Fundamental Media Insights


Competitor alerts
15 April 2020

How Covid-19 changed asset managers' advertising

In volatile times, many managers promote their 'safe' product offerings such as ETFs and fixed income, data from Fundamental Monitor shows

Key points:

  • Amidst the coronavirus crisis, advertising volumes have remained relatively stable, but asset managers are promoting 'safer' strategies in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019
  • Managers promote the theme 'investing in volatile times', playing on their brand strengths
  • Advertisements promoting fixed income have more than doubled in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019, while equities advertisements have dropped slightly in Europe and halved in North America and Asia Pacific over the same period

While advertising volumes have remained relatively stable in Q1 2020 compared to the same quarter last year, the topics covered in the campaigns have shifted dramatically in light of Covid-19, data from Fundamental Monitor shows.

In Europe, plenty of new URLs are coming online every day while the spread of the coronavirus continued. Many asset managers have decided to either strongly promote investing in volatile times (e.g. Fidelity) or else to simply play on their brand strengths (e.g. Vanguard).

While a handful of managers are tackling the implications of Covid-19 head on (e.g. Jupiter), we are also seeing a lot of managers advertising their ETF offerings. During this unprecedented crisis, the ESG theme seems to have shifted to the background, but some managers are still advertising little else (e.g. Pictet and Robeco) and ESG still accounts for 16% of all asset manager advertising in Europe.

When comparing advertising patterns in the first quarter of this year to the same period in 2019, one of the more noticeable differences is the number of campaigns related to equities and fixed income. Equities advertising volumes have fallen a little in Europe, from 9.7 million in Q1 2019 to 8.8 million in Q1 2020, but have halved in North America and Asia Pacific, respectively from 50.6 million to 24.2 million, and from 6.1 million to 3 million.

At the same time,  in both Europe and North America advertising volumes for fixed income have more than doubled in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019, suggesting that asset managers are keen to promote their income strategies in these volatile times.

All data comes from Fundamental Monitor, an innovative technology tool developed by Fundamental Media providing real-time insights into the advertising campaigns by asset managers across the globe.

Insights Competitor alerts How Covid-19 changed asset managers' advertising