Digital ad spend is now 35% higher than TV

SMI's look at spending in Q2 2021 shows Canada is now recovering faster than all other English markets.
By Patti Summerfield
October 18, 2021

Despite being the only English-speaking ad market to not see recovery in Q4 2020, Canada has since rebounded to have a 77% year-over-year gain in Q2 2021 ad spend, according to the latest report from Standard Media Index.

This increase, which included a 54% rise in July alone, is greater than those experienced by the other countries in the
SMI market pool: the U.S. (50% year-over-year and 48% in July), U.K. (54%, 37%), Australia (53%, 41%) and New Zealand (64%, 33%).

Cross-media spending is increasing across North American markets versus last year, with Canada having the largest cross-media growth – 35% – in Q2 versus other English markets.

Canada’s TV ad spend rose 24% year-over-year in Q2 (though it had a 14% decline when compared to 2019), a growth similar to the US. Digital ad spend was stable or growing across all markets in Q2 2021, with Canada holding the largest share, at 56% of total spending, up from 53% in 2020 and 43% in 2019. The increase came at the expense of TV’s share: 35%, down from 38% in 2020 and 39% in 2019.

Digital spend was higher (10%) than TV in Canada for the first time in H1 of 2019. That difference, accelerated by the pandemic, continues to grow, clocking in at 19% in 2020 and 35% this year. Connected TV (CTV) is also growing: it’s up 217% versus the first half of 2020 and 812% in 2019.

Canada’s top five media owners are all showing year-over-year volume growth but have lost share to Rogers, which increased by 80% to reach a 19% share. Bell Media is still at the top, though, up 23% to 37% share of spend; Corus up 7% to 27%; Quebecor is up 30% to 7%; and CBC with 11% growth to 6%. The top 10 TV channels are up 84% versus 2020, but are still down 12% from 2019 levels.

In connected TV, the top ten companies own 63% share of spending. It is led by Roku and Google (13% each), followed by Amazon (11%), Samsung (7%), Bell Media (6%), Verizon (4%), Rogers (4%), Adobe (4%), Tremor Video (2%) and CBC (1%).

The report is based on SMI’s access to actual spend data from large Canadian buying groups and major independents, representing 94% of the Canadian agency market, including Havas Media, Omnicom Media Group, IPG Mediabrands, Dentsu, Publicis Media, Horizon Media and GroupM.