When major advertisers in industries such as travel abruptly pulled out of their primetime network television spots last March as pandemic lockdowns hit, TV advertising rates fell dramatically. That’s when Warby Parker, a popular eyeglasses firm, saw an opportunity. The company accelerated its buying of TV ads.

One of the only eyeglass brands focused on e-commerce, Warby Parker was seeing a jump in demand as people shifted their shopping online, and it wanted to juice that extra demand with more ads. Warby Parker ramped up its digital ad spending sharply, as did many other direct-to-consumer online brands. But Warby Parker also lifted its TV ad spending. It ended up spending 12% more on TV ads in 2020 than in 2019, estimates analytics firm DRMetrix.