Record number of equities, fixed income and ETF advertisers in APAC region

Number of asset managers promoting these asset classes at highest level since start of 2020, data by Fundamental Monitor finds

Key points:

• Equities promotion saw a major drop in the APAC region during Q2 2024, accounting for only 6% of all advertising. ETF advertising dropped slightly as well, but fixed income and ESG promotion saw an increase.
• The number of advertisers for equities, fixed income and ESG is at the highest level since the beginning of 2020, when Fundamental Monitor started consistently monitoring asset management advertising trends.
• Asset managers significantly reduced the share of advertising dedicated to fund promotion, which benefited both brand campaigns and, in particular, insights promotion.

A record number of asset managers were promoting equities, fixed income and ETFs in the APAC region during Q2 2024, according to data by Fundamental Monitor.

However, when looking at the proportion of advertising that asset managers dedicated to the promotion of different asset classes, we see that some saw an increase while others saw a considerable decrease.

Equities promotion saw a major drop in the APAC region during Q2, accounting for only 6% of all advertising, down from 35% in Q1. ETF advertising dropped slightly as well, from 7% to 5%, but fixed income and ESG promotion saw an increase. Fixed income’s share of overall advertising doubled to 6%, while ESG saw significant growth from 1% to 11%.

However, while asset managers dedicated more of their advertising to the promotion of fixed income and ESG, data from Alphix Solutions, Fundamental Group’s marketing technology business, shows that audience consumption of fixed income and ESG content on asset managers’ websites was lower during Q2 compared to the 365-day rolling average. The consumption of ESG content was down between 18% and 36%, depending on the week, while fixed income content consumption was down between 29% and 56%.

Meanwhile, equities content consumption throughout the quarter was more of a mixed bag, ranging from -3% to +109%, depending on the week, while multi asset content consumption ranged between a -20% and +32% difference compared to the 365-day rolling average. ETF content consumption was mostly lower than the 365-day rolling average (between 5% and 25%) but had three weeks where content consumption was slightly higher than the average.

Despite the share of advertising dedicated to equities and ETFs having dropped, the number of asset managers actively promoting these asset classes has grown to 22 and 21 advertisers, respectively. In fact, the number of advertisers for both asset classes is at the highest level since the beginning of 2020, when Fundamental Monitor started consistently monitoring asset management advertising trends. At 29 advertisers, fixed income also saw a record number of advertisers, up considerably from the 13 advertisers active during Q1.

Asset managers significantly reduced the share of advertising dedicated to fund promotion, which fell from 58% in Q1 to 30% in Q2. This benefited both brand campaigns, which saw its share grow from 34% to 42%, and in particular insights promotion, which increased from 9% to 28% of overall advertising.

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

Brand campaign – Colonial First State

Insights promotion – J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Fixed income promotion – Capital Group

ESG promotion – AXA Investment Management