Advertisers in APAC refocus on fund promotion

Asset managers dedicated less advertising to the promotion of key strategies during Q1 2024, data by Fundamental Monitor shows

Key findings:

• Fund promotion accounted for more than half of all asset management advertising in the APAC region during Q1 2024.
• At 35%, asset managers dedicated a lot more of their advertising budget to the promotion of equities during Q1 than they did a quarter earlier.
• Fewer asset managers were advertising the key strategies in the APAC region during Q1, with all of them seeing fewer active advertisers than in Q4.

Asset managers dedicated more than half of their advertising in the APAC region to the promotion of funds during Q1 2024, according to data by Fundamental Monitor.

The unusually large event promotion seen in Q4 came to an end, so almost all the advertising was back to brand, insights and fund promotion as normal during Q1 2024. Fund promotion accounted for 58%, up from 41%, while brand campaigns and insights promotion each dropped slightly to 34% and 9%, respectively.

At 35%, asset managers dedicated a lot more of their advertising budget to the promotion of equities during Q1 than they did a quarter earlier. It was also a lot more than on fixed income, which saw its share of overall advertising fall from 10% in Q4 to only 3% in Q1. The high figure for equities is due to a dominating campaign from Platinum in Australia.

ETFs continued to fall as a percentage of the total, now down to just 7%, while advertising dedicated to multi asset disappeared entirely. ESG advertising recorded only 1% of the total, which is a sharp drop from the 13% seen in Q4 but in line with the lower figures seen throughout the rest of 2023.

Fewer asset managers were advertising the key strategies in the APAC region during Q1, with all of them seeing fewer active advertisers than in Q4. At 13 asset managers, fixed income saw the most active advertisers, but down significantly from the 22 advertisers in Q4. This was followed by ETFs (12 advertisers compared to 16 in Q4) and equities (11 compared to 18 in Q4).

Data from Alphix Solutions, Fundamental Group’s marketing technology business, shows that audience consumption of equities content on asset managers’ websites was also lower during Q1 compared to the 365-day rolling average. Equities consumption was down by between 21% and 51%, depending on the week.

Similarly, fixed income, ESG and ETF consumption was also down, indicating that asset managers’ reduced focus on fixed income, ESG and ETF advertising was mirrored by less interest in these topics among investor audiences.

However, multi asset saw higher consumption levels during the start of the quarter, with a slight decrease during the last three weeks of March.

Below are some examples of the type of campaigns that were in market in the APAC region during Q1 2024:

Fund promotion – PGIM

Brand campaign – Nuveen

Equities – Platinum