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The Future of Measurement: four key trends
The evolution of measurement holds enormous and powerful potential for marketers, if the industry can overcome the state of decision paralysis – in an extensive new report, WARC identifies four areas to focus on with practical steps to help.
WARC’s Future of Measurement report is based on exclusive proprietary data as well as external research and reporting.
WARC members can read the full report here.
If you’re yet to subscribe, you can read a sample of the report here.
Why the future of measurement matters
Third-party cookies will finally be eliminated from online advertising this year, but only a tiny fraction of marketers are conducting holistic measurement, with a majority not using any modelling, explains Paul Stringer, WARC’s managing editor of research and insights, in an introduction to the report.
Four big ideas
The report explores four key trends across different chapters:
- AI and the growth of synthetic data
AI is set to transform market research, but the quality of output is only as good as the reliability of the data put in. Marketers will have to grow accustomed to deploying hybrid approaches. - The third-party cookie countdown
Though 75% of marketers understand their dependency on cookies, many remain unprepared for their end; interoperability of replacement systems is a big concern. - Hurdles in holistic measurement
MMM is a hugely exciting new step in measurement, but it requires some know-how to put into practice. - Closing the sustainability gap
Sustainability requires a more nuanced definition of growth, while new regulations will put pressure on brands to measure the emissions resulting from their activities.
Key quote
“With measurement continuing to evolve in several directions at once, marketers find themselves battling multiple headwinds: not only the demise of third-party cookies, but new regulations in sustainability reporting, and, of course, the growing influence and impact of AI” – Paul Stringer, Managing Editor, Research & Insights, WARC.
Pfizer plans DTC site for medication
Pfizer, the US-based pharma company, is said to be working on an online platform to order medicines, in an effort to commercialize a solution to the complexity of US healthcare, which is part of a wider strategy to go direct-to-consumer.
Why DTC pharma matters
Finding the right drugs at the right prices matters to consumers. Online channels are becoming critically important: one recent survey found that nearly 39% of US consumers expected to increase their online purchases of health products in 2024, while YouGov data from 2021 showed that more than half (51%) of US adults are comfortable buying prescription medicine online.
What’s going on
First reported by the FT, sources familiar with the company’s workings say the drug maker is planning to launch a website later this year that will connect patients to telehealth consultants (who prescribe the drugs) before a dispensing partner ships the product.
- Initially, medicines like the anti-Covid product Paxlovid and migraine medication will be available.
- The move follows an earlier effort from pharma firm Eli Lilly, which resulted in LillyDirect, a website supplying migraine treatments and weight-loss drugs, in partnership with online pharmacies.
In context
During Pfizer’s quarterly call with investors on Wednesday, US commercial officer Aamir Malik explained that “engaging and activating consumers is, as you pointed out, a very, very important part of our business.”
In a call announcing higher-than-expected profits, the company hoped to present itself as returning to form following a continued slump from Covid-era highs.
More broadly, the shifts to direct commerce by major pharma groups reflect a realization that there is big business to be found by transitioning more serious medication toward a consumer-style product (with, of course, a clinical layer in between).
Sourced from the FT, WARC, Reuters
Ad revenues are ‘growing fast’ at DoorDash
Food delivery business DoorDash reports ad revenue is growing fast and will exceed $100m this year.
While the business doesn’t disclose actual figures, CEO Tony Xu indicated on an earnings call that annual ad revenue would be “substantially larger” than the $100m punted by one analyst.
Takeaways
- DoorDash’s ad customers now extend beyond restaurants to include businesses in the grocery and retail sectors.
- It is also “seeing increasing pull from CPG advertisers” and is building out products to meet their demand.
- There’s a new focus on refining ad products to offer more self-serve capabilities and more reporting capabilities.
Why DoorDash ad revenues matter
CFO Ravi Inukonda highlighted how ad revenues are contributing to both revenue and EBITDA.
“Our goal has always been, how do we think about merchant ROAS as well as consumer conversion,” he said. “And we believe we are best-in-class for both of those. Those are the constraints we’re using to measure the quality of our ad business.”
Sourced from Seeking Alpha
[Image: DoorDash]
Marriott Bonvoy adds another 7 million members
Marriott International’s Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program added another seven million members during Q1, bringing the total to 203 million.
Context
- Big hotel chains are seeking to lock in high-spending travelers through their loyalty programs and Marriott is currently leading the field, although Skift has estimated that it may be overtaken by Hilton by the end of this year.
- Marriott’s loyalty program is one of three “major systems” undergoing digital and technology transformation at the business – the other two being reservations and property management.
Why Bonvoy is important
- The sheer size of the loyalty program is clearly one factor, but CEO Tony Capuano believes that “engagement is a much more important facet of the program”.
