Industry Contributor
12 Aug 2019 -
3 min read
P&G slashes adspend by $350m after cutting 'waste' and agency fees
By Paul McIntyre
- Executive editor
By Gareth Tomlin
- General Manager Data Insights & Analytics, Paramount ANZ | Partner Content
Procter & Gamble continues its three-year hack into agency fees and ad spend 'waste', including reducing "excess frequency" in its media supply chain (Campaign).
Key points
- The US FMCG giant has cut nearly $500m in ad expenditure since 2016
- In the past 12 months it made the deepest cut of $350m to its annual advertising expenses
- P&G CEO David Taylor said on an earnings call last week P&G was investing more in performance marketing
- P&G has built up a database of 1 billion consumer IDs
- The cuts to agency fees is likely linked to Publicis Groupe's announcement that it took a 0.75% hit to group revenue, worth upwards of $50m from one unnamed FMCG client that cut its remuneration deal.
Unilever and P&G are the most public examples of big marketers cutting into their marketing and media supply chain costs - further signals of the industry crimping underway to media and agency partners. Of particular interest is the 1 billion user IDs that P&G says it now has in its database, and how the company is using it to lower paid media ad frequency to individuals. There's a lot of learning still to do but industry at large tends to follow P&G's lead so brace for more belt tightening.
