ECRM: Retail circular advertising trends, March 2014

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in March 2013 versus March 2014 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. H.E.B. and Publix topped the charts in circular page change, with increases of 27.8% and 41.2%, respectively. The massive increase at Publix was attributable to the release of an additional circular this March (five versus four in 2013), while H.E.B. simply ran more pages in each of its five March circulars (eight to 12 pages each this year, as opposed to six to eight last year). These two grocery retailers mirrored each other across the other two metrics as well, with minor decreases in ads per page and minor increases in ads per circular.



Walmart and Toys-R-Us fell on the opposite end of this spectrum, experiencing page count decreases of 25.6% and 60%, respectively. Counter-intuitively, however, Walmart actually released a larger number of circulars this year: 10 versus last year’s six. These circulars were much smaller and much more targeted, with clear themes and four of them having page counts of four or fewer. Toys-R-Us simply released fewer circulars this March: two instead of three.

About ECRM’s Business Intelligence

ECRM’s Ad Comparisons technology captures promotional data from the top U.S. and Canadian retailers in all major markets. Ad Comparisons captures more than 40 metrics for each ad block and provides hundreds of analytic reports to put the advertising data in context. Ad Comparisons takes an individual approach to ensure all data and reports fit the needs of each user.