Digital to increase the share of home appliance adspends from 55% in 2020 to 57% in 2023: Zenith’s home appliance adspends forecast 2021

Zenith announces its home-appliances ad spends forecast for 2021. The ROI agency forecasts that home-appliance advertising in 12 key markets (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US) will grow ahead of advertising as a whole in 2021, expanding by 12.6% while total advertising grows by 11.5%.

Forced to spend more time at home, consumers are investing in making their homes more pleasant to live in, using some of the money freed up by being unable to socialise or go on holiday. This is fuelling rapid growth in demand for both large and small appliances, particularly cookers, washing machines, dishwashers and air conditioning units. Despite the easing of coronavirus restrictions, Zenith expects consumers will continue to devote more of their time and budgets to the home than they did before the pandemic, and forecast 6% annual growth in home appliance adspend in 2022 and 2023.

Zenith predicts that advertising expenditure by home-appliance brands will rise from US$4.4bn in 2020 to US$5.0bn in 2021, well ahead of the US$4.5bn spent before the pandemic in 2019. By 2023 adspend will reach US$5.6bn.

Brand building and eCommerce to drive 10% annual growth in digital adspend

Digital advertising accounted for 55% of home-appliance adspend in 2020, up from 51% in 2019. It is essential both for brand building – mainly using online video, native advertising and social media – and performance, using paid search. Most purchases of large home appliances are distressed: made out of urgent necessity, to replace a broken appliance. With few distinguishing features between physical appliances, brand advertising is essential for creating differentiation and placing the brand at the top of mind when the consumer realises they need to buy. Paid search is then used for conversion during the short window of opportunity when the consumer is researching replacement options.

Digital advertising will become even more important to home-appliance brands over the next few years as they continue to embrace e-commerce. Home-appliance brands were already well ahead of the market in adopting eCommerce before 2020, but the pandemic led to a step-change in home-appliance eCommerce. According to Euromonitor International, eCommerce rose from 23% of home-appliance retail sales in 2019 to 32% in 2020, compared to 16% of the market as a whole in 2019, and 21% in 2020. Zenith expects home-appliance brands to continue to invest in ecommerce over the next few years, driving 10% annual average growth in their digital adspend between 2020 and 2023. Digital advertising will rise from 55% to 57% of their ad budgets over this time.

Television is still a vital channel for home-appliance brand-building, supplemented by out-of-home. Home-appliance brands spend substantially more on these media than the average brand: in 2020 they spent 29% of their budgets on television advertising, compared to an average of 24%, and 7% on out-of-home, compared to 4%. Zenith forecasts out-of-home expenditure by home-appliance brands to grow 8% a year between 2020 and 2023. Television, suffering from the continued migration of audiences to digital channels, will lag behind slightly, with growth averaging 6% a year.

“Faced with rising interest in the purchase, the increased role of digital in the mid-to-lower funnel, and a greater focus on delivering direct-to-consumer experiences, appliance brands have never operated in a more demanding and complex marketplace,” shares Drew Erskine, Global Strategy Lead, Zenith. “Successfully building brands for the long term will require agile strategies that find the balance between cultivating desire through broad communications and converting interest, often digitally, in more relevant ways.”

The strongest growth in India and Russia as consumers make more first-time purchases 

Zenith forecasts home-appliance advertising to grow particularly quickly in India and Russia, which will grow at average rates of 18% and 16% respectively a year between 2020 and 2023. Their rapid growth will be in part a reaction to their declines in 2020, which were much steeper than average, with spending down 15% in India and 22% in Russia. But growth should remain strong after a swift recovery in 2021, as rising personal incomes allow households to buy new types of appliances for the first time.

Jai Lala, CEO, Zenith India said, “Over the past few years and especially during a pandemic, Home Appliances in India has witnessed substantial growth. Consumer sentiments are changing towards the category – from being a luxury item to now as a need-based one. Increase in spends will be towards digital followed by TV and Print amongst other mediums.”

Australia, Spain, the UK and the US also suffered from big drops in-home appliance adspend in 2020, and are consequently expected to enjoy healthy recoveries as brands recommit to the market. Zenith forecasts annual growth of 9% to 14% a year in these markets between 2020 and 2023.

The slowest growth is expected in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, where consumer demand is mature, with 0% to 4% annual growth in home appliance spend between 2020 and 2023.

“In most markets, the increased appetite for home improvement is incentivising home-appliance brands to step up their communications activities substantially,” says Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting, Zenith, adding, “Most of this growth is going to digital channels to support increased e-commerce activity, but traditional media like television and out-of-home will remain essential tools for maintaining mass brand awareness.”

The report covers large and small home appliances, including air conditioners, dishwashers, fridges and freezers, heaters, kitchen appliances, ovens, personal care appliances, vacuum cleaners and washing machines.

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