MMM: Thanksgiving Advertising Trends; Sea Limited Q3 2023 Earnings Recap

Key Takeaways:

• US ad spend is down -15% YoY for Oct’23 across the retail cohort, but when filtering ad spend through creative text around deals and promotions, US ad spend is actually up 10% YoY in Oct’23. BJ’s Wholesale Club and Target are the primary drivers of this shift, with their US ad spend increasing ~150% and ~50% YoY, respectively, in Oct’23 as they ramped up promotions to capture holiday interest

• Grocery keywords are connected to more traditional social networks (like Facebook) across the retail cohort, potentially driven by retailer desire to gain traction with older demographics. Alternatively, Thanksgiving/holiday keywords are more associated with TikTok and YouTube ad spend, with some retailers, such as Target, leveraging video-based social channels to highlight decorations and create aesthetic holiday videos geared towards younger audiences

• Sea Limited’s reported 3Q23 revenue exceeded street estimates, while a miss on EPS prompted a rapid share price decline. Although the company saw marketing costs accelerate in 3Q, it noted sequential growth in its e-commerce arm (Shopee) users, gross orders, and GMV, which was in line with ST mobile app MAUs for Shopee, which increased 2% QoQ in 3Q23

  • Per ST data, Garena’s publisher-level mobile IAP bookings fell 16% YoY in 3Q23, inline with reported declines in Sea’s digital entertainment bookings (-33% YoY). ST data also suggests that this was the seventh consecutive YoY decline in quarterly IAP bookings, inline with Sea’s reported declines in digital entertainment bookings from 1Q22 to 3Q23

For more information, request the full report from reports@sensortower.com.