ESG advertising in Europe shifts away from brand campaigns

Percentage of all advertising dedicated to responsible investing remains steady, despite drop in number of advertisers, Fundamental Monitor finds

Key points:

• ESG brand campaigns fell out of favour to the benefit of both insights and fund promotion during Q3
• The percentage of all advertising dedicated to responsible investing remained unchanged from Q2, at 17%
• The third quarter saw a significant drop in the number of ESG advertisers active in the region, which had dropped to 38 compared to 50 in Q2

Asset managers advertising their ESG capabilities in Europe have shifted away from brand campaigns, which made up 55% in Q2 but only 22% in Q3, data by Fundamental Monitor shows.

As ESG brand campaigns fell out of favour, the promotion of thought leadership and funds both benefited. Insights made up 45% of all ESG advertising in Q3 (up from 27%) while fund promotion accounted for 33% (up from 18%).

The percentage of all advertising dedicated to responsible investing remained unchanged from Q2, at 17%, although when only taking into account ESG advertisers, the percentage of their total advertising dedicated to the promotion of ESG rose from 22% in Q2 to 28% a quarter later.

The third quarter saw a significant drop in the number of ESG advertisers active in the region, which had dropped to 38 compared to 50 in Q2. Whereas nine asset managers were solely focused on promoting ESG in Q2, in Q3 there were only four: Newton Investment Management, Eden Tree Investment Management, Oddo Meriten Investment Management and NN Investment Partners.

With five asset managers doing Europe-wide campaigns, all markets monitored by Fundamental Monitor saw some advertising. The highest number of advertisers were seen in the UK (17), Switzerland (16) and Germany (13).

Below are some examples of the type of ESG campaigns that were in market in Europe during Q3 2022:

Amundi

Liontrust

Janus Henderson