Amazon dominates Father's Day digital advertising with 6B impressions, analysis finds

Dive Brief:

Amazon is leading in Father’s Day digital advertising with 6 billion impressions for its related campaigns since May 1, according to an analysis by global ad platform BIScience provided to Marketing Dive.
The volume of impressions dropped significantly for the runners-up. Barnes & Noble ranked No. 2 with 371 million impressions, followed by Henry USA with 284 million, MLB Shop with 245 million and Home Depot with 238 million.
Desktop display ads were the most popular format, used by 73% of brands included in the analysis. Mobile display ads followed, accounting for 24%. More than 80% of Amazon’s ads and 90% of Henry USA’s were desktop display. Home Depot favored mobile display ads, with 95% of its ads on the channel.

Dive Insight:

While it isn't much of a surprise that Amazon is dominating a key gift-giving holiday like Father's Day, the small role for mobile display ads among the leading digital advertisers in this report is noteworthy. The findings would seem to run counter to predictions of mobile display's expansion this year, with EMarketer recently forecasting that mobile will account for 69.9% of all digital advertising this year, driven by display ads.

The emphasis on desktop for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Henry USA and MLB Shop could reflect an older-skewing audience and an effort to reach as broad an audience as possible. Mobile does dominate impressions — in some cases display and others video — for many of the remaining top 15 brands featured in BIScience's research. For example, mobile video plays a big role for Chanel — which came in tenth place for overall impressions and has the vast majority of impressions on mobile video. With eMarketer's research noting that mobile conversions have surpassed desktop conversions, the brands investing in mobile advertising for Father's Day are likely betting this approach will boost their ROI.

Amazon has long been the go-to source for online shopping, with more than half of consumers beginning their product searches on the site. The e-commerce giant has also led the way in paid search in categories that are likely to be popular with Father’s Day shoppers. The company beat its closest competitors Walmart and Best Buy, in consumer electronics search terms, snapping up 49.65% of click share on desktop, while only investing 15.35% in the category, according to an Adthena analysis released in December.

Consumer electronics are expected to be a top gift for Father’s Day, with spend projected to reach $1.8 billion in the category, according to forecasts from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Overall, Father’s Day spend is projected to reach a near-record $15.3 billion on Father’s Day this year, with other top gifts being clothing and gift cards.