Old El Paso Spent $36M in 90 Days on Just 11 Creatives

Most brand spotlights on this blog track advertisers that spend consistently, test dozens of creative variations, and iterate on landing pages every few weeks. Old El Paso’s summer 2026 flight is the opposite of that story, and that’s exactly why it’s worth studying. In the 90 days between May 20 and August 17, 2026, Old El Paso put an estimated $36.2 million in US ad spend behind a campaign that ran almost entirely on YouTube — and almost entirely on two video creatives. It’s one of the most concentrated big-budget flights in Adbeat’s index, and it’s a clean, real-world illustration of a media-buying philosophy that looks nothing like the performance-marketing playbook most digital advertisers follow. ...

August 20, 2026 · 9 min · intelligencedesk

GEICO and Liberty Mutual Both Bet the Budget on YouTube. Only One Kept Betting.

Auto insurance is one of the most fought-over advertising categories in the US. It’s a roughly $350 billion-a-year industry in direct written premiums, and because coverage is legally required in nearly every state, the competition isn’t about creating demand — it’s about being the name a shopper remembers the moment they start comparing quotes. That dynamic has turned GEICO, Progressive, State Farm, Allstate, and Liberty Mutual into some of the most consistent advertisers in the country, year after year, regardless of economic conditions. ...

July 28, 2026 · 10 min · intelligencedesk

How Red Bull Built a 4.2 Billion-Impression Ad Machine: A Brand Spotlight

Red Bull doesn’t advertise the way most beverage companies do. It doesn’t run coupon campaigns, loyalty offers, or grocery circulars. It runs video at a scale that would make a Hollywood studio envious — and it uses display advertising not to push promotions, but to pull audiences into an ongoing stream of events, seasonal product launches, and branded entertainment. Over the past year, Adbeat tracked Red Bull generating an estimated 4.2 billion impressions across display and video channels — data spanning the US and the approximately 35 countries in Adbeat’s coverage network. That number is up 19% compared to the prior 12-month period. But the real story isn’t the volume. It’s the architecture behind it: a video-first strategy, a disciplined product launch calendar, and a landing page approach that turns ad clicks into content experiences rather than purchase pages. ...

July 20, 2026 · 11 min · intelligencedesk

BFCM display ad strategy: Best practices from Home Depot, Pandora and more

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are make or break for retailers, with over 200 million consumers shopping in-store and online across the 2023 Thanksgiving weekend. Per Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday remains the biggest online shopping day of all time, with total sales climbing 7.8 percent to $38 billion last year — including peak sales of $15.7 million per minute between 10:00 – 11:00 pm Eastern. With so much on the line, it makes sense to start planning your BFCM display ad strategy as early as possible. ...

September 19, 2024 · 8 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com

Battle of the brewers: How Bud Light, Guinness & Modelo are competing through display ads

The pop of the bottle opening. The gentle glug-glug-fizz as you decant the golden liquid. The foamy head; the condensation on the glass. You just can’t beat a frosty beer on a hot summer’s day. Beer-related searches on Google spike during the hottest months of the year… …and with International Beer Day still in our recent memory ( who knew?), we decided to use Adbeat’s competitive intelligence data to analyze the display ad strategies of three of America’s biggest beer brands: ...

August 23, 2024 · 8 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com

Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO: Analyzing the display ad strategies of big travel brands

Now that summer is in full swing, many of us have one thing on our minds: travel. Interest in travel-related search topics like “hotel” spikes during the hottest months of the year… …prompting travel brands large and small to battle it out for our vacation bucks. But how do the travel industry’s biggest advertisers leverage display ads to differentiate themselves? Where are they spending their money? And what types of creatives and landing pages do they use? ...

July 11, 2024 · 9 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com

How Shopify, Squarespace & Wix use display ads to fight for ecommerce supremacy

By 2027, global online sales are expected to surpass an eye-watering $8 trillion. So it’s no surprise that starting an ecommerce business consistently ranks as one of America’s most popular side hustles: Of course, to start an ecommerce business, you first need a website. And if you don’t have the coding skills to create one from scratch, your best alternative is to use a website builder. While there’s no shortage of options, not all are a natural choice for online store owners. But three solutions that definitely fit the bill are: ...

July 3, 2024 · 12 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com

8 persuasive Pride display ad campaigns (featuring Hulu, Tinder & more)

About one in 13 adults in the US now identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual. Which makes Pride month a massive deal for pretty much every brand. And it’s even more essential for those with younger-skewing audiences, given that almost one in 10 millennials and more than one-fifth of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+. Unsurprisingly, this means Pride has become a battleground for brands looking to target LGBTQ+ consumers — and display ads are one of the most hotly contested warzones. ...

June 12, 2024 · 7 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com

How flower delivery brands use display ads to boost Mother’s Day sales

There are two classic ways to show your mom how much you love her on Mother’s Day. One is to write it in a blog post for a leading competitive intelligence platform ( I love you mom!). And the other is to say it with flowers. Most Americans choose option #2. Per the National Retail Federation, 74 percent of consumers sent their mom flowers for Mother’s Day 2023, making them the nation’s go-to Mother’s Day gift. ...

May 9, 2024 · 8 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com

More than music: How Spotify, Apple & Amazon promote their streaming platforms with display ads

Remember the days when listening to your favorite artist meant buying a record or CD? While vinyl album sales are on a strong upward trajectory, it’s fair to say we’re living in the digital music age. Streaming overtook physical sales and downloads for the first time in 2018, and it’s hard to see that trend reversing any time soon. Which is music to the ears of the streaming industry, with 91 percent of US internet users listening via some kind of streaming service in 2023: ...

April 24, 2024 · 9 min · philnorris1985@gmail.com