Currys runs the largest retail-media programme on the UK CE shelf at 6.8% sponsored saturation. But that headline number hides a much wider truth: a handful of brands carry almost all the spend, and others pay for nothing at all.
We tracked about 180,000 brand appearances across Currys CE category pages in April 2026. Here is who is paying, who is not, and where the money actually lands.
| Brand | April Appearances | Sponsored Share |
|---|---|---|
| Acer | 30,621 | 28.8% |
| HP | 27,457 | 14.4% |
| Lenovo | 20,795 | 8.3% |
| ASUS | 17,021 | 0.1% |
| Razer | 15,227 | 0% |
| MSI | 13,590 | 8.9% |
| Logitech | 10,735 | 0% |
| Samsung | 10,155 | 1.3% |
| AMD | 5,958 | 0.9% |
| ADX | 5,025 | 0% |
| Gigabyte | 4,470 | 0% |
| HyperX | 4,329 | 0% |
| Corsair | 4,046 | 0% |
| GOJI | 3,877 | 0% |
| TP-LINK | 3,860 | 2.5% |
Acer is the heaviest retail-media spender on Currys by a wide margin. 28.8% of its 30,621 April appearances were sponsored. That is more than the next three brands combined: HP 14.4%, MSI 8.9%, Lenovo 8.3%. The four together carry almost all the spend on the platform.
ASUS is the conspicuous absence. 17,021 appearances at 0.1% sponsored share. The brand is in the top four by raw volume on Currys yet effectively buys nothing. Razer, Logitech, HyperX, Corsair, Gigabyte, ADX, GOJI: all in the top fifteen, all at flat zero. Roughly half the Currys CE shelf is being competed for organically by brands that do not engage with retail media at all.
The 6.8% all-categories average masks much higher saturation in specific categories. Currys retail media is not uniform; it is heavily indexed toward gaming and PC-component pages.
| Category | Brand | Appearances | Sponsored Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Networking | Acer | 958 | 88.0% |
| Gaming Laptops | HP | 1,747 | 84.0% |
| Monitors | Acer | 1,698 | 66.2% |
| Monitors | MSI | 829 | 63.2% |
| Gaming Monitors | Acer | 1,850 | 41.1% |
| Gaming Desktops | Acer | 3,862 | 37.7% |
| Chromebooks | Acer | 3,230 | 31.9% |
| Keyboards | Acer | 840 | 30.2% |
| GPUs | Acer | 2,900 | 29.8% |
| Laptops | Acer | 1,791 | 24.1% |
| Desktops | Lenovo | 3,438 | 18.2% |
| All-in-Ones | HP | 4,839 | 17.7% |
| Gaming Monitors | MSI | 5,284 | 12.9% |
| Gaming Laptops | Acer | 4,724 | 12.7% |
Monitors are the most heavily paid category on Currys: Acer at 66.2% sponsored, MSI at 63.2%. On gaming monitors, Acer's 1,850 appearances are 41.1% paid. On gaming desktops, 37.7%. The pattern repeats: where Acer competes against MSI for gaming or against HP in performance categories, retail-media spend climbs sharply.
HP's standout is gaming laptops: 84% sponsored on a 1,747-appearance footprint. The brand is paying aggressively in one specific category and almost nowhere else. ASUS, the #1 volume brand in UK gaming laptops on non-Currys retailers, defends with 0% sponsored on Currys. That is a clear strategic split.
The takeaway is that Currys is effectively running two shelves in parallel. On one, brands that engage with retail media (Acer, HP, MSI, Lenovo) compete heavily for top-of-page placement in specific categories. On the other, brands that do not engage (ASUS, Razer, Logitech, HyperX, Corsair, Gigabyte) compete organically on volume, range and customer behaviour.
Both shelves have winners. ASUS at 17,021 appearances is barely behind Lenovo (20,795). Razer at 15,227 outranks MSI (13,590) by appearances despite Razer at 0% paid and MSI at 8.9%. The Currys shelf does not require retail-media spend to be visible. It rewards it disproportionately in specific categories, especially monitors and gaming.
1. The 6.8% headline number is misleading. Currys retail media is highly category-concentrated. If you sell monitors, the relevant number is 60-66%. Networking and gaming laptops can hit 80%+ in specific brand cuts. Average-saturation framing leads to under-investing in some categories and over-investing in others.
2. Acer's spend pattern is the benchmark for category dominance. Across most Currys CE categories, Acer is paying for top-of-page presence. If you are an Acer competitor, you are choosing between matching the spend or accepting a position below the paid layer.
3. ASUS's near-zero is the benchmark for organic-only strategy. 17,021 April appearances at 0.1% sponsored means the brand is winning shelf position through catalogue breadth and product-level signals (price, reviews, availability) rather than paid placements. For brands considering exiting Currys retail media, ASUS is the proof of concept.
4. The category-level data should drive the budget allocation, not the platform-level average. A flat retail-media budget across Currys categories will over-spend in low-saturation categories (TP-LINK at 2.5%) and under-spend in monitor / gaming monitor / gaming laptop where 12-66% saturation is the competitive baseline.
Data is from our hourly Currys category-page tracker covering laptops, gaming laptops, Chromebooks, desktops, gaming desktops, all-in-ones, monitors, gaming monitors, projectors, GPUs, networking, chairs, keyboards, mice and headsets. The April window is 1 April – 2 May 2026. Sponsored detection on Currys uses Criteo markers in the category-page DOM. A "brand appearance" is one product in one position on one category-page scrape. Acer 28.8% sponsored share means 8,808 of Acer's 30,621 April appearances were on positions marked sponsored.
The full UK + Polish + South African + Irish breakdown is in the free monthly digital shelf report below.
Hourly Currys sponsored vs organic data across 15 CE categories. 53 million data points across 34 UK + PL + ZA + IE retailers. Free monthly report, updated April 2026.
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