One explanation for this is the growing prevalence and success of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. For startups that want to take advantage of low overhead, good first-party data and enviable customer relationships, this model segues well with social and display. But it isn’t just startups that are looking to exploit the D2C model.
According to a February 2019 article from SAP Customer Experience, global CPG brands such as Nike and Levi's are making huge inroads here. Nike's D2C sales will reach an estimated $16 billion by next year, and Levi's D2C efforts helped increase its global revenues by 22% in 2018.
The display total may also be affected by traditional media preferences within the CPG industry, with video (TV spend, in traditional terms) accounting for a large proportion of ad spending.
By device, CPG brands will spend 78.2% of their digital ad budgets on mobile this year, compared with 21.8% on desktop/laptop ads. This equates to mobile spend of £1.46 billion ($1.95 billion) and £0.41 billion ($0.54 billion) on desktop/laptop ads. This positions the CPG industry as the one that assigns the largest portion of its digital spend to mobile.
For more analysis on how other sectors in the UK are spending money on digital ads this year, read our latest report.