For radio, Procter & Gamble is the gift that keeps on giving.
In the latest spot tracking tally from Media Monitors, the CPG behemoth placed 14 different brands among the top 100 radio advertisers for the week of Oct. 9-15, led by Vicks at No. 4 with 43,938 spot occurrences. That’s up from nine brands among the top 100 radio advertisers one year ago.
Now comes word that P&G increased total ad spending by $445 million in its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30. On a media briefing call, P&G CFO Andre Schulten cited the $445 million figure, which Ad Age notes was similar to the $453 million increase he talked about in P&G's fiscal fourth quarter. The most recent boost was part of a 2.6 percentage point increase in marketing spending as a percentage of sales in the fiscal first quarter, the company said, as reported by Ad Age.
The Cincinnati-based manufacturer of products that people use every day, like laundry detergent, toothpaste and toilet paper, is famous in marketing circles for conducting rigorous and sophisticated research and analytics to ensure its marketing dollars deliver maximum return on investment.
Schulten said he expects P&G will continue its aggressive marketing spend for the remainder of this fiscal year. “We’ll continue to invest as long as we can drive a healthy return on investment, which is the case with marketing spending,” Schulten said. “We continue to refine our targeting methodology and roll out capabilities across the globe. So as we scale these capabilities, we are becoming more effective and efficient in our spend, which increases the return on investment and therefore is a good incentive for us.”
That appears to be working. Sales at P&G increased 6% to $21.9 billion in the three months ending Sept. 30, while net earnings jumped around 15% to $4.6 billion.
At the 2019 Radio Show, P&G Senior Media Analyst John Fix said that radio delivers much needed reach for the consumer packaged goods giant, after the company dramatically amped its over-the-air spend in 2017. Its radio outlay has only grown in the years since as P&G rose to become radio’s top parent company advertiser.
Fix has publicly credited Brad Kelly, Nielsen Audio’s former Managing Director, with using data and analytics to show how radio could deliver the missing reach from TV audience erosion. “I’ve said it before, Brad Kelly was solely responsible for half-a-billion dollars of US radio in past years,” Fix wrote on LinkedIn when Kelly left Nielsen in January 2023.
Looking back, Kelly sees P&G’s embrace of radio as a potential roadmap for attracting other large advertisers to the medium. “Have a compelling business proposition, have a messenger who can deliver the message with credibility,” he says. “Get it to the right internal stakeholder who is unencumbered by prior baggage or enamored by marketing fashion trends. When the gatekeeper becomes an advocate and is willing to carry the message into the ultimate decision makers – that’s when shit happens.”
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