Hey Big Spender - who are the top spending retail advertisers?

Supermarket giants Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons were all among the big spenders last year as the retail sector invested £15bn in advertising. Here, The Drum takes a look at the breakdown of this spend and the media it went on.

Last year the total advertising spend in the retail sector was £1.5bn, an increase of more than £200m on the previous year.The ten biggest retail advertisers were responsible for more than half of this spend, between them investing £775.5m in marketing.For the entire retail sector ad spend totalled roughly £300m per quarter, with the exception of the fourth quarter where the festive season saw spend rise to almost £550m for the quarter.TV and press were the biggest mediums for the top ten retail advertisers, with both mediums taking a 44% share of the total spend - £344.5m and £342m respectively. Investment in TV advertising increased 25% (£66.5m) from the previous year, resulting in the medium overtaking press.Other mediums utilised by the retail sector, such as radio, outdoor and direct mail, saw a more even distribution of spend (between 3% and 4% of the top ten spenders' total ad budgets) with the exception of internet which received only 1% (although this was up £1.5m on the previous year to £8.5m) and cinema which did not receive a notable share. This article is taken from a special supplement published by The Drum, in association with RAR. To view the full supplement, with a list of some of the top recommended agencies with retail experience, as well as comment and analysis, click below to download the full pdf for free.