Magazines Thirsty for Beverage Ads in Q3 2013

The Beverages category was among the advertising categories that saw the most growth in third-quarter 2013, along with the Medical/Pharmaceutical and Financial/Real Estate categories. Ad pages from Beverage brands rose 15.8% to 1,072.2 total pages July-September 2013 versus the same period in 2012 – as measured among 182 consumer magazines. After this active third-quarter, the Beverages category was up 0.6% to 2,645.5 total pages January-September, 2013. During this period, 139 Beverages brands increased ad pages and there were 72 brands that didn’t advertise January-September 2012.

Despite a 13.8% Q3 decline in ad pages from alcoholic beverage brands, the Beverages category was lifted by increased advertising from several of the other largest Beverages subcategories, including Juice, Soft Drinks, Sports Drinks, and a 124.15-page increase from Flavored Beverage Mix brands. 94.8 pages from Crystal Light, the most active Beverage advertiser, and 45.5 pages from Kool-Aid pushed Flavored Beverage Mix brands to an impressive 765.6% page increase in Q3. Other top Beverages advertisers included Patron (75 pages) and Gatorade (45.2 pages).

Food & Wine achieved the highest share of Beverages ad pages July-September with 56.85 pages, followed by People(50.6 pages) and ESPN the Magazine (47.8 pages). In addition to epicurean titles Food & Wine and Bon Appétit, weekly and bi-weekly titles such as Ok! Weekly and Us Weekly received a high share of Beverages ad pages.

The MediaRadar charts below show the Beverages brands that placed the most ads among 182 consumer magazines, year-over-year ad pages for top Beverages categories, as well as which magazines achieved the top market share of Beverages ad pages during July-September 2013.