Shoppers browse the aisles during a 2018 Black Friday sale at a Target store.
It remains to be seen if Black Friday consumer spending will be up this year amidst growing economic uncertainty. It appears retailers are worried about turnout. They’re desperate to get the word out about Black Friday deals.
Retailers bumped up their TV ad spending leading up to Friday’s annual event, a sign that they may be concerned about lower turnout on what’s annually one of the biggest days for consumer spending.
New data from Media Radar, a platform that tracks ad spending to help salespeople hone their pitches, finds that during the first two weeks of November, retailers spent more than $400 million on TV advertising, up 5% over last year, which saw brisk sales on Black Friday.
“Our deep dive discovered that spending for 2019’s Black Friday TV advertising has been highly concentrated,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and cofounder of MediaRadar. “In fact, of the nearly 300 retail companies that ran ads on national TV in the first half of November, 77% of those dollars came from the top 20 spenders.”
That means the biggest companies are also spending the most money. This could be taken as a concern about low turnout, or it could be that retailers see potential for bigger spending this year and want people to bring their money to their stores.
Amazon was the top advertiser, with spending up 7% over last year. Walmart ranked No. 2, though it was actually down 1% versus 2018. Last year Walmart was the No. 1 spender, followed by Amazon.
“Amazon’s rise up the rankings is largely due to its purchasing of premium ad slots, with just over one fifth of its TV commercials occurring during prime time hours,” said Krizelman, “But because of the higher cost of these slots, this is accounting for 55% of the dollars they have spent so far.”
Target, also down 1%, was the third-largest advertiser, followed by Macy’s (up 2%) and Kay Jewelers (down 1%).
Best Buy tumbled to No. 8 this year, with spending down 5% compared to 2018.
