Fmcg wasn’t short of big ticket marketing campaigns last year. Biggest of all was Cadbury’s 200th anniversary celebration. The confectionery giant rolled out retro packaging, added a time travel element to its ‘Mum’s birthday’ ad, invited shoppers to appear on vintage Cadbury posters, and lots more.
Other grocery powerhouses went for it, too. Weetabix spent £10m on a TV ad that showed a scientist warning state officials “the country hasn’t been eating enough Weetabix”. Meanwhile, Unilever supported new Comfort Botanicals with a £9m investment, and Walkers paid football superstars David Beckham and Thierry Henry a wodge to shift crisps ahead of the men’s Euros.
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These costly pushes were indicative of a year in which fmcg ad spend grew 29.5%, according to WARC Media data, bouncing back from an inflation-hit 2023. As consumer confidence continues to recover, one might expect brands to shell out more in 2025. The likelihood is they won’t. For one reason, there’s no massive sporting event to drive sales this summer. For another, suppliers are still facing eye-watering input costs – such as ingredients, energy and labour – that are putting a strain on margins. WARC expects marketing budgets to be scaled down s0mewhat.
Nevertheless, campaigns will remain front of mind for most – because, as this supplement’s introductory feature makes clear, marketing brings worthwhile results. Once a nice-to-have, it’s increasingly a fundamental part of growth strategies.
That’s apparent in the fortunes of those brands that have invested. Yorkshire Tea, for instance, continues to make gains as it continues to run its ‘Where Everything is Done Proper’ push. And Weetabix has slowed its units decline in a very challenging cereal category since launching its ad.
So, the key question for 2025 is not how big marketing budgets will be, but where they will be spent. Nailing the right mix of old and new media will continue to give marketers a headache. TV is still a reliable driver of sales, but both search and social attracted double-digit rises in spend last year. All will be hit by a game-changing moment in October, when a ban kick in on HFSS products on pre-watershed telly and at all times online.
The coming year in fmcg marketing is going to be fascinating.
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