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It’s not new news that the pandemic upended every facet of consumer behavior – from travel regulations to entertainment shifts, and home DIY projects. But while society today operates in more of a post-pandemic fashion, many Canadian brands and advertisers are still coping with its impact – especially when it comes to advertising.

However, ad spending in Canada 1H 2023 said otherwise. And while the numbers may have been smaller compared to those from before the pandemic, the story is promising.

There is light at the end of the long COVID-19 pandemic tunnel.

Heading into 2022, brands are more optimistic than ever of what sponsorship can do in support of their measurable business and brand objectives.

As we look forward, with COVID-19 transitioning to endemic, sports, arts, culture, community, and music properties offer Canadians the opportunity to come together for human-scale experiences, leaving public health restrictions behind them.

Latent Demand for Live

IMI, the Canada-born global consumer research firm, has been tracking consumer sentiment related to the pandemic across thirty-nine country markets since early 2020. During that time, latent demand for live experiences has steadily grown.

As of December 2021, Canadians’ intent to attend live festivals was 43% higher than it was pre-pandemic, intent to attend community events was 48% higher, and live concerts 32% higher.

Picture it. It’s Q1 2020. Canada’s ad market was in a growth position vs the prior year, with January and February ad spend from the larger national advertisers tracking up +3% vs the same months in 2019. Then in March the pandemic took over, ad dollars began to leave the market, and Canada would face twelve consecutive months of YoY declines, the first five of which were seeing double-digit losses. Even the historically strong holiday period in Q4 saw less ad spend than the year before, finishing down -4%.

There was hope for 2021, but it started out soft, with both January and February spend unable to reach the same levels as we saw in pre-pandemic years. March 2021 was the first month where Canada saw cross-media ad spend surpass both March 2020 and March 2019 levels. Perhaps Canada was finally rebounding? Maybe advertisers were feeling confident enough to start spending again? Not so fast.

Q2 told us otherwise with ad spend still down -6% vs Q2 of 2019. If Canada had any hope of returning to pre-pandemic investment levels in 2021, it would have to be in the back half. We didn’t disappoint!

With 2015 coming to a close, ACA is asking the experts to predict the trends they think will shape the industry in 2016. So far, Stephan Argent has written about Agency Search Management and Grant Le Riche looked at media. Next up is Brent Barootes, President and CEO, Partnership Group, with his forecast for sponsorships.

What kind of crazy Alternate Advertising Universe just hit us? In one weird decision, the CRTC are out to make broadcasters and cable companies jump through hoops so that… wait for it…so that the people can see American TV commercials. On TV. During a TV show. I mean, as far as I can tell I […]

Canadian TV debuted on September 6th, 1952, when CBC launched CBFT in Montreal and CBLT in Toronto. Some of the first advertisers were Ford, Campbell’s Soup, Westinghouse and Imperial Tobacco. Less than 10 years later, census data showed that 82.5% of Canadian households had TVs – more than had flush toilets. Even in 1996, 76% […]