Streaming services showed the largest TV advertising impressions
growth of all categories in 2020: up 93.5% compared to 2019, according to iSpot’s year-end TV advertising insights report.
“The streaming services category exploded, of course, and
new and old services used TV ads to fuel their expansion,” notes the report, which includes data from Jan. 1 through Dec. 6, 2020.
Disney+ led the pack, with 16.8 billion impressions
— up 483% versus 2019, an increase that’s not surprising, given that it didn’t launch until mid November 2019.
Other leaders included established services Hulu (14.4 billion,
up 144%) and Amazon Prime Video (10.9 billion, up 32.9%); new-in-2020 Peacock (6.4 billion); and Apple TV+ (6.2 billion, up 72.2%, launched Nov. 1, 2019); Fox Nation (5.3 billion, up 96.3%); HBO Max
(4.7 billion, launched in May); and CBS All Access (4.2 billion, up 326%).
Sling (-19.7%), ESPN+ (-27.3%) and Spectrum TV On Demand (-48.4%) were the only services within the top-20 in total
impressions that saw declines versus 2019.
Now-defunct Quibi — launched April 6, 2020 and shuttered on October 21 — ranked thirteenth, with 2.8 million impressions during its short
life.
Discovery+, which launched in some international markets in 2020 but didn’t officially announce its Jan. 4, 2021 U.S. launch until Dec. 2, 2020, nevertheless managed to generate
1.3 billion U.S. TV impressions.
Insurance Brands: TV Everywhere?
While it’s not the technical meaning of the term, insurance brand ads did seem to be virtually everywhere
on TV in 2020.
With the single exception of pizza brand Domino’s, all four of the top five most-seen brands were in insurance:
All of these brands had impressions increases, with Liberty
Mutual’s up most (29.5%) vs. 2019, followed by Progressive (up 19%) and Geico (up 15.2%).
Here are the other most-seen brands in 2020:
Auto and general insurance was the most-seen industry in 2020, impressions-wise,
followed by automakers, quick-serve restaurants, wireless carriers, skin and foot care, cleaning supplies, candy and gum, department stores, video streaming services and pizza.
After streaming
services, the categories with the largest percentage increases were laundry detergent/fabric softeners, vitamins/supplements, pets, and skin and foot care.
Other Notable Changes
The brand with the largest impressions increase was Amazon: up 163%, to 29.1 million.
Other brands with large increases included Downy, Subway and Tide, up 88.9%, 59.7% and 50.1%,
respectively.
Through the end of November, 2,587 brands were new to TV or returned to it, accounting for a combined 234 billion impressions and an estimated $3.18 billion in ad spend.
Among D2C brands, the impressions leaders were Carvana (16.9 billion), Chewy.com (14.4 billion), Wayfair (10.9 billion), Grubhub 6.4 billion) and Home Advisor (6.2 billion).
Those with the
largest increases were Robinhood (up 619%), Etsy (up 248%), Daily Harvest (up 229%) and GoodRx (up 179%).
The TV networks generating the most impressions were CBS (319.9 billion); Fox News
(300.8 billion), NBC (283.7 billion), ABC (267 billion) and CNN (193 billion).
Shows generating the most impressions were the NFL (138.6 billion), “Friends” (56.6 billion), the NBA
(54.5 billion), the NCAA (50.9 billion and “Law & Order SVU” (49.7 billion).