TV Ad Spend Weekly: A Google Home for the holidays
Brands continue to invest heavily in above-the-line content, and television is still seen as the place brands want to be. Each week, in partnership with Kantar Media, The Drum looks at which brands have been investing the most on newly-launched creative on US national broadcast and cable TV.
Nicole Richie and John Michael Higgins in Great News on NBC
Advertising expenditures for new creative on national TV reached $155m during the week of November 27, falling 10% compared to the previous week. This decline doesn’t come as a surprise, as ad spending typically tends to dip the week following Black Friday. NFL games continue to account for the largest portion of expenditures, responsible for a quarter of all new spend this week.
Leading the pack this week is Verizon, far outpacing the rest of the top five, with a push to tout the benefits of the network and that “a gift is only as good as the network it’s on.”
With the holidays in full swing, Google, in second position this week, is promoting its Google Home device with help from some NBC celebrities. The advertiser partnered with NBC to release a one minute, star-studded spot featuring Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), Jennifer Hudson (The Voice), Nicole Richie & John Michael Higgins (Great News) and Jesse Spencer & Taylor Kinney (Chicago Fire), all of whom use the Google Home for assistance with controlling holiday decorations and answering holiday related questions. The commercial concludes with the announcer saying “Light up the holidays like only Google can.”
The ad is part of NBC’s Holiday Spectacular and was released on November 28. To date, it has aired only five times with ad expenditures nearing $3m. The remainder of Google’s national TV budget for the week was divided among general promotion of Google Home Mini ($1.3m), Google Chromebook ($0.8m) and Google Pixelbook ($0.7m).
Rounding out the top five this week are Amazon, promoting its Amazon Prime offering of 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,' Chevrolet with this year’s work about the 'Chevy Employee Discount' for consumers, and Target going big on a weekend deal promotion.
See all of the new creative submitted from around the world in The Drum's Creative Works section.
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This data is part of ongoing reporting released on a weekly basis with Kantar Media using its AdScope tool.