Nielsen Media in Belgium has reported that gross commercial advertising investments contract by €23.2 million in 2020 in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Throughout 2020, the members of Espace Pub and the Nielsen company continued their collaboration in order to collect, control and finally publish the results of advertising investments.

All of these figures have been validated by a technical committee made up of members of Espace Pub, Nielsen and a representative of the state.

From a results point of view, gross commercial advertising investments in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg amounted in 2020 to €124.303 million, which constitutes a decrease of 15.7% or €23.2 million in 2019 (€147.474 million). These figures take into account commercial advertising investments in Luxembourg and cover the following types of media: daily, weekly, periodical, radio, TV, Internet, billboards, cinemas.

The COVID-19 crisis which hit the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Europe as a whole from the middle of March has weighed heavily on the evolution of the results. In the Grand Duchy,

- cinemas were closed from 16 March to 16 June 2020, and from 26 November 2020 to 12 January 2021.
- “non-essential” stores were closed from 16 March to 11 May 2020 and from 26 December 2020 to 10 January 2021.
- bars and restaurants were closed from 16 March to 1 June 2020 as well as since 26 November 2020.
- cultural venues were at a standstill from 16 March to 11 May 2020 and from 26 November 2020 to 10 January 2021.

Overall, online ad spending in Luxembourg was the only one that grew (+17.99%).

By way of comparison with neighbouring countries, Belgium was impacted by -14.7%, the Netherlands by -10.5%, Germany by -2.1% and France by - 7.8% over the same period.