As restrictions across the globe started to lift and consumer confidence returned, people slowly returned to their pre-pandemic habits. But how did this impact out-of-home brand performance?
COVID-19 led to a $22 billion fall in out-of-home (OOH) sales in 2020, against a backdrop of restrictions, home working and social distancing. Sales continued to suffer throughout Q1 2021. But, with increased mobility from this point onwards, OOH value sales rose for three consecutive quarters, increasing 19% in Q4 compared with a drop of 25% in the same period in 2020.
This boosted the value of the total in-home and OOH market by 6% year-on-year; almost three quarters of which was made up of sales from the UK, Spain, Mainland China and France.
While this overall picture is positive, looking at the evolution of OOH spend in these categories over a three-year period provides valuable perspective: it is still 10% lower than it was in the fourth quarter of 2019, before COVID-19 hit.
The rebound is also reflected in brand performance. Across the combined top 10 beverages brands and top 10 snacking brands, 18 saw a decline OOH in 2020. In 2021, we see a more positive picture, where just ten brands saw a decline and eight brands saw growth.
Comparing the combined CRPs, in beverages the OOH decline was 17% in 2020. This slowed in 2021, where we saw a decline of just 2%. Similarly, in snacking, the CRP decline was 5%, slowing to just 1% in 2021.
Across both sectors there were two standout performances; Red Bull and Lay’s both saw the biggest increase in CRPs in their respective sectors.
Red Bull’s performance was of a similar level to its take-home performance, with the brand successfully winning consumption moments between meals and adding to its core offering with zero-sugar variants to win more shoppers. For a deep dive on Red Bull, and reasons behind the brand’s success, head here.
Lay’s performance was also notable – and it could be seen as even more impressive, given the Salty Snacks category saw even slower recovery than the other OOH categories, with growth of just 5% in Q4 2021 (versus the 19% for total OOH).
On top of this, Lay’s biggest OOH markets are Mainland China and Thailand, where salty snacks were still in decline in Q4. Defying the odds, the brand managed to see growth in both markets.
This strong 2021 performance means that Lay’s CRPs were higher in 2021 than in 2019. Its decline in 2020 stands as the only negative movement across the last five years. Against a tough market backdrop, this is a real accomplishment for the brand.
