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Banks, media top spenders as advertising budgets jump 21pc
With thousands of Kenyans increasingly adopting the use of personal care products such as hair and skin care products and the mushrooming of Kenya’s beauty industry, the personal care sector emerged fifth in advertisement spend during the year, with a total spend of Sh4.9 billion.
Five sectors controlled over half of the Sh67.3 billion that companies spent to market their products in the year to June 2024, new data shows, as firms put a premium on marketing amid tough economic times.
Between July 2023 and June 2024, companies across the five sectors- media, financial services, corporate & multi-brand, communications, and personal care- spent a whopping Sh37.2 billion to advertise their products on TV, radio, and print publications, a report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows.
The highest spend on advertising during the year, the CA report notes, was between April and June 2024, rising by Sh3.29 billion from the spending during the previous quarter.
“Overall, industry spending increased by 21 percent. The total spending grew from Sh16 billion in the Q1 2023/24 to Sh17 billion in the Q2 2023/24. However, it fell to Sh15 billion in the Q3 2023/24. By the fourth quarter of 2023/24, spending surged to Sh18 billion, with the greatest growth seen in the property, building, and accommodation sectors,” the CA report notes.
Companies operating in the media industry led by spending Sh10.37 billion on advertisement during the year, followed by the financial industry which spent Sh9.87 billion, while those classified as corporate and multibrand spent Sh6.72 billion.
The media industry includes media houses, the filming industry, and publishers, while the majority of players in the financial industry are banks, insurance firms, and digital lenders.
Firms in the communications sector, including telecommunications companies such as Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom, spent a cumulative Sh5.26 billion on advertisements during the year, with most of the money- Sh1.75 billion- spent in the last quarter.
“Specifically, TV has the greatest spending, with radio coming in second. Media have the highest spending on TV while Financial Services on radio. Corporate & Multi-brand have the highest spending in print,” the CA report notes.
With thousands of Kenyans increasingly adopting the use of personal care products such as hair and skin care products and the mushrooming of Kenya’s beauty industry, the personal care sector emerged fifth in advertisement spend during the year, with a total spend of Sh4.9 billion.
Companies in this sector equally spent the highest amount- Sh1.48 billion- to market their products between April and June 2024, effectively surpassing the amount companies in the gambling sector are spending.
The Betting and Gambling sector tailed the personal care industry with an annual spend of Sh4.8 billion and had the lowest spend of Sh1.063 billion during the last quarter of 2023/24.
The sector’s spending record is a complete change from its trend about five years ago when it led the pack and could spend over Sh6 billion on advertising in a single quarter alone.
Other companies with heavy spending on advertisement during the year were in the sectors of real estate (Sh4.35 billion), foods (Sh3.27 billion), household (Sh3 billion), and publishing & education (Sh1.9 billion).
