ESG advertising in Europe shifts almost completely to insights promotion

This was due to a major AXA IM campaign in multiple markets, data by Fundamental Monitor revealed

Key findings:

• AXA IM’s massive campaign skewed the ad purpose split heavily towards insights promotion in Europe during Q2 2024.
• During Q2, 30 out of 117 active advertisers included some ESG messaging in their overall advertising, compared to 24 out of 86 in Q1.
• Data by Alphix Solutions shows that investor audiences consumed less ESG content on asset managers’ websites during this quarter compared to the 365-day rolling average.

A major campaign by AXA IM resulted in a massive shift towards insights promotion among asset managers’ ESG advertising in Europe in Q2 2024, data by Fundamental Monitor showed.

During Q2, 30 out of 117 active advertisers included some ESG messaging in their overall advertising, compared to 24 out of 86 in Q1. These asset managers on average dedicated 23% of their overall advertising to the promotion of ESG, down from 34% in Q1. However, when looking at all asset management advertising, there was a slight increase in the amount dedicated to ESG, at 17% in Q2 compared to 16% a quarter earlier.

There were only three asset managers who focused all of their European advertising on the promotion of ESG: Groupama Asset Management, Eden Tree Asset Management and CCLA.

AXA IM’s massive campaign across multiple markets promoting insights for a “greener future” led to a very unbalanced ad purpose split within ESG advertising in Q2. Insights promotion made up 92% of all ESG advertising, with brand campaigns and fund promotion accounting for only 5% and 3%, respectively. This is quite a change from Q1, when ESG insights accounted for only 20%, while 51% was dedicated to fund promotion and 29% to brand campaigns.

All markets saw some ESG advertising activity, but most advertisers were active in the UK (17), followed by France (9). Switzerland and Italy each had eight ESG advertisers, while seven advertisers were active in Benelux and Germany, and five in the Nordics and Spain.

Despite the slight increase in the share of overall advertising dedicated to ESG promotion in Q2, data by Alphix Solutions shows that investor audiences consumed less ESG content on asset managers’ websites during this quarter compared to the 365-day rolling average.

However, this is across Europe overall, and there are a few differences between countries. While ESG content consumption was down between 14% and 39% in the UK, depending on the week, in Germany this was much higher at between 41% and 63%, and in Italy it was between 71% and 85%.

Only France and the Benelux saw some above average consumption in some weeks. In France, ESG content consumption was lower than average for the entire quarter, except for the last week of June, when it was 4% higher than average. In the Benelux, most weeks saw lower than average consumption, but consumption was up 13% during the first week of May, 3% during the first week of June and 2% during the last week of June.

Below are some examples of the type of ESG campaigns that were in market in Europe during Q2 2024:

Nordea Asset Management

Allianz Global Investors

Legal & General Investment Management