Male Sports-Fans Media Opps: DrafKings continues increasing marketing spend (Score 46)

DraftKings has continued the spend increases we told you about last year into 2021. Per its recent Q4 2020 earnings report, DraftKings spent $184m on sales and marketing in the quarter compared to $63 in Q4 2019. It spent $475m on sales and marketing in 2020. The primary reason it spent so much on advertising it launched in IA, CO, IL and TN. Execs stated the company plans to spend more on advertising this year than it did last year. This is an excellent opportunity for sellers that can get ads in front of millennial and Gen-Z men. 

According to Pathmatics, DraftKings earned 864.7m impressions through desktop display ads (40%), desktop video (18%), Facebook ads (15%), Instagram ads (12%), mobile display ads (9%), Twitter ads (3%) and mobile video ads (1%). It placed the majority (99%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as espn.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, instagram.com and hulu.com. It placed the remainder (1%) indirectly through Google AdX+AdSense and Verizon Media onto sites such as espn.com, yahoo.com, sbnation.com, detroitnews.com and mgoblog.com. It spent around $9.8m on digital display ads YTD, an 81% increase from $1.9m spent during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend equaled $29.1m in 2020, compared to only $4.6m in 2019. 

Magellan reports DraftKings placed around 660 podcast ads over the last year.

Per iSpot, DraftKings spent around $17.5m on national TV ads YTD, a significant jump from $2.9m spent during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend skyrocketed from $6.7m in 2019 to $77.3m in 2020. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "NFL Football," "The Super Bowl Today," "College Basketball," "DRL Drone Racing" and "NBA Basketball." 

Sellers-- DrafKings mainly targets Gen-Z and millennial men through digital display and national TV ads. It also invests in OOH, radio and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. The company has been increasing spend in all channels for a couple of years and plans to keep adding dollars in 2021. Sellers should reach out offering relevant ad space. 

Agency & martech readers-- DraftKings has an in-house creative team and works with its AOR Veritone One on media buying and planning. This company shows no signs that it is preparing to review its roster any time soon. You will likely have better luck prospecting elsewhere.