Investment in advertising grows again and reaches R$ 69 billion in 2021

In the wake of the resumption of the economy in 2021, with GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growing 4.6% in the year, after a 3.9% drop in 2020, Brazilian advertising also reacted: it advanced 29% in the past, adding investments of R$ 69 billion, against a drop of 10% in the previous year.

The data belong to the Insider Advertising 2022 survey, carried out by the research institute Kantar Ibope Media, released this Tuesday (14). The study presents how much was invested in advertising on open TV, pay TV, internet, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema and out of home (OOH) media, which involves advertisements in elevators, billboards and subway trains, for example.

“The advance of vaccination has allowed activities to largely resume normality”, says Viviane Vela, director of agencies and advertisers at Kantar Ibope Media.

According to the survey, the sectors that invested the most were “consumer services” (R$ 4.017 billion) and “commerce” (R$ 3.775 billion), which together represented just over 11% of the total invested in the year.

“In ‘consumer services’ are a huge range of advertisers, from transport and food delivery apps, to health plans, through marketplaces”, says Viviane.

Among the categories of products and services, which make up the sectors, the five that received the most advertising investment last year were “large retailers” (7% of the total), “consumer services” (6%), “telephone and residential ” (5%), “institutional financial market” (4%) and “wholesale super and hypermarkets” (3%).

The cities that received the largest investments were São Paulo (R$ 10.743 billion), Rio de Janeiro (R$ 4.086 billion) and Belo Horizonte (R$ 1.653 billion).

The company does not disclose the investment through advertising – TVs and newspapers, for example. But later this month, it should announce its investments in the internet at an event promoted by the IAB Brasil (Interactive Advertising Bureau).

“The formats mix and move between screens, but we can say that the video format concentrated 63% of media purchases in 2021, considering open TV, pay TV, cinema and online videos”, says Viviane.

A survey carried out by CENP (Executive Council of Standard Norms), which brings together advertisers, advertising agencies and communication vehicles, pointed out that, in 2021, the total invested in internet advertising jumped to 33.5% of the total cake, against 26 .75% of the previous survey. The result is second only to open TV, which leads with 45.4% of participation, compared to 51.9% obtained in 2020.

Viviane says that, before the pandemic, the consumer’s journey was more sedimented, with a more predictable consumption behavior. “There was a turnaround and the purchase decision journey is increasingly complex”, says the specialist. “It gathers information from different sources and interacts with brands at various touchpoints,” she says.

According to the survey, 47% of consumers said they use advertising as a source of information for purchases, 34% follow brands on social media, 45% use the internet to plan purchases, 33% search the internet for the products they see on TV and 21% are influenced by comments posted online.

In the first quarter of this year, investments grew again: up 22%, to R$ 17.6 billion, compared to the interval between January and March of last year, when a new wave of Covid left several establishments closed. In the period, the sectors that advanced the most in investments were pharmaceuticals (up 31% over the first quarter of 2021), beverages (27%) and media (20%).

“The resumption of advertising investments is encouraging, especially because we see a new number of advertisers coming to the market, most of them being from small and medium-sized companies”, says Viviane. Between 2019 and 2021, for example, the total number of advertisers grew by 47%.

Collaborated with Thiago Bethônico