Total TV ad investment in the UK increased to £5.46bn in 2021, an increase of 24% compared to the previous year.
This total marked an 11% increase on pre-pandemic TV adspend levels in 2019.
Previously, the highest annual TV adspend figure was £5.28bn in 2016.
Online-born businesses increased their TV adspend the most out of any category as they invested £1.12bn on TV advertising last year, a 42% increase on 2020 and making up 20% of all linear TV adspend.
The highest spending online-born businesses included delivery and food subscription businesses, online marketplaces and finance categories.
The number of new advertisers also increased by 50% from 2020 to 2021 with 1,286 new advertisers on TV last year.
These figures are based on UK’s commercial broadcasters and cover investment in linear and on-demand TV advertising.
Data from Nielsen Ad Intel showed TV investment increased across all categories (see- table below).
Sub-category | Example Brands | 2021 TV spend (£m) | Difference from 2020 (£m) | Difference from 2019 (£m) | Difference from 2020 (%) | Difference from 2019 (%) |
Online Marketplaces | Amazon, Vinted, eBay, Etsy | £134 | +£35 | +£30 | +35% | +29% |
Price Comparison Websites | Compare The Market, Gocompare, Moneysupermarket, Confused Com | £134 | +£21 | +£30 | +19% | +28% |
Food Delivery/ Food Subscription | Deliveroo, Just Eat, Gousto, Ocado | £127 | +£58 | +£82 | +86% | +185% |
Used Cars | Cinch Cars, Cazoo, Webuyanycar, Motorway Online | £74 | +£22 | +£51 | +42% | +222% |
Gambling/Lottery | Omaze, Tombola, Betfair, Cashcade | £68 | +£16 | +£13 | +30% | +23% |
Finance | Clear Score, Experian, Gohenry, Sumup | £64 | +£31 | +£10 | +91% | +18% |
Technology | Google, Xero, Intuit, What3words | £59 | +£17 | +£21 | +39% | +56% |
Travel | Expedia, Hotels Com, Booking Com, Airbnb | £57 | +£20 | -£41 | +55% | -42% |
Streaming Platforms | Disney+, NowTV, Netflix, Britbox, Audible | £52 | +£1 | +£31 | +2% | +145% |
Property | Zoopla, Purplebricks, Rightmove, Boomin | £43 | +£12 | +£8 | +41% | +22% |
Mattresses | Eve, Emma, Dormeo, Simba | £27 | +£10 | +£15 | +55% | +126% |
Social Media | Meta, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Pinterest | £23 | +£9 | +£13 | +61% | +121% |
Exercise | Peloton, Echelon | £23 | +£11 | +£12 | +96% | +119% |
Gifting & Greeting Cards | Moonpig, Wowcher, Thortful, Buyagift | £21 | +£6 | +£10 | +38% | +98% |
Recruitment | Indeed, TotalJobs | £19 | +£13 | +£10 | +214% | +102% |
Design | Godaddy, Ionos, Canva, Squarespace | £18 | +£6 | +£0 | +46% | +1% |
Furniture | Wayfair, Loaf, Snug, Swyft | £18 | +£7 | +£3 | +56% | +21% |
Telecoms | Giffgaff, Smarty | £14 | +£8 | +£9 | +152% | +171% |
Genealogy | Ancestry, Findmypast, 23andme | £12 | +£3 | +£2 | +31% | +25% |
Flowers | Bloom & Wild, Serenata Flowers, Freddies Flowers | £11 | +£6 | +£9 | +128% | +463% |
Other | £127 | +£25 | +£40 | +24% | +47% | |
Total | £1,125 | +£335 | +£358 | +42% | +47% |