Global social media ad revenues stall

The winter update of the MAGNA (IPG Media Brands) Global Ad Forecast predicts that media owners’ advertising revenues will reach US$833bn in 2023, up 5% vs 2022. Despite challenging economic conditions, traditional media companies (TV, audio, publishing, out-of-home) saw ad revenues grow by 2.5% this year, while digital media companies grew by 9%. This is the narrowest growth gap ever observed by MAGNA, signalling that editorial media brands remain attractive and relevant as they now combine brand safety with cross-platform reach.

Multiple factors, including plateauing reach & usage and targeting limitations (as a result of Apple’s post-iOS 14 environment), combined to cause social media advertising to stall in 2022: global sales grew by just 4.4% to US$149bn, well down on the growth rates of 20-35% observed in the previous three years. TikTok is the only social media owner to post advertising growth, while incumbent social networks suffered flat or declining ad sales, especially in Europe and North America. MAGNA expects social media advertising to accelerate only slightly in 2023 (+6.8%).

Vincent Létang, EVP, Global Market Research at MAGNA and author of the report, said: “Advertising spending slowed down in the second half of 2022 because of economic uncertainty and issues affecting digital advertising formats, but traditional editorial media managed to grow by +2.5%. The gap in growth rates with digital advertising growth (+8.9%) was the narrowest ever measured by MAGNA, suggesting that the long-term transition to a digital-centric marketing landscape has slowed down following the Covid acceleration.“

Nicholas Hall Writes: “What are the ideal channels of distribution and communication post-Covid, when consumers clearly are omnivorous and want the best of all possible worlds and flexibility in choosing brands and spending their hard-won cash in this global recession? It seems that there has never been a greater need for searching questions about the validity of brand strategies and marketing execution, which is needed both within companies and in media like CHC.Newsflash.“

For more information on the news service, or to set up a trial of CHC.Newsflash or CHC.NewDirections to kickstart your 2023, contact melissa.lee@NicholasHall.com.

Female-oriented A+P dominates Nicholas Hall’s APAC Awards

CHC Insight’s Senior Editor, Nicola Allan, summarises the Creative Marketing Award winners from last week’s Nicholas Hall’s APAC e-Conference:

• Winner: Kalbe Consumer Health’s Mixagrip in Indonesia

The growth-driving campaign for Indonesia’s No.1 OTC systemic cold & flu remedy was centred around the idea that work and family pressures, climate issues and the pandemic make the “sandwich generation” tired and susceptible to illness but they cannot afford to miss a day of work. This led to the #AntiSkipHari (“No Skip Days”) initiative, which began with TV ads for Mixagrip and was expanded – in collaboration with creative company Ideacultura – with a digital video that recognises the pressure of daily responsibilities, plus offline marketing including posters on commuter trains and murals created by local artists. Kalbe’s goals were to help consumers avoid having to take time off work through illness, dispel the belief that cough & cold remedies cause drowsiness and fight back in a competitive category where rival brands focus only on TV and digital marketing

• 2nd place: ZP Therapeutics campaign for Physiogel in the Philippines

In 2020, a year of reset and self-care owing to the onset of Covid-19, ZP Therapeutics revived Physiogel following a hiatus from the spotlight. A digital campaign shared the message that only Physiogel contains BioMimic Technology to strengthen sensitive skin and make it soft, which led to the concept of “Strength in Softness”, a celebration of the gentle strength that women possess. From this, the Physiogel sisterhood (SiS) emerged including Strong Skin Stories sessions on Facebook Live featuring influencers and skin care experts. In 2022, the campaign was expanded with the SiS Days Out programme, where women who donated empty skin care bottles to be recycled were given tickets to free Physiogel wellness & pampering events. These strategies led to consumer reach far exceeding expectations and an above-average brand engagement rate

• 3rd place: Sanofi’s Ostelin in Australia

Australia’s dominant vitamin D brand was supported by “Ostelin Project Strong”, a campaign based on the idea that “Strong isn’t what a woman does. It’s who we are”. Sanofi partnered with visual media company Getty Images to showcase hundreds of photos of women that show a broad interpretation of women’s strength with the aim of enticing the younger generation and encouraging them to think about bone health without disenchanting the core 55+ target audience. Ostelin Project Strong, which boosted brand sales and share, also partnered with the 100 Women charity to support its mission of empowering women in various aspects of life

Nicholas Hall Writes: The Awards were of a very high standard and since we added the 5-minute case studies from companies showcasing their campaigns, the number and quality of entries have increased every year. We shortlisted four entries for online voting by delegates, not including the Special Award winner, Bayer China’s Canesten. The three campaigns shown above were worthy winners, but I’m going to give a special shout-out to a non-winner, Sanofi Korea’s Dulcolax for “K-Poop Star”. The case study showed a 360° campaign that attempts to break the taboo of constipation. Sadly we weren’t shown Dulcolax’s Tik Tok digital ads, which are some of the best I’ve ever seen, and absolutely in line with K-Pop culture as a way of reaching a younger target audience. Turning K-Pop into K-Poop is just brilliant.

