Welcome to Tuesdata, where we pick apart the most interesting data in the media and marketing industry. 

As usual, we’ll spend the first week of the month revealing the most prolific TV advertisers from the previous month thanks to Canda. We’ll reveal the top campaigns for July by spend and by spot count. How is it already August?

The full content of this post is for Unmade’s paying members only. Others will hit the paywall a little lower down.

This time around we’re going to provide you with even more information than we usually do. In a slight format change we’ll share some analysis right here above the subscriber only material before providing both charts and videos for Unmade paying members.

But this time we’ll give you the top 10 advertisers by spend and spot count, not just the top five. 

It’s by spend that you get to understand which brands are trying to make the biggest impact each month. Higher spend can mean either flooding the market with a particular campaign (which will often correlate to a high ranking by spot count as well) or more likely, investing in prime time and primary channel placements in the five metro markets. 

No brand has yet topped both the spend chart and the spot count chart.  

That trend continues this month, with only one brand making it onto both lists - Smiths Potato Chips. 

It was a surprise number one by spend. The first time since we have been sharing these lists via Canda that an automotive brand has topped the spend list. And furthermore, it’s not a household name. 

Volkswagen Group's new performance brand Cupra took out the top spot promoting the new Formentor SUV. It was joined by its automotive counterpart Hyundai on the list, with the Korean brand spruiking the now year-old Tucson medium SUV. 

With new vehicles in short supply it was a smart move by Volkswagen Group as it tries to get the new brand off the ground - a notoriously difficult task in the Australian market. In terms of previous struggling new brands, think Infiniti or Opel.

Away from automotive, Google remained on the biggest spend list after placing first and third last month as it tried to get to consumers before the end of the financial year. While it’s dropped down the list a little, the Google Business ad featuring Baker Boy remains in the charts at number six.

The tech giant seems to have shifted focus slightly with the other ad promoting the Google Pixel 6 smartphone, which will be in runout mode soon as the new Pixel 7 gets ready for release and the 6a hits store shelves already. 

One notable absence from the list by spot count is a kids brand. Usually flooded with toy and game ads, the spot count list top 10 fails to feature a single brand relating to children. 

And in a month where more than one sports analyst asked why some Manly NRL players were not OK to wear a jersey supporting the LGBTQIA+ community but were fine to wear one that supported online gambling, Responsible Wagering Australia had two TV ads in the top 10 by spend, coinciding with the business end of the NRL and AFL seasons. 

Below are the top ten lists first by spend then spot count.