Asset managers dedicate less advertising to ESG promotion in APAC

Most ESG advertising continues to be insights promotion, data by Fundamental Monitor finds

Key points:

• ESG advertising accounted for 5% of all asset management advertising in the APAC region in Q3 2024, down from 11% a quarter earlier.
• Similar to Q2, the vast majority of ESG advertising focused on the promotion of thought leadership.
• Investors’ ESG content consumption on asset managers’ websites was down across the APAC region during Q3, depending on the week by between 1% and 30% compared to the 365-rolling average.

ESG advertising accounted for 5% of all asset management advertising in the APAC region in Q3 2024, down from 11% a quarter earlier, according to data by Fundamental Monitor.

Out of 89 asset managers advertising in the APAC region, only eight included ESG messaging in their advertising. When only taking into account the advertising spend by asset managers actively promoting ESG, 18% of total advertising was dedicated to ESG, down from 48% in Q2.

Russell Investments was the only manager whose messaging solely focused on responsible investing. Four ESG advertisers were active in Australia during Q3, three in Singapore, two each in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and none in India, Korea and Japan.

Similar to Q2, the vast majority of ESG advertising focused on the promotion of thought leadership. In Q3, this accounted for 78% of all ESG advertising, down slightly from 85% in Q2. Fund promotion accounted for 16% (up from 3% in Q2) and ESG brand campaigns for 5% (down from 12%). During the third quarter, PineBridge Investments and Schroders were promoting ESG events, which accounted for 1% of the total ESG advertising.

Data by Alphix Solutions, Fundamental Group’s marketing technology business, shows that investors’ ESG content consumption on asset managers’ websites was down across the APAC region during Q3, depending on the week by between 1% and 30% compared to the 365-rolling average, with only one week in September seeing a slight increase of 0.33% compared to the average.

However, these figures are for the region as a whole and ESG content consumption differed by country. Of the countries where asset managers were actively promoting ESG, Taiwan saw the biggest drop in investor interest in responsible investing content, with consumption at between 32% and 83% below average. Singapore also saw a drop in interest of between 14% and 31%.

Both Australia and Hong saw below-average levels of content consumption throughout the quarter, but with some positive weeks. In Australia ESG content was consumed between 6% and 21% less, except for the first week of August when it was up 5% and a week in September when it was up 4%. In Hong Kong the decrease was between 12% and 41%, although consumption was up 30% for one week in September.

Below are some examples of ESG campaigns that were in market in APAC during Q3 2024:

Robeco

AXA Investment Managers

Allianz Global Investors