WHITE PLAINS, N.Y—Based on an analysis of the top 100 advertisers, Media Monitors is reporting that Procter & Gamble was the top parent company advertiser in the U.S. for the second year in a row. P&G kept the top spot by airing more than 26 million spots on radio, local cable and broadcast TV in 2021, according to Media Monitors.
For the second year, P&G also increased its year-over-year instances, with 26,398,691 spots aired or 14% more instances than it did in 2020, when it aired 23,154,642, a 22% bounce from the spots aired in 2019.
In terms of individual advertising accounts, GEICO is once again the number one advertising account, airing a total of 5,945,084 instances across radio, local cable and broadcast TV.
GEICO was the top advertiser on broadcast TV, but it ranked second on local cable and fourth on radio.
“Procter & Gamble has made advertising leadership a part of its core strategy for growth,” explained Media Monitors’ president and CEO Philippe Generali. “With some of the world’s most trusted household brands like Tide, Gillette and Crest, it recognizes the value of reaching out to consumers during challenging times such as the current pandemic. The brand has continued to increase its reach and use advertising to boost sales.”
In terms of broadcast TV, P&G was also the top parent advertiser with 8,756,252 spots, airing nearly four times as many spots as number two Johnson & Johnson. Together, the two firms aired almost as many spots (a total of 11,024,353) as the eight other parent companies in the top 10 combined (a total of 12,050,439).
Broadcast TV, also reflected a trend for self-care. In addition to Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal USA, Inc. (at #6), and Unilever PLC (7) led the top 10.
In addition, healthcare-focused organizations were strongly represented in the top parent company advertiser rankings. Among the top 10 were GlaxoSmithKline PLC (#3), the US Government (4) and AbbVie, Inc. (9), the researchers said.
Insurance companies topped the rankings of advertising accounts for broadcast TV, with GEICO holding the number one spot, followed by Liberty Mutual Insurance (#2) and Progressive (4).
However, five of the top 10 advertising accounts were related to health and personal care. Procter & Gamble-owned Tide (#6) and Downy (7) were followed by Dupixent (8), Neutrogena (9) and Colgate (10).
In terms of individual accounts for broadcast TV, GEICO led with 1,370,184 spots, followed by Liberty Mutual Insurance (1,105,193), McDonald's (1,066,453), Progressive (929,131), Macy's (902,352), Tide (891,993), Downy (884,509), Dupixent (842,800), Neutrogena (793,238), and Colgate (783,501), according to Media Monitors.
On local cable, the top three parent advertisers of 2020 retained their positions in 2021, with Procter & Gamble once again at number one. With over 8.5 million instances, Procter & Gamble aired more spots than communication providers Comcast Corporation (#2) and Charter Communications, Inc. (3) combined.
Other top parent companies also were focused on personal care, including GlaxoSmithKline, PLC (#4), L’Oreal USA, Inc. (5) and Unilever, PLC (9).
Meanwhile, the battle for share-of-voice among three insurance providers raged on, the researchers said.
The top 5 accounts in cable included: Liberty Mutual Insurance (at #1) with 3,051,031 spots, closely followed by GEICO (2) with 3,035,714 instances. Progressive (5) trailed slightly, airing over 1.8 million spots.
After its release in early 2021, Discovery+ shot to number three among the top 10 accounts with 2.8 million instances. This was enough to drive parent company Discover, Inc., into the top 10 ranking of parent advertisers in the medium.
For parent advertiser Amazon.com, Inc., 3,051,527 instances were enough to lift the e-commerce company into the top 10 at number seven. With 1.4 million spots aired, Amazon.com also entered the ranking of top accounts at number 10.
Full rankings and more data is available here.
