Unexpected twists have always defined this series and July doesn’t deviate.
We found a 30.1% increase in overall platform spend from July 2022 to July 2023—without Disney+—the lowest increase we’ve seen year-over-year in 2023.
We also saw spend retreat below the billion-dollar mark that was just cleared the month prior, settling at $979M total—a 3% decrease.
Context is key, though, as spend across all tracked media properties dipped 22.7% from June to July, indicating that CTV is still faring quite well through the cyclicality of summer.
That said, we expect it to rebound, well past $1B, as spending ramps through the back end of the year.
For the first time this year, a platform in our ranks experienced a decline in growth from 2022 to 2023—that was MAX.
MAX spend also shrunk 20% from June to July 2023, leaving plenty of space for Peacock to shoot past into the fourth slot.
Pluto TV spend was down nearly 20% between months too, surpassed by that of Paramount+ after eking out a slight lead in June.
Not only did Paramount+ resume its second-tier position but spend rose above $150M this July—a peak for the platform.
July 2022-2023: Ad spend by platform YOY
Source: Vivvix
Food and beverage spend was reduced to $123M—$13M less than June spend for the leading industry—providing another explanation for the dip in overall platform spend month-over-month.
1. Food and beverageRetail advertisers were outspent by automotive advertisers, travel and tourism fell from the top ten, and pharmaceuticals jumped into the ninth slot.
Automotive spend went up by $10M from June to July—rising to approximately $93M—and restaurant spend increased by almost $14M to $111.5M, though it wasn’t enough to clear that billion-dollar hurdle a second time.
Telecommunications was the Vix top spender as advertisers dedicated more than $3.2M to the Spanish-language streaming platform for a $1.73M increase over June.
July 2023: Industry rankings
Source: Vivvix
1. Amazon
2. Burger King
3. Walmart
Amazon took the lead for overall CTV spend but they're only in the 16th slot of our top 20 Hulu spenders. In fact, they weren’t the top spender on any one platform, and they opted out of investing in Disney+ or Tubi altogether.
Source: Vivvix
Source: Vivvix
Burger King was the top spender on Pluto TV, investing big with a mighty 59% of their CTV budget after not spending there in June. Fast food rival McDonald’s allocated only 6.6% of theirs to the platform.
MAX spend regression is underscored by the 40% of our top 20 advertisers who chose not to spend on the platform in July.
Toyota put 44.3% of their AVOD/linear budget on AVOD in July after placing only 12% there in June.
This split is the second-most favorable toward AVOD that we’ve seen yet in 2023 as Apple broke the record by placing 44.7% there—up from about 35% in June.
Burger King went for 41% on AVOD this time around, up from 25% in June—creditable to their prominent Pluto TV push.
Chevrolet went with a 30/70 split, increasing AVOD spend by a whopping 325% month-over-month.
July 2023: Top 20 brands with highest combined streaming and linear spend (ranked from most to least in AVOD spend)
Source: Vivvix
The MAX and Pluto TV dips should signal an opportunity for brands to make a move into some newly-opened white space.
Bear in mind that the overall spend number was down $33.2M, and a look at month-over-month industry spend can help us break down that withdrawal. So where did dollars disappear from?
Food and beverage played a huge part, curbing spend by $13M—close to $10M of which came from Pluto TV. But personal care products contributed even more. That industry’s spend dropped by nearly $20M overall, decreasing the most on MAX by nearly $6M.
Office equipment and manufacturing dedicated no dollars to either platform, energy spent nothing on Pluto TV, and pets spent $0 on MAX.
In Hulu insights, 25.6% of overall automotive CTV spend went into the platform—less than any industry in the top ten besides telecommunications, which came in at 22.3%
Each month, we’ll share the latest insights including spend, trends, and creative in one of the most competitive landscapes to date. Stay tuned as we #FreeTheData.
Want access to streaming data and breaking creatives? Contact us here.