Media and corporate advertising expenditure dropped by 31.8 Billion in 2020 mainly attributed to the impact of novel coronavirus. The 2020 Advertising Spends Report shows significant reduction in brand marketing activities and paid for advertising in 2020 that cut down annual ad spends by 21 per cent from Ksh. 154.1 Billion in 2019 to Ksh. 122.3 Billion.
“Almost all sectors of the economy were adversely affected by COVID 19. The top most affected sectors were; communication, media and finance, sectors which recorded significant drop in advertising spends during the year,” said Reelanalytics senior researcher, Enock Mokaya.
“As the new normalcy set in, advertising messaging by most players carried a COVID-19 sensitization component. It’s also important to note that there was a huge chunk of unpaid for ads especially those on COVID 19 as well as self-advertising,” according to Marketing Society of Kenya CEO Edward Oswe.