Fixed income advertising drops significantly in Europe

ESG advertising also dropped further, data by Fundamental Monitor shows

Key findings:

• Asset managers dedicated less than a third of their overall European advertising to the promotion of specific key asset classes during Q2 2025.
• The Q2 drop is mainly driven by a fall in fixed income advertising, which fell from 29% in Q1 to 10% in Q2.
• The promotion of thought leadership accounted for 28% of all advertising, up from 10% in Q1.

Asset managers dedicated less than a third of their overall European advertising to the promotion of specific key asset classes during Q2 2025, according to data by Fundamental Monitor.

This is a significant change from previous quarters, when more than half of all advertising was promoting equities, fixed income, ETFs, multi asset or ESG.

The Q2 drop is mainly driven by a fall in fixed income advertising, which fell from 29% in Q1 to 10% in Q2. The unusually large share of multi asset advertising seen in Q1 dropped back to typical levels in Q2, while ESG advertising dropped even further, from 3% in Q1 to 1% in Q2, an absolute low point for ESG advertising in Europe.

When looking at how many advertisers are promoting each of the key strategies, the number of fixed income advertisers has actually risen from 18 in Q1 to 22 in Q2. Equities also saw an increase, from 20 advertisers to 24, while the number of ESG advertisers dropped from 21 to 16 advertisers.

The promotion of thought leadership accounted for 28% of all advertising, up from 10% in Q1, while fund promotion and brand campaigns both saw a drop. Brand campaigns made up 44% of the total in Q2, while fund promotion stood at 27%.

Data by Alphix Solutions, Fundamental Group’s marketing technology business, shows that European investors mostly consumed content on fixed income and ETFs during Q2, followed by fixed income, ESG and multi-asset. Content consumption on fixed income and ETFs fluctuated between 8% and 14% of total content consumption, depending on the week.

Below are some examples of the type of campaigns that were in market in Europe during Q2 2025:

Insights – BNP Paribas Asset Management

Brand campaign – MFS Investment Management

Fixed income – PGIM