Put your campaigns in the spotlight when you enter for our CHC Marketing Awards, to be presented during Nicholas Hall’s 33rd European CHC Conference in London on 19-21 April. For more information on entry criteria, or to book your place at this conference and save with the early bird booking discount, please contact elizabeth.bernos@NicholasHall.com.

Tailored digital ads, e-Commerce to drive OTC adspend growth

GLOBAL: Advertising expenditure by OTC brands in the 13 key markets that account for 74% of total global adspend will expand by 7.6% in 2022 and 5.0% in 2023, according to Zenith’s Business Intelligence – OTC Healthcare report. This will be driven by tailored digital brand advertising, as well as performance advertising driving traffic to OTC e-Commerce platforms. Lockdowns and pandemic-related restrictions led to a leap in OTC e-Commerce in 2020 and with more consumers aware of and comfortable with shopping for OTC products online, this will become an increasingly important sales channel.

Traditional sales outlets are facing competition and brands have opportunities to launch new partnerships or DtC ventures, which will fuel continued growth in brand and performance advertising. Zenith forecasts that OTC brands will increase their digital adspend at an average rate of 11% a year between 2021-23, radio by 5%, TV 3% and magazines will shrink by 3%. Digital will account for 49% of OTC advertising in 2023 vs 46% in 2021.

Nicholas Hall’s Touchpoints: I truly sympathise with Zenith. Up to a year’s work goes into a major report like this – we know from painful experience – and then the invasion of Ukraine changed everything. Following on shortly after the disruptive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the recession that will certainly result from the hike in oil prices – and a recession is the best that we can hope for – will upend the global economy and invalidate many of the assumptions that have underpinned CHC industry forecasts.

Six months into the pandemic, in June 2020, my colleagues Nina Monk, Laura Howard Werling and the CIMA team prepared a very interesting report on the impact on CHC consumption of previous catastrophes: the 2008 economic recession and historic viral outbreaks such as SARS in 2003 and Swine Flu in 2009. In the words of the report: “Past events suggest the CHC industry is somewhat ‘recession-proof’: as the global GDP dipped following the 2008 global financial crisis, CHC sales increased in both value and volume terms.”

The 2022 recession is likely to be somewhat different from that of 2008. It will last longer and consumers all over the world will be hard-pressed to balance family budgets. Staple items will become discretionary, including some consumer healthcare items, and CHC marketers will become cautious about launching new products, initiatives and campaigns. In the next month we will start to prepare forecasts for the new edition of our CHC sales database, DB6. This year will be even more difficult than usual.

We are delighted to announce that our annual Asia-Pacific Conference will return to Singapore this November! This event will include the presentation of our Regional CHC Marketing Awards. Stay tuned for details on speakers and topics! Please contact elizabeth.bernos@NicholasHall.com to reserve your seat, to find out about sponsorship or for information on awards criteria.

Ad Watch: 2020 A+P Trends

Two advertising stories caught our attention this week. First was the news that P&G is no longer the world’s No.1 advertiser, with Amazon taking the top spot, according to Ad Age, which publishes an annual list of the largest marketing spenders. The online retail giant spent US$11bn on A+P in 2019, 34% ahead of 2018, when it ranked fifth. P&G was placed second, with US$10.7bn in ad spending in its fiscal year ending in June 2020, while L’Oréal came in at No.3, spending US$10.3bn in 2019. Ad Age notes: “2020 ad spending figures for top marketers are going to be depressed – with exceptions for some advertisers that increased spending to take advantage of market opportunities amid the coronavirus pandemic.”

Secondly, Contagious published its review of the biggest trends in advertising and the best campaigns of 2020. Among the Top 25 campaigns of the year, there were several healthcare & beauty brands listed, including RB’s Dettol, backed by a huge social media initiative on TikTok (#HandWashChallenge) in India. According to Contagious, the campaign involved some of India’s biggest influencers and generated over 125bn views on Dettol’s TikTok page.

Another campaign highlighted was Bayer’s support of Berocca in Vietnam, an A+P initiative that we also profiled earlier this year. Working with digital agency Carnival, Bayer devised the Get Supercharged at 2pm campaign, creating a TikTok music video and encouraging people to post videos of themselves copying its dance moves by offering prizes for the most views. This led to 70,000 videos being created by people participating in the #BeroccaMango2PM hashtag challenge. The campaign directed users to e-Commerce platform Shopee, where they could purchase Berocca bundles and combos. Online sales rose 223% compared with the same period the year before, according to Bayer, while offline sales also increased 32%.

Various beauty brands also featured in the Contagious roundup of the Top 25 campaigns of 2020, most notably P&G’s Dove, which was backed by a Courage Is Beautiful campaign at the height of the pandemic, highlighting the strength and resilience of frontline healthcare workers. The Contagious report also cited recent YouGov research that places both Dettol and J&J’s Tylenol among the Top 25 Best Global Brands 2020 in terms of consumer awareness.

You can review innovation by region and country, including a review of the most active marketers globally in terms of NPD, in our recent report from CHC New Products Tracker, Innovation in CHC. This report also highlights ingredient and delivery format trends, showcases 100 innovative products in 2019, plus much more. For further details, or to order your copy, currently available with a 30% discount until 31 December, please contact melissa.lee@NicholasHall.com without delay.