Grocery has grabbed the lion's share of promotional space over the first six months of the year, thanks largely to the strong presence of cereal brands on featured space promotion.

The category has accounted for 32% of total space so far this year - two percentage points higher than its position in the first six months of 2006. It has achieved this despite mounting competition from a number of categories, notably alcohol and health, beauty and baby, which have each temporarily seized the lead at some point in the past six months.

Alcohol in particular could threaten grocery's dominance. It is already starting to grab more space and is currently in second place with a 24% share. It still has some way to go to match the momentum of last year, with activity having dropped six percentage points on the same period in 2007, but with the last three to six months of the year the most active, the best could be yet to come.

The health, beauty & baby category has increased its activity to 20%, four percentage points higher than over the same period last year. It is now in third place, with Johnson & Johnson accounting for the most activity. The category ended 2006 in shared third place with 15%.

The household and soft drinks categories have taken the remaining two places for activity so far this year with a 12% stake each. At this stage in 2006, household was only in sixth place behind frozen and soft drinks though it recorded a 12% stake of activity in the full year chart.

The soft drinks category has had an injection of new activity since the middle of last year. This has continued into 2007 with brands such as Innocent and Coca-Cola, particularly Coke Zero, dominating events.

Though the category remains in fifth place overall for the first six months of 2006, the same position it held this time last year, it has gained four percentage points in the past 12 months and ended 2006 with 15%, suggesting there is more still to come.