Behind that number lies a familiar but increasingly intense reality: competition for consumer attention during the festive season has become one of the most strategically important periods in the retail calendar.
Advertising activity during the final quarter of the year provides a window into how brands compete, where they allocate media budgets, and how they respond to shifting consumer behaviour.
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A festive-season visibility war
The final quarter is traditionally when retailers ramp up marketing efforts. Promotions around Black Friday, holiday spending, and year-end shopping drive intense competition for consumer attention.
Data from Ornico’s Retail Ad Spend Report 2026 shows clear spikes in campaign activity during this period. While October and November saw steady levels of advertising, December revealed a more aggressive push from several grocery-focused brands, particularly through television.
Retailers such as Shoprite, Checkers and Spar significantly increased their advertising presence during the festive period, reflecting the importance of visibility when consumer spending peaks.
These campaigns are not simply about brand awareness. They are tactical moves designed to secure share of wallet in an environment where consumers are increasingly price sensitive.
Broadcast media still dominates
The report shows that television remains the dominant medium for retail advertising among traditional channels.
The majority of both adspend and campaign executions across the retail category were concentrated on TV, with radio and print playing secondary roles.
Television’s ability to deliver reach quickly during major promotional windows continues to make it a preferred channel for retailers attempting to influence large audiences within a short timeframe.
Radio and print were used more selectively, often supporting specific promotions or reinforcing broader campaigns.
A divided retail landscape
The advertising patterns highlighted in the report also reflect the broader structure of South Africa’s retail market.
Large grocery chains invested heavily in maintaining visibility and market share during the festive season, while pharmacy and fashion retailers showed more restrained advertising activity.
Brands such as Clicks and Dis-Chem maintained steady advertising levels, often tied to health and beauty promotions, while value-focused fashion retailers like Pep and Ackermans displayed more modest campaign volumes toward the end of the year.
This suggests that different retail segments respond differently to seasonal demand, with grocery retailers facing the most intense competitive pressure.
Advertising as a strategic signal
Advertising activity often reveals more than simply how much brands are spending.
It provides clues about which companies are confident, which are defending market share, and which are attempting to reposition themselves in a rapidly evolving retail landscape.
As the data in Ornico’s Retail Ad Spend Report 2026 illustrates, the final quarter of the year remains a defining period for the retail industry, where visibility, timing and media strategy can shape competitive outcomes.
Ornico provides reputation, media, advertising and brand research with a suite of products that includes Brand Intelligence® across the African continent. It does this to help marketers and brand owners make sense of the flood of information that occupies traditional and social media.
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