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In today’s fast-paced TV advertising world, staying ahead of the competition isn’t just an advantage, it’s a necessity. That’s where NLogic’s ad tracking data, Spots, comes in. Spots is a powerful dataset tailored to the Canadian market, with 24-7 coverage of commercials across all channels and brands. It gives advertisers and agencies a strategic edge by offering real-time insights into commercial activity across Canadian television.
To better understand shifting consumer behaviour, we looked at Spots data over the course of the 2025 calendar year across some of the most active categories. By tracking impressions over time, advertisers and agencies can gain valuable insights into when, where, and how often brands are advertising, enabling them to better understand campaign strategies, optimize media planning, and stay competitive in the market.
NLogic’s Spots data not only enhances your media planning, but also empowers businesses to identify competitive shifts, monitor share of voice trends, and understand economic impacts across the evolving TV landscape.
Top categories in Canadian advertising
Over the course of the year, we can see some interesting patterns for the top categories in Canadian advertising: Entertainment/Media/Leisure, Retail, Restaurants, Food & Beverages, Health, and Automotive & Vehicles.
- The Entertainment, Media, and Leisure category takes the lead in the Canadian market, primarily driven by streaming platforms such as CraveTV, CBC Gem and STACKTV, as well as gambling brands like OLG, BETMGM, and Lotto Max.
- Retail stood out as the #2 advertising category in 2025, with brands such as The Brick, Sleep Country, Wayfair, Canadian Tire, and Leon’s investing heavily in television to stay top of mind with consumers. Momentum peaked in the later part of the year, when Retail claimed the top spot from September through December, driven by high-impact campaigns tied to major shopping events like Black Friday and Boxing Day.
- The Canada-U.S. trade war, which escalated in early April 2025, introduced reciprocal tariffs on a wide range of goods, including food, beverage and health products, which may have contributed to the declines we are seeing for these categories during that time. These categories began to recover and gain momentum over the summer months, with improved performance continuing through to the end of the year.
- The Restaurant category ranked as the third largest category in 2025 and demonstrated a relatively stable month-to-month trend throughout the year. In contrast, the Automotive and Vehicle category showed stronger performance at the beginning and toward the end of the year. This may be because winter conditions heighten consumer concerns around vehicle safety and performance, prompting brands such as Ford, Subaru and Chevrolet to increase advertising that emphasizes reliability, durability, and winter-ready features. Seasonal promotions, year-end incentives, and early-year sales events may further contribute to the surge in automotive advertising during the winter months.
Key Advertising Moments That Defined the Year
Throughout the year, key advertising events such as Valentine’s Day, Back to School, Black Friday, and Boxing Day present major opportunities for advertisers to get their brands on air and capture consumer attention. Unsurprisingly, Peoples Jewellers dominated Valentine’s Day advertising, taking the number one spot, followed closely by Dairy Queen.
During the back-to-school period, television screens were dominated by familiar brands including Staples, Swiss Chalet, Bureau en Gros, and Walmart, reflecting a mix of school essentials and family dining. While Walmart ranked as the 6th largest retail brand in 2025, compared to Staples at 28th, Staples ran three times more back-to-school specific spots, indicating that these two competitors employ distinct on-air advertising strategies.
Black Friday and Boxing Day showed similar advertising patterns, with The Brick emerging as the top brand for both, followed by Sleep Country during the Black Friday period and Endy for Boxing Day, highlighting the strong presence of competitive home and furniture brands during these peak promotional seasons.
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Big Moments, Big Brands: Advertising During Major Broadcast Events
Major sporting and cultural events throughout the year, such as the Super Bowl, World Series, Academy Awards, and Quebec Franco’s highest broadcast event of the year, “Bye Bye 2025” also served as prime opportunities for brands to capitalize on massive audiences.
During the Super Bowl in February, CraveTV led advertising activity, followed by Bell, which aligns with Bell Media’s annual broadcast rights to the event. A similar dynamic played out during the World Series, where Rogers leveraged its broadcast platform to promote both Rogers and Rogers Xfinity ads.
Meanwhile, the Academy Awards and SRC’s Bye Bye 2025 attracted a different mix of advertisers. Skip the Dishes was the top brand during the Oscars, followed by CraveTV and McDonald’s, highlighting strong representation from streaming and restaurant brands during this high-profile cultural event.
Tuning into SRC’s Bye Bye 2025 on New Year’s Eve remains a cherished annual tradition in Quebec and consistently ranks as the top broadcast of the year. Advertisers strategically capitalize on this massive audience, with leading brands like Coca-Cola, Novo Nordisk Canada, Jean Coutu, and Airbnb dominating the broadcast, spanning key categories including Food & Beverage, Health, Retail, and Travel.
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Whether you're planning a new campaign or optimizing an existing one, Spots data provides critical insights that support smarter media strategies and more effective decision-making.
If you're curious about TV advertising for your industry or a specific group of brands, our Spots Monitor product is the perfect solution. With intuitive dashboards, you can gain insights into different aspects of TV campaign strategies, making it easy to compare your campaigns with those of your competitors.
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