Tesco cut its spending on TV and press advertising by nearly two-thirds in October, putting it well behind Asda, Aldi and Lidl, which launched their Christmas campaigns last month.
The UK’s biggest supermarket, which controls nearly a third of UK grocery sales, spent just £2.9m of the £34.6m splashed on TV and press advertising by UK grocers in the four weeks to 9 November, according to Nielsen, a market research firm. This year, Tesco launched its Christmas TV ad on 9 November, a day later than last year’s.
Meanwhile, Nielsen also confirmed Tesco was the poorest performing of the UK’s supermarkets. It sales fell 4.2% in the three months to 9 November, compared with a 3% fall at Morrisons, a 1.8% fall at Sainsbury’s, and a 0.8% drop at Asda, according to the firm’s latest market data.
Sales rose at Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer as the pattern of discounters and upmarket grocers outperforming the centre ground continued.
Nielsen’s figures closely shadowed those of rival analysis firm Kantar Worldpanel, which this week revealed a 3.7% drop in sales at Tesco over the same period, also making it the worst performer. Kantar’s data indicated that the grocery market had shrunk for the first time in at least 20 years this autumn.
