Rao's Specialty Foods increases digital spend

Sovos Brands subsidiary Rao's Specialty Foods has been moving away from national TV ads, opting instead for digital channels. This indicates the brand is trying to reach a younger audience than it has targeted in the past. Rao's started shifting its strategy in 2019, but it looks like the pandemic caused it to decrease spend across the board in 2020. So far this year, it has been ramping up digital spend, so sellers should contact Rao's for more information and to offer ad space. 

According to Pathmatics, Rao's earned 814m impressions YTD through Instagram ads (42%), Facebook ads (39%), desktop video ads (15%) and desktop display ads (4%). It placed the majority (99%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as instagram.com, facebook.com, yahoo.com, youtube.com and amazon.com. It placed the remainder (1%) indirectly through Amazon and Display & Video 360 onto sites such as yahoo.com, buzzfeed.com, finance.yahoo.com, accuweather.com and amazon.com. It spent around $6.6m on digital display ads YTD, a big jump from $1.7m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend equaled $1.1m in 2019 and $5.8m in 2020.

Per iSpot, Rao's has not allocated any budget towards national TV ads since spending $41.9k in Q1 of 2020. It spent around $2.4m in this channel in 2019. In 2020, it placed ads during programming such as "Home & Family," "On the Case With Paula Zahn," "Get Up," "20/20 on ID Investigates" and "House Hunters." 

Sellers-- I believe Rao's primarily targets millennial women (moms). The brand was traditionally a big national TV spender, but it has not allocated a significant investment towards that channel since 2019. However, it has been ramping up digital spend and placing more ads onto social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook. Sellers should reach out to score some of these extra ad dollars. 

Agency & martech readers-- I believe the only agency Rao's works with is creative shop Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. You can try offering complimentary services such as digital or media buying/planning assistance.