Male Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Camping World ramps up digital spend, plans to eliminate paper marketing (Score 51)

Camping World (CW) has significantly increased digital spend this year. It also announced in its Q4 2020 earnings report that it plans to be 95% paperless by 2024 and to eliminate paper marketing by the end of this year. It will allocate these dollars towards digital and social media going forward. This move follows the marketing VP hire we told you about late last year

According to iSpot, CW spent around $547.7k on national TV ads YTD, a 40% increase from $328k spent during the same time period of 2020. It spent $4.7m in 2020, a significant jump from $1.4m in 2019. This year, it placed ads during programming such as "MLB Tonight," "College Football," "HGTV Dream Home 2021," "NASCAR Camping World Truck Series" and "Hot Stove." 

Magellan reports CW placed about three podcast ads over the last year. 

Per Pathmatics,  CW earned 136.9m impressions YTD through Facebook ads (44%), Instagram ads (37%), desktop video ads (12%), desktop display ads (5%) and mobile display ads (1%). It placed the majority (99%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, mlb.com, chicago.cubs.mlb.com and oprah.com. It placed the remainder (1%) indirectly though Google AdX+AdSense onto sites such as mlb.com, yahoo.com, finance.yahoo.com, foxbusiness.com and foodnetwork.com. It already spent $1m on digital display ads YTD, an 82% increase from $537.5k spent during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend equaled $5.1m in 2020, a 14% decrease from $5.9m in 2019. 

Sellers-- CW seems to mainly target Gen-Z and millennial men. Moving away from paper should appeal to these demographics, as younger consumers typically care more about environmental issues than their older counterparts. The company normally allocates the majority of its ad budget towards Q3 and Q4. While CW will invest the majority of its ad dollars in digital channels, it still invests large sums in national TV ads. Sellers should reach out offering relevant ad space. 

Agency & martech readers-- We have not seen any agency appointments since CW hired marketing VP Timothy Ryan last year, so keep reaching out to try and pick up some of its business. The company has an in-house team working on media buying and planning, but I do not think you will face any competition from an incumbent shop.