![Digital advertisers shift sharply from sports and travel to news, hobbies](https://cdn.i.haymarketmedia.asia/?n=campaign-asia%2fcontent%2fshutterstock_1677015973.jpg&h=570&w=855&q=100&v=20170226&c=1)
Sell-side advertising platform PubMatic says its digital adspend figures show total global spend declined slightly from the beginning of March to mid-March as many of the world’s largest economies reacted to the COVID-19 threat.
More interestingly, it has released new infographics showing the category shifts advertisers have been making from the beginning of the month (March 1) to the middle of it (March 18).
![](http://cdn.i.haymarketmedia.asia?n=campaign-asia%2fcontent%2fScreenshot+2020-03-26+at+11.02.22+AM.png&c=0)
Not surprisingly news providers received the greatest uptick in advertising spend, up 52% from March 1 to March 18 as online audiences try to keep themselves informed of the latest coronavirus developments. But while the trend might be seen as a boon to news publishers, not all are choosing to monetise their COVID-19 content. Instead, some like BBC Global News have taken the step of setting aside up to 20% of ad space to accommodate free public service announcements.
The other top gaining category is hobbies and interests (31%) as limits on daily activities free up more time for people to return to personal pastimes. This was followed by technology and computing (14%) and education (13%).
![](http://cdn.i.haymarketmedia.asia?n=campaign-asia%2fcontent%2fScreenshot+2020-03-26+at+11.02.54+AM.png&c=0)
The categories advertisers are shifting away from are hardly surprising either, but the data gives a sense of the magnitude of the trends. Travel ad spending has been cut by two-thirds, while digital advertising in sports has fallen 40%.
Counterintuitively, science (down 26%) and family and parenting (down 24%) were the next hardest hit categories, trailing others like fashion.
The data is pulled from PubMatic's data analytics team, which monitors 13 trillion global advertiser bids every month.
![](http://cdn.i.haymarketmedia.asia?n=campaign-asia%2fcontent%2fScreenshot+2020-03-26+at+11.02.38+AM.png&c=0)
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