Supermarket ad war rages on in Cyprus

 — Orphanides pips Lidl on total spend in Oct-Nov —

Low-cost retailer Lidl may have swamped the media with its aggressive ad campaign for the launch of its first seven stores in Cyprus, but local giant Orphanides has made a comeback spending 10% more than the newcomer in order to hold on to its market share.
CSE-quoted Orphanides dished out just over EUR 2.5 mln in October and November, of which 1.01 mln was in the first month and 1.5 mln in November, according to data compiled by the Financial Mirror.
Lidl, on the other hand, spent EUR 1.019 mln in October and raised the ante to 1.2 mln in November.
Total advertising spend by all retailers reached EUR 7.72 mln, compared to EUR 4.5 mln in the same two-month period last year.
Carrefour could not afford to stay on the sidelines and more than doubled its ad spend in November to EUR 730,000 from 570,000 in October for a total of EUR 1.3 mln for both months.
A multimedia analysis report provided by the monitoring agency Matrix Media shows that the biggest part of the advertising budget is spent on television, with all major retailers lashing out EUR 6.13 mln for 15- and 30-second commercials, with 1.2 mln spent on radio and 380,000 euros in print advertising.
Market analysts suggest that the lull observed in many stores in the second half of November has less to do with the Greek-managed subsidiary of the German giant Schwarz opening up in Cyprus and more to do with consumer habits of locals who save up for their Christmas buys from the second week of December.
Interestingly enough, when comparing year-on-year advertising spending habits, it is clear that all Cyprus retailers have increased their budgets in order to counter Lidl’s campaigns, much to the delight of TV station owners.
Orphanides increased its budget by nearly 14% from EUR 2.21 mln spend in October-November 2009 to EUR 2.52 mln in the same two-month period this year. Carrefour upped its budget by 34%, Alphamega quadrupled its spend by 441% with more than half spent on radio, CAC Papantoniou spent 19% more and Debenhams doubled its budget by 107%.
Many of the small and medium-sized retailers opted to spend more on radio and a proportional amount in print advertising, in order to capture their audience. However, Carrefour’s favourite media is television (93% of its budget), followed by Papantoniou (90%), Lidl (86%) and Orphanides (78%). Alphamega chose to spend less than half on TV and 54% on radio.