• by Danielle Oster , July 23, 2024

Earlier this year, Dr Pepper made headlines for the milestone of passing competitor Pepsi to become the number-two cola in the country.

Another area where the brand surpasses Pepsi is TV ad spending.

Marketing insights company MediaRadar released a report on the biggest TV advertisers in the soft-drink category for the first four months of 2024. By one metric, Dr Pepper eclipsed even Coca-Cola.

The brand devoted 92% of its ad spending to TV during that time period, according to MediaRadar's analysis -- more than any other brand in the category.

Pepsi spent approximately 72% of its ad spending on TV for the first four months of 2024, with Coca-Cola spending around 52% of its budget on the channel.

“Notable TV ad campaigns for soda over the years include Coca-Cola's polar bears and Pepsi's star-studded commercials,” MediaRadar founder and CEO Todd Krizelman said in a statement. “There is a reason why these brands choose to spend more heavily on TV compared than other formats, because TV provides wide visibility for them.

“Over the past two years we've seen Dr Pepper contribute the most to TV advertising relative to its spend, with memorable campaigns such as ‘Fansville’ ads.

Dr Pepper is prioritizing TV in 2024 -- "which may have been a factor in beating Pepsi to become the second-most popular soda,” he added. “It will be interesting to see if this strategy holds going forward -- if Dr Pepper chooses to double down to keep that spot, or if they’ll ease back.”

Ad spend for the soft-drink category was down as a whole for the period, with $204 million spent in soft-drink advertising during the first four months of the year -- down around 10% from the $228 million spend over the same period last year. Of that, more than $133 million came from the category’s trio of top brands, accounting for 65% of the category, but each decreased spending overall.

Of the three big soft-drink companies, Dr Pepper slashed ad spending the least during this time period, decreasing spending 5% compared to decreases of 18% and 45% for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, respectively.

Coca-Cola had the highest total for TV ad spending, with $40.7 million on the platform through the end of April -- a 46% decrease compared to its spending over the same period last year.

Dr Pepper spent $29 million on TV advertising -- down around 1% from last year -- while Pepsi spent just $17 million, a 54% YOY decrease.

Coca-Cola's dip in TV ad spend comes as the brand continues to invest heavily in digital ad channels, following the introduction of its Studio X global digital marketing and content platform.

The brand increased digital ad spending over 300% in the first four months of 2024 compared to that period last year, to around $31 million – with digital channels representing around 40% of its ad investment overall during the period. Of that total, 51% was devoted to mobile advertising, with online video accounting for 22% and paid social 14%.

Dr Pepper took a very different approach. The brand decreased its digital spending by 19% to $2.3 million, according to MediaRadar, with such channels representing just 7% of its total spending -- 36% of which went to paid social.

Pepsi, by comparison, decreased its digital ad spend around 2% YoY to a little less than $5.3 million, representing 23% of its ad spend overall.

Paid-social spend accounted for 24% of Pepsi's digital ad spending, with 18% going to online video.