The Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) category, including well-known national brands and less-known regional and local favorites, will spend nearly $4.5 billion in local advertising this year, as reported in BIA Advisory Services’ latest vertical industry report, “Insights into Local Advertising – QSRs.” This is up from $4.3 billion in local ad spend 2019. Traditional media channels will get more than half of QSRs’ spend, but most of the growth in local ad spend will come from digital media channels. We are forecasting local ad spend by QSRs to grow to $5.8 billion in 2024.
In 2020, QSRs will spend the most on direct mail (19.5%), with mobile right behind with a 19.3% share. By 2024, we forecast direct mail’s share will drop to 14.4%, while mobile will be on top with 24.7%. Over-the-air (OTA) TV and radio are both forecast to lose share from 2020 to 2024, but at a slower rate than direct mail.
So what does this mean for local ad sellers? One of the biggest takeaways from the report is that mobile is attracting the biggest dollar growth. From 2019-2020, QSRs will spend $134 million more in mobile ad channels. Target the mobile budget if you have mobile offers. Show how your offer can appeal to their audiences and complement mobile spend.
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