, in fact, highlight, encourage and enhance this movement… That’s what they’re talking about. They’re not fighting about it; they’re talking about it.”

The tentative start date is July 31st and the finals would end no later than October 12th. 

The NHL

The NHL has entered its second phase of reopening. Some teams have returned to their training facilities, with strict hygiene and testing procedures in place. Players and the league have not agreed on actually returning to play and the conversations have not been as contentious as the NBA or MLB. 

Returning back to play is more complicated, as players and executives iron out the details of what “life in the bubble” would look like for players and their families. 

Games could return as early as August, but there are still many details and policies that need to be put in place first. 

The MLB

The MLB has tried for weeks to come to an agreement between owners and players. Unlike the NBA and the NHL, the MLB never started its season but was forced to postpone its opening day by several months. If the parties don’t come to an agreement, it could be the first summer in over 150 years that there’s been no baseball. 

Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, clunkily jumped from between being “not confident” of a season this year to “100 percent” confidence. Manfred can order a shorter season, but he has yet to do so or announce an official opening day. It’s likely opening day will fall between mid-July and August 1st. 

There is urgency to come to an agreement, especially because 40 MLB players and staff members tested positive this week. 

The NFL

The NFL is the only major professional sport in a position to start its season at a normal time and stands a good chance to capture more audience attention than normal years.

The NFL plans to start September 10 and has already released its official schedule. 

Even if sports come back, it will not be the same

It’s not just players and fans that are impacted by the cut in sports. Media networks have had to pay billions of dollars for sports that didn’t happen. Even if networks are eager for teams to get back, it will be far from normal. Stadiums will be empty, athletes will be living in bubbles and fans will be wondering if it’s “right” to watch sports amid a continuing health and social crisis.  

“Fallow stadiums would not signal a return to normalcy as states reopen,” writes Jeré Longman at The New York Times. “They would confirm that we remain in a time of dire abnormality, undercutting the appeal of sports as escape and distraction.” 

There’s debate on how to make sports feel as normal as possible when they do return. There won’t be live audiences, so do broadcasters insert fake crowd noise to recreate a ‘normal’ game? Will announcers comment from their homes or follow social distancing rules at the stadium? 

Players will need to live in a “sports bubble” and follow a strict lifestyle. The NBA rolled out a 113 page rule book for keeping players safe — which covered rules surrounding everything from restricted areas to table tennis and snorkels.

Medical tests and professionals will be expensive. Boxing promotion company Top Rank, which has been operating the last few months, reported that it will have spent $500,000 on medical protocols by the end of July. 

If sports leagues and players decide that all these changes are worth it, we could go from a life void of sports to an abundantly full sports schedule quickly. All the seasons will wrap up (and open) simultaneously. Instead of being spaced out with some overlap in a normal year, they’ll all be competing for our attention in a concentrated period of time. 

While not everything will be the same, the return of sports will have a big impact on advertising. 

MediaRadar Insights

We cannot say what TV advertising around sports media will look like in the next few months, but we can look back at the past few years to see what’s at stake. 

Last year, over 900 different companies advertised during a TV broadcast of a professional sport between March and May. Within the leagues, we can break down certain advertising trends during this critical time period.

The MLB: The growth from the last two years comes to a halt

The MLB saw the greatest number of advertisers during this time. It also saw the most growth in the number of brands advertising during the games, with an 18% increase since 2017. This year, it has lost out on that momentum. If players and owners can’t come to an agreement and get safety protocols in place, they may not have a season at all.

The MLB brings in over $60M in the first couple of months of the season. The reason it is notably lower in ad revenue is that these games are early regular-season games, compared to the playoff games of the other two sports.

The NBA: Basketball faces the biggest hit this year

The biggest hit of the three to broadcasters is the suspension of NBA games. 

Last year, during the month of Mar-May NBA broadcasts, the NBA generated $839M in ad revenue. Each playoff game through the conference finals (which ended 5/25, taking it through this analysis) averaged 3.95M viewers. 

Of the sports, NBA players have been the most focused on using their influence for the racial justice movement. When games return, we’ll see if that has any impact on advertising partners.

The NHL: Lost playoffs opportunities in this window

Behind the NBA is the NHL, which also sees the majority of its playoffs occur in the same time window. In 2019, the broadcasts of NHL games brought in over $120M in ad dollars for the broadcasters. 

Combined, the three sports account for over $1B in advertising spend during the time-frame.

Across all three sports, there are common advertisers who make up large portions of the advertising spend. 

The top 5 advertisers among the three sports include:

• AT&T
• An-Bev
• Hyundai
• Pepsi
• Geico 

In 2019, between March and May, these top advertisers collectively spent $147M in advertising on broadcasts. 

The NFL is the only season set up to start on schedule and play a regular season. Last year, over $4B was generated by ad sales during regular-season NFL football games. We’ll continue monitoring to see how the overlap of returning sports affects this number. 

The return to sports is hectic at this point. Broadcasters will have a lot of work on their hands once sports come back simultaneously. How will this affect advertisers? We’ll keep sharing our insights here. 

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