ESG brand advertising falls in APAC in favour of ESG insights promotion

There were 19 ESG advertisers active in APAC in Q2

Key points:

• ESG advertisers employed a wider range of advertising tactics in Q2 compared to Q1, when brand advertising made up the majority of ESG campaigns
• The number of asset managers advertising their ESG capabilities in Asia Pacific has fallen slightly from 25 in Q1 to 19 in Q2
• All markets monitored saw at least some ESG advertising

Asset managers advertising their ESG capabilities in Asia Pacific have chosen a diverse spread of advertising tactics in Q2, compared to Q1 when the majority of ESG advertising were brand campaigns, data by Fundamental Monitor has found.

At 40%, the promotion of specific fund products was the most common ESG advertising tactic in Q2, followed by promoted insights (33%) and brand advertising (27%). In contrast, in Q1 brand advertising accounted for 63% of ESG advertising, fund promotion 36% and insights just 1%.

The number of asset managers advertising their ESG capabilities in Asia Pacific has fallen slightly from 25 in Q1 to 19 in Q2.

There has been a significant drop in volume, due mostly to the very large campaign from Fidelity in Q1.

ESG advertising represented 12% of paid online advertising activity. Among those advertisers that were in market with an ESG message, an average of 20% of impressions touched on the subject.

There were nine advertisers who only focused on ESG in their advertising during Q2: Ninety One, Federated Hermes, Amundi, Robeco, Wells Fargo AM, Allianz GI, Australian Ethical, Natixis Global AM and Aviva Investors.

All markets monitored saw at least some ESG advertising. The largest number of different advertisers were active in Australia and Singapore (both 11) and Hong Kong (10).

As in previous quarters, almost all advertisers concentrated on one advertising tactic completely in their ESG campaigns.

Below are some examples of the type of ESG advertisements that were in market in Q2 in APAC: