turtl-story-nielsen-media-insights-the-german-market-for-plant-based-milk-and-meat-alternatives (1) comments Tracey

Plant-based milk and meat alternatives
is one of the categories that has
experienced accelerated growth in the
past few years, both in terms of
consumption and when it comes to
advertising investment.
While the proportion of Germans that
are vegans (1%) or vegetarians (5%) has
remained constant for several years,
55% of German adults now consider
themselves flexitarians 1 , adopting a
primarily vegetarian diet though
occasionally eating meat / fish products
as well. It‘s this large target group that
a lot of recent innovation in plant-based
milk and meat alternatives aims to attract
and likely the segment has been a key
driving force behind the growing
category adoption:
• The plant-based milk and meat
alternatives category saw high and
constant growth already prepandemic:
cheese alternatives
grew by 31%, oats-based milk
alternatives by 66%, plant-based
yogurt alternatives by 36%, while
sales of yogurt alternatives from
other sources besides soy
increased by 122% (2019 vs. 2018) 2
• The market for vegetarian / vegan
meat alternatives grew by 80% in
2020 vs. 2019, vegetarian semi
prepared foods by 76% and
vegetarian minced meat
alternatives by 126% in the first half
of 2020 compared to same period
in the previous year 2
The category growth is matched by a
similar growth in media investment in
the plant-based milk and meat
alternatives category:
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of
advertisers grew 9,5 times and the
investment 9,8 times.
• A shift is noticeable in terms of main subcategory advertised: between 2005 –
2014 the focus was on plant-based milk alternatives, while as of 2015 the meat
alternatives sub-category dominates in terms of media investment.
• Rügenwalder Mühle played a key role in the recent meat alternatives
dominance - as of 2015 the company redirected between 90-100% of its
advertising budget to either advertising its vegan and vegetarian products or
towards campaigns promoting the brand‘s full range of classic, bio and
vegetarian products.
• The 2020 growth in investment is driven by both existing players and new
brands that have just started to advertise.
• TV was the dominant medium, accounting for 80-90% of the spend in most
years – with OOH taking 27% of the category spend in 2020
Source: Nielsen (click to zoom)