Procter & Gamble is generally considered the world’s largest advertiser. They are certainly TV’s largest advertiser and it’s where they spend the bulk of their money. P&G spent more than $100 million in TV, digital, and print last year.
You would think if anyone could afford to take a little time off with the advertising it would be them.
So, what are they doing? They are INCREASING their TV ad buys. They’re up 1.9% so far this year.
Jon Moeller, CFO at P&G, had this to say to The Drum:
“There’s a big upside here in terms of reminding consumers of the benefits that they’ve experienced with our brands and how they’ve [met] their family’s needs, which is why this is not a time to go off air.”
“This is not a time to retrench. And really that’s all in service to our consumers and service to our partners, and – we believe – in service to our society.”
“There are consumers that are trying products that they haven’t tried before – but they aren’t necessarily ours. We need to work hard to ensure that we maintain mental and physical availability to the greatest extent possible, so that those consumers return to their beloved and trusted brands – which are ours – as they’re more fully available.”
OTHER RECENT POSTS:
Take Control of Your Brand Conversation or Someone Else Will
Not surprisingly, when you don’t control the conversation, it happens without you. Brands that stop advertising and sending positive messages are seeing huge drops in brand sentiment because they only thing people hear about you is nothing or negative.
Those that continued to market saw a drop (people are thinking about other things these days), but nowhere near as big as those that stopped.
We need to be talking to people now about the recovery. What happens when people get back closer to normal?
Advertising During Crisis Times: What You Do Now Will Impact Your Business Long-Term
A Harris Interactive/Yankelovich survey asked what people thought when companies advertise in an economic downturn, here’s what they found:
- 86% report the advertiser was Top of Mind when they were ready to purchase
- 86% feel better about the company’s commitments to products and services
How companies deal with crises, such as economic downturns, often sets up the competitive landscape for years to come. A study by Bain & Company done after a recession showed some stark results:
- More than 20% of companies that were previously in the bottom quartile in their industries moved to the top quartile.
- More than 20% of companies considered “leadership companies” in the top quartile of financial performance moved to the bottom quartile.
Poor performers and High performers literally swapped places because of what they did during recessions.