Amazon was top of the UK adspend ranking last year

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 3, 2022

Amazon shot to the top of the UK ranking for spending on ads last year, rising from third place in 2020. Behind it were consumer products giant Procter & Gamble and TV giant Sky.

New figures from Nielsen cover TV, radio, press, out of home, cinema, and digital display, but not search and paid social. And while Amazon was top overall, that didn’t mean it was the biggest spender in all categories. In fact, it was only fifth for TV spend, second for cinema and also for digital display.

On TV spend, P&G was top, ahead of Sky, Unilever, Reckitt and — as mentioned — Amazon.

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Meanwhile, Peloton was the UK’s top spender on digital display ads last year, with that media channel going “from strength to strength”. After Amazon in second place came eBay, Hello Fresh and M&S. That was interesting because M&S was the only name on that particular top five list to make the majority of its sales through physical retail stores, the others being digital-first brands.

Nielsen said digital display adspend for the year saw “significant growth”. And it added that outdoor advertising had a “good” year while cinema saw double-digit growth, although it remains far below its pre-pandemic level.