Gen-Z Opps: National Vision's digital ad spend spikes after dropping in 2020

National Vision (NV)'s digital and omni-channel initiatives are progressing, as mentioned by execs in its latest earnings call. The company's ad spend dropped in 2020 due to the pandemic, but execs plan for 2021 spend to return to pre-pandemic amounts. It had a successful Q4 despite the coronavirus; during the past quarter, NV's net revenue grew by more than 23%.

According to iSpot, the company only utilizes national TV to promote America's Best; to support this brand, it has spent approximately $9.7m on this channel YTD, down only slightly (3%) from the approximately $10m it spent within the same 2020 timeframe. AB ended up spending approximately $41.5m on this channel last year, up 12% from the approximately $37.1m it spent in 2019. The brand's 2021 commercials have targeted millennials and Gen-X (slight male skew) watching shows including Below Deck, SpongeBob SquarePants, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NBA Basketball and The Big Bang Theory.

So far this year, Pathmatics reports that NV has allocated roughly $955.4k toward digital ads, already nearly double the roughly $517.9k it allocated in all of 2020. The company's estimated full-year 2020 spend ($517.9k) only reached around half of that of $1.1m in 2019. NV has earned ~125.7m digital impressions YTD via Facebook (40%), desktop video (35%), desktop display (16%), Instagram (8%) and mobile display (1%) ads. 73% of this year's desktop video ads have been YouTube videos.

NV's steady TV spend shows that it's still targeting millennials and Gen-X; however, its sharply increased digital ad spend and reliance on Facebook and YouTube advertising show that it's more focused right now on reaching Gen-Z. To do so, the company may expand into additional digital channels such as OTT and/or podcast. Per Kantar data, NV also invests in local broadcast.

Agency & martech readers - The company expired from the VAI since its leaders have shown no signs of reviewing its roster for so long; focus your attention elsewhere for the time being. Spark Foundry currently handles NV's media buying and planning. It seems to no longer be working with The Richards Group, which previously led creative, possibly because of the agency's 2020 fiasco.