2021 EdisonReport Index: A Return to Normal?

LightFair is in full swing, so we at EdisonReport thought it would be a good time to release the latest version of our index. The last time we released the index was back in May 23, 2019, around the time of that year’s LightFair. The purpose of the index is to provide a metric we believe gives a valuable insight into the trends of the industry and how robust marketing activity is. For this index we will be focusing on two of our advertising categories: Career Ads and Press Releases. Our logic behind focusing on just these two categories is this: if Career Ads and Press Releases are high, it is a good indication of expansion and development within our industry due to companies being willing to spend money on advertisement, new product announcements, and the need for more personnel to continue operating at higher levels. The opposite would also hold true. Since LightFair wasn’t held in 2020, we didn’t release an index last year, but we will include 2020’s data for comparative purposes this year. The numbers provided are up until the latest complete month of this year, so September 2021 is the cutoff.

One of the most immediate standout metrics is the increase in Career Ads. Up to Sep 2021, a total of 98 career ads have been submitted on EdisonReport, which is a 21% increase compared to Sep 2020 (81 career ads). This a good sign to see, as career opportunities were down significantly in 2020 (-37% compared to 2019) during the height of the pandemic, but we’re seeing career ads starting to slowly return to pre-pandemic 2019 numbers. More companies hiring means expansion and business opportunities are present which is a good sign for any industry.

Press releases have seen a slight increase, up 5% from 2020 to 2021 (132 PRs to 138 PRs, up to Sep). Interestingly, both 2020 and 2021 saw an increase in press releases compared to 2019 (120 PRs) despite the pandemic. Possible reasons for this include companies making announcements releasing new products to meet changing demands due to the pandemic (see UV-C), and we’ve seen a few press releases announcing state of operations and assurances from companies that they can still meet demand despite the ongoing difficulties, a type of press release we didn’t see much of pre-pandemic.

Overall, while ad activity may not be as robust as it was before the pandemic in 2019, the steady upward trend in 2021 has already surpassed 2020 and looks like is on its way to return to pre-pandemic levels. This demonstrates an impressive level of flexibility and adaptability in our industry, giving us good reason to be hopeful for the future. It is also nice to be able to say that tradeshows have made a comeback, with successful shows like ArchLIGHT Summit and Supersalone 2021 being held just last month, and the ongoing LightFair which we believe will be considered a big success when the week is over. Below are the raw numbers for Career Ads and Press Releases broken down by month.

Disclaimer: Our EdisonReport index is not scientific and should not be used by itself in forecasting and decision making. It is simply one additional metric to look at the vibrancy of our industry.