Small increase in ESG advertising in North America during Q4

North America sees slightly more ESG advertising in Q4 but still lags behind Europe and APAC

Key points:

• During Q4, asset managers allocated 5% of their total advertising budget for North America to ESG, compared to 4% in Q3
• Two-thirds of ESG campaigns focused on brand advertising, followed by insights and fund promotion
• A total of 21 advertisers were actively promoting ESG in North America during the fourth quarter, up from 16 in Q3

Asset managers have allocated a higher percentage of their North America advertising budget to ESG during Q4 2021, but figures remain much lower compared to Europe and Asia Pacific, data by Fundamental Monitor shows.

During Q4 of 2021, asset managers allocated 5% of their total advertising budget for North America to ESG, a small increase compared to Q3, when this percentage stood at 4%. When it comes to the promotion of ESG, the region continues to lag behind Europe and Asia Pacific where ESG advertising as a percentage of total advertising spent stood at 19% and 28%, respectively.

When we only take the advertising spend of ESG advertisers in account, the asset managers who were actively promoting ESG allocated 27% of their advertising budget to ESG during Q4. This is slightly up from Q3, when they allocated 26% of their total budget to responsible investing.

The fourth quarter also saw a shift in the focus of ESG advertisers in North America. Two-thirds (66%) of ESG campaigns focused on brand advertising, followed by insights (24%) and fund promotion (10%). Although brand campaigns continue to be the most common, their popularity has fallen compared to Q3 when 77% of ESG campaigns consisted of brand advertising. Insights made up 13% of ESG advertising during Q3 and fund promotion 10%.

A total of 21 advertisers were actively promoting ESG in North America during the fourth quarter, up from 16 in Q3. During both quarters none of the advertisers were active in both the U.S. and Canada, but the former saw the most advertisers in both quarters: 15 in Q4 and 11 in Q3, compared to Canada which saw six advertisers in Q4 and five in Q3.

There were four advertisers who focused all of their North American advertising on ESG during Q4: Schroders, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Manulife Investment Management and Gresham House. 

Below are some examples of the type of ESG campaigns that were in market in North America during Q4 2021:

Blackstone:

RBC Global Asset Management:

Bridgewater Associates: