Back-To-School Ad Spend Falls 70% (mediapost.com)

With back-to-school schedules everywhere in continual flux, this BTS shopping season has gotten as unpredictable as hurricane tracking. While the National Retailer Federation reports a large increase in consumer spending as parents buy pricey new laptops and desks for home schoolrooms, national advertisers are taking a hall pass. Kantar says advertising spending for back-to-school is off 70% so far this year.

The best word for consumer sentiment is still confusion. Kantar’s polling finds 13% of consumers are comfortable sending children back to school “as soon as possible,” 14% want to wait more than six months, and 25% fall somewhere in between one and five months. More than half of also say they don’t know.

Amid that confusion, retailers have scaled back ad spending. So far, Kantar says retailers have spent $23 million on BTS ads between June 22 and Aug. 8, compared with $76 million spent during a similar period last year. Those ads came from just six retailers, compared to 100 in 2019.
more at source: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/355237/back-to-school-ad-spend-falls-70.html