As Austrians curbed consumption due to high inflation, companies responded last year and increased their advertising spend extremely sharply. The goal was to motivate people to spend more again. We show who the biggest ‘advertisers’ are.
By 2024, companies will have invested more money in advertising than ever before. “They have almost succeeded in crossing the five billion euro threshold,” says expert and market researcher Ronald Luisser of the FOCUS Institute. In concrete terms, the companies invested 4,961 million euros in advertising, an increase of 6.2 percent compared to 2023.
Rewe is the most active
The most active was the Rewe Group (Billa, Bipa, Penny & Co) with expenditure of 227.7 million euros, no less than 34.5 percent more than the previous year (see graph). Luisser: “Compared to 2022, Rewe has even increased advertising activities by 40 percent.”
Spar is in second place with 177.4 million euros. “That was also a significant increase of 16.1 percent,” says Luisser. XXXLutz is in third place with 159.5 million euros, a loss of 4.9 percent. According to the expert, the fact that the furniture store chain spent less on advertisements and TV spots was due to the crisis of a rival: “Kika-Leiner did fewer activities, so it was not necessary for XXXLutz to step on the advertising gas. or.”
Luisser’s conclusion: “Supermarkets in particular have tried to poach consumers at a time when people are looking at money. And they wanted to show that they were cheap with promotions.” The major branded goods companies such as Procter & Gamble and Henkel were also increasingly competing for customer favor.
Interestingly, companies are increasingly using celebrity endorsements in their advertising – so-called ‘testimonials’. For example, the music duo Seiler & Speer appeared on Billa posters with beer and a guitar. During the European Championship, Hofer used local footballers such as Alexander Schlager, Marcel Sabitzer, Michael Gregoritsch and Christoph Baumgartner on posters (motto: “This prize is safe for us”) and Lidl scored points with Christina Sturmer.
The largest ‘traditional’ advertising channel is the printed media: of the almost five billion euros, almost 1.8 billion euros flowed to newspapers, magazines, etc. last year. Television comes in second place with almost 1.5 billion euros, followed by traditional online advertising. advertising Advertising with just over a billion euros. ‘Outdoor advertising’, such as posters, accounted for 340 million euros, radio 300 million euros and cinema advertising 14 million euros.
This year, costs continue to rise
Companies will probably spend more money on advertising again this year. According to a study by FOCUS among advertising agencies and companies, advertising volume will increase by 0.7 percent in 2025.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
