It’s important to stay on top of trends in TV advertising — who is advertising with whom? Why, and how? Understanding the current state of the television landscape is necessary to find out which upcoming opportunities shouldn’t be missed, how best to prepare, and how to maintain a competitive and desirable edge.

MediaRadar will release its annual TV Trend Report later this month. Ahead of the full report, we put together the most critical insight for publishers and media companies — including the biggest TV advertisers with RFPs coming up in the next few months.

Top TV Advertisers With Upcoming RFPs

The most important part of the upcoming report will be an overview of the top TV advertisers — and how they are spending their ad dollars. The top TV advertisers with the largest ad spend that have upcoming RFPs between now and July include:

• Procter & Gamble: 12 RFPs predicted in the next 3 months.
• Berkshire Hathaway: 4 RFPs predicted in next 3 months.
• Pfizer: 6 RFPs predicted in next 3 months.

All three of these companies spent over $1 billion each on TV advertising in 2018.

Insight From MediaRadar’s TV Trend Report

In the past year, there have been a few noteworthy changes in the product categories investing in TV advertising. Tobacco vaporizer and pet-related companies increased their TV ad spend the most, whereas travel and non-alcoholic beverage companies decreased their investments more than any other category.

Over 2,000 new advertisers entered the TV ad market this year — apparel companies highest among them. Apparel TV advertising hit an all-time high, making up 13% of all dollars spent on TV advertising throughout the past 12 months.

In the last 12 months, the top five product categories for TV advertisers included:

1. Retail: $8.7 billion
2. Finance & Real Estate: $7.9 billion
3. Tech: $7.4 billion
4. Pharma: $6.6 billion
5. Auto: $6 billion

Among each of those product categories are household names like Target, Geico, T-Mobile, Pfizer and Toyota.

The full report, set to be released later this month, readers can expect further insight into major events of Q1 2019, shifting TV ad length, how direct-to-consumer brands are entering the TV advertising market, and the impact of the latest round of mergers and acquisitions on the national TV landscape.

Q2 is the most active quarter for RFPs each year by a wide margin, and this year is no exception. MediaRadar expects that over a third (34 percent) of all RFPs in 2019 will be issued during Q2, with the majority concentrated in April as the most active month.

The conglomerates behind some of the most popular CPG, apparel and retail brands — including Sephora, Peet’s Coffee and Gillette — will be putting out the highest number of RFPs this month.

The Top Industries and Companies for RFPs in Q2

With April kicking off RFPs for Q2, brands of all shapes and sizes are eager to put their newly established budgets to good use in the latter half of 2019.

According to our research, the top four industries issuing RFPs this quarter will be:

• Apparel
• Travel
• Retail
• Home Furnishing

The second quarter is big for apparel companies in particular — the industry as a whole issues more than double the number of RFPs than any other quarter. If you’re interested in a deeper dive into the numbers for these categories, or zeroing in on your own optimal RFP opportunities, feel free to check out our brand new RFP predictor tool.

Within these industries, MediaRadar expects the top issuing companies in Q2 to be LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the JAB Holding Company and Procter & Gamble. The three conglomerates are certainly major players in the ad market — they have collectively spent over $3.3B in advertising over the past year.

Advertising for LVMH, JAB and P&G

With dozens of brands between them, some large retail coffee chains and US household staples, it’s unsurprising that LVMH, JAB and P&G spent so much on advertising in the past year.

The conglomerates are also great examples of what it means to take advantage of multiple advertising channels at once. All three companies advertise both on more traditional channels (like TV and print, as well as programmatic digital advertising) and newer, more direct-to-consumer style channels like Snapchat.

Examples of big spending include everything from the traditionally multichannel “What Fills Your Cup” campaign from Peet’s Coffee (owned by JAB) to the delightfully meta “It’s a #TideAd” that P&G put out for the Super Bowl in 2018. By the same token, you’re likely to find ads for LVMH brands (including everything from Hennessy to Hublot) in high-end publications.

Maybe you’re feeling more than a little overwhelmed at the volume of RFPs being issued this month — and the amount of brands they represent. If so, the same team that put together this research on the most popular RFPs of Q2 can help you get ahead of the game in future months and quarters. Use MediaRadar’s RFP predictor tool to look ahead to when RFPs are coming, complete with a handy research dashboard to assess how to position your publication for specific brands.