When a CFO endorses a major switch in spending, you can be confident that it is supported by the figures. Marketing Week reports that Procter & Gamble’s chief finance officer Jon Moeller, speaking on 24 January, confirmed that P&G will be spending close to 30% of its media promotion budget globally in digital, social and mobile – seeking to increase its presence, and develop marketing efficiency with improved targeting and clearer messages.
This switch is because there is higher potential return from digital. He commented:
“Digital allows very effective and tighter targeting of a message to a consumer. If you think simplistically about men and women, in TV advertising is going to everybody. You can much more carefully target content to a recipient in a digital environment.”
P&G saw sales growth decline in the three months to the end of December: revenues were up 0.5% year on year to $22.28bn, down from 2% growth in the previous two quarters, and profits were down almost 16% to $3.43bn. Hence the focus on marketing efficiency.
Campaigns that start in the digital world
P&G has previously spoken about its commitment to digital marketing, with the firm’s global brand building Officer Marc Pritchard speaking of how it has shifted its mindset to campaigns that start in the digital world and only then move into the rest of the marketing mix.
Unilever – 17% spend in digital
Meanwhile, P & G’s great rival Unilever, which owns brands such as Knorr, PG Tips and Marmite, also announced recently that it invested 17 per cent of its media spend in digital in 2013. You can confidently predict a significant increase for 2014…