P&G continues to make big increases in its advertising spend
The fast moving consumer goods giant, which owns many key personal care brands like Pantene and Old Spice, as well as a host of home care and food & beverage brands, spent $3.173 billion last year advertising, a figure that was up by an impressive 11.8% compared to last year, and one that far outstripping General Motors, the next biggest spender, at $1.794 billion.
L’Oréal, the only other company in the top ten spenders list with a beauty offering, came in at $1.549 billion; less than half of that spent by P&G.
Still profitable?
Digital has risen to take over from TV as the major platform on which brands plug their goods, which is underlined by the increased spend in this area by most of the big advertsiers.
Head of digital marketing of the Paris-headquartered cosmetics giant’s division in Australia, Christophe Eymery, is one industry expert who believes the TV model has passed its prime for beauty brands.
He dismisses as outdated the current industry focus on television advertising, noting; “there is still a strong belief in the TV model in this business, yet when you look at media consumption, TV has almost been taken over by digital channels and internet consumption.”
“The media mix should no longer be heavily dominated by TV. Marketers are missing the opportunities to further leverage new channels,” he asserts.
Female ‘empowerment’
Videos which tell consumers a story with which they can identify is one area still offering big opportunities to beauty, with ‘female empowerment’ proving a particularly popular theme.
The trend for videos that follow a narrative of empowering women through their personal care products, first seen in Dove’s ongoing Real Beauty campaign, is gathering momentum.
The Unilever-owned brand’s latest video, ‘Patches’, has so far generated over 20.5 million views.
P&G is now getting on board, seen in both its recent ‘Not Sorry’ video for Pantene, and its now viral ‘Do it Like a Girl’ clip for its female hygiene brand Always.
As the success of these videos relies as much on the internet and social media sharing as television, it seems Eymery is right to suggest brands should look to balance their marketing approaches between the platforms.
