Hike in Tesco spend on ads

Tesco Ireland splashed the cash on its advertising campaigns in the third quarter of the year with a huge 111% increase in its advertising spend over the three month period. 

The retailer spent big on traditional media advertising between July and September across a number of campaigns, according to research carried out by Checkout magazine.

As well as the traditional back to school market, Tesco also targeted a range of other market segments with its “Wonky Veg” and “Fuel Save” campaigns as it attempted to put a stop to the market share losses it has experienced recently.

“While ad spend is traditionally focused predominantly on ‘Back to School’ in Q3, Tesco unveiled a series of advertising campaigns during the period, an indication of how the retailer is eager to hit multiple touchpoints to arrest its market share declines,” said Checkout editor, Stephen Wynne-Jones.

Overall, Tesco accounted for a 25.2% share of total supermarket spend in Q3 — an increase of 12.7% year-on-year.

Other retailers also increased their advertising spend during the period with Aldi (+8.7%) accounting for almost 21% of total spend and Lidl (+9.8%), which made up just over 20% of advertising expenditure.

From a position as the country’s largest advertising spender in Q3 of last year, SuperValu decreased its spend by 19.5%, to slightly less than 18% of total spend. Meanwhile, Dunnes Stores spent almost 22% less to reduce its outlay to 9.3% of market spend.

Print media remained the most popular advertising medium, accounting for 54% of retailers’ combined spend, ahead of TV (33%); radio (9%) and outdoor (4%).

Tesco has endured a difficult time of late as it has come under increasing pressure from discounters, Aldi and Lidl as well as more established retailers with its market share slipping a further 4.7%, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel figures.

In October, Tesco announced a 92% fall in pre-tax profits in the six months to the end of August further compounding an already miserable year for the British retailer.

The previous month, the company announced that it had overstated profits by £250m (€316.8m) as result of an accounting error — a figure it later revised to an even bigger hole in its profit and loss account of £263m.

In its interim management statement, the company identified trading conditions in the Irish market as being particularly difficult.