P&G Is Top Advertiser

It's still early in 2021, but Procter & Gamble is picking up right where it left off in 2020, when disinfection, household cleaning and fabric care were top of mind due to the pandemic.

According to Media Monitors, P&G was once again the No. 1 parent advertiser on radio, broadcast television and local cable. The consumer packaged goods company aired its most number of spots on television, followed by cable. In addition, it increased instances across all three media. Overall, it aired 25,176,258 spots in January-February 2021, compared to 21,843,748 over the same period last year—an increase of 15.26%, according to Media Monitors' latest rankings of top advertisers.

“The market demand for household cleaning supplies remains strong, especially through the winter, as cold weather keeps Americans at home and we're not out of the woods with the pandemic yet,” said Media Monitors President and CEO Philippe Generali. “CPG companies like Procter & Gamble want their products to be top of mind with maximum reach right now, and that's why we're seeing their instances increase in the early months of 2021.”

According to Generali, as the weather warms in the US, the percentage of the population vaccinated will increase and lock-down restrictions may start to loosen more broadly—potentially leading to new categories of advertisers increasing their airtime.

“This might include categories that have been impacted by the pandemic such as travel, which many have been craving for months,” he said. “Additionally, since some people are still likely to stay close to home, we expect home improvement advertisers to air more spots.”