APAC sees record share of advertising focused on ETFs

Asset managers allocated 25% of their advertising to the promotion of ETFs, data by Fundamental Monitor finds

Key points:

• A quarter of all asset management advertising in APAC during Q1 2023 was dedicated to promoting ETFs
• The other key strategies saw a substantial decrease compared to Q4 2022 and all stood at the lowest percentages since Q1 2021
• The first quarter of 2023 saw little movement in the ad purpose of asset management advertising in APAC

A quarter of all asset management advertising in APAC during Q1 2023 was dedicated to promoting ETFs, data by Fundamental Monitor showed.

Asset managers allocated 25% of their advertising to the promotion of ETFs, the highest figure seen since Q1 2020. The other key strategies saw a substantial decrease compared to Q4 2022 and all stood at the lowest percentages since Q1 2021.

Following the poor performance of global ESG strategies in 2022, asset managers have scaled back their promotion of ESG to only 1% of their total advertising. Equities and fixed income both dropped significantly too compared to Q4 2022 to 4% each.

Despite ETFs making up a higher share of overall advertising activity, the number of asset managers actively promoting the asset class has remained stable since Q3 2022, at 14 advertisers. The number of ESG advertisers dropped by half from 25 in Q4 2022 to 12 in Q1 2023. While more asset managers were advertising equities in Q1 (19 compared to 11 in the previous quarter), the number of advertisers promoting fixed income dropped from 18 to 12 over the same period.

The first quarter of 2023 saw little movement in the ad purpose of asset management advertising in APAC. Fund promotion increased five percentage points to 51% in Q1, while brand campaigns decreased slightly to 34% and the promotion of insights dropped to 14%. 

Below are some examples of the type of campaigns that were in market in APAC during Q1 2023:

Fund promotion – La Trobe Financial

Brand campaign – J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Insights – Fidelity

ETFs – BlackRock

ETFs – J.P. Morgan Asset Management