- He highlighted in particular the growing credit card portfolio and the breadth of experiences on offer to members: “those are the powerful drivers of engagement”, he said during an earnings call.
- The business is also developing midscale brands at least partly in response to members looking for lower price points for certain types of trip.
Takeaways
- Member penetration of global room nights reached new highs in Q1, at 70% in the US and Canada, and 64% globally.
- Marriott Bonvoy has evolved to become a travel and loyalty platform, encompassing a portfolio of more than 30 brands across nearly 8,900 properties and other travel offerings.
- Marriott Bonvoy also spans numerous additional collaborations and member benefits, including co-brand credit cards in 11 markets.
Sourced from Seeking Alpha, Skift
[Image: Marriott Bonvoy]
What shall we watch tonight?
The options for TV viewing have never been greater, but finding TV content, whether traditional or streaming, can be a frustrating and time-consuming endeavour for viewers.
How viewers find content
A report* from Comcast Advertising and FreeWheel highlights the issues:
- Only 25% of viewers surveyed say that all their content can be accessed in one place.
- Two-thirds of European viewers spend more than six minutes searching for something to watch; 46% say the difficulty in finding new content can get frustrating.
- Social circles play a big role in how viewers learn about new content: 51% of European (vs. 55% of American) viewers said they receive recommendations from friends, family, and colleagues.
- Viewers’ choices are impacted by situational factors, but genre is foundational: 75% of European viewers said that genre is a key factor in choosing what to watch.
- Channel surfing is still alive: 55% of European viewers start their content search by channel surfing or scrolling through a programme guide or app.
- Individual platforms play an important role in how viewers choose content: 53% of European viewers have found and watched content recommended on their home screen, highlighting how essential it is for content owners and advertisers to tap into this feature.
- Promos and native ads boost content consideration: 85% of US and European viewers are likely to be influenced to watch provider-recommended content if they had seen an ad or trailer previously.
Why it matters
With a huge volume of content available across multiple platforms and devices, consumers are overwhelmed with choice. Anything that enhances the discovery and navigation experience is likely to lead to more opportunity to engage viewers with relevant ads and build brand sentiment.
*Content Discovery in a Multiscreen TV World: Surfing and Scrolling in a Sea of Content analyses trends in how consumers navigate and discover content across traditional TV and streaming in the US and five European countries (UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy).
Sourced from FreeWheel
Amazon bullish on Prime Video ads
Q1 ad sales at Amazon were up 24% year-over-year to $11.824m, representing just over 8% of total net sales.
Why it matters
Other parts of Amazon’s business may be bigger, but advertising remains an important contributor to profitability in North America and internationally, CFO Brian Olsavsky told an earnings call.
Takeaways
- Ad growth was primarily driven by sponsored products, “supported by continued improvements in relevancy and measurement capabilities for advertisers”, said CEO Andrew Jassy.
- Amazon sees continued “significant opportunity” in sponsored products as well as in “areas where we’re just getting started like Prime Video ads”.
- Jassy believes that Prime Video ads offer brands value “as we can better link the impact of streaming TV advertising to business outcomes like product sales or subscription sign-ups, whether the brands sell on Amazon or not”.
Key quote
“I think advertisers are excited about being able to expand their ability to advertise with us in video beyond Twitch and Freevee to Prime Video shows [and] movies” – Andrew Jassy, CEO at Amazon.
Sourced from Seeking Alpha, Amazon
Why delayed gratification is key for Adidas
Adidas says it will be “disciplined” in its release of highly sought after trainer lines in order to keep demand (and therefore prices) high, as the sportswear company delivers better-than-expected results.
What’s going on
The company had around 8% revenue growth in the first quarter, and a significant return to big profits following a difficult post-Yeezy period.
The reason, says CEO Bjørn Gulden in a statement, is that the lifestyle segment, comprising some of its most desired and most venerable models, is driving that growth.
“The demand for our footwear franchises Samba, Gazelle, Spezial, and Campus is still very strong and growing.”
Leadership has maintained a firm line on buying in order to make sure both the brand and retailers are not over-inventoried. “We think that this year is about building a solid growth, building a quality growth, making sure that we and our retail partners don't need to discount.”
Maintaining control over pricing remains imperative.
The profit motive
Vitally, profitability grew 6.4% percentage points to a gross margin of 51.2%, the result of reduced discounting, healthier inventory, and a more favourable mix. In addition, in terms of raw numbers, the company is now lapping the drop in revenues that was the result from abandoning the Yeezy brand, following Ye’s controversial remarks.
But it’s worth digging into how the company is thinking about marketing as a key driver, having increased marketing by 9% in the quarter, all of which will push the percentage of marketing to sales to 12%.
“We still expect significant FX headwind. And as we said many times, we will continue to kind of overinvest in marketing and sales to build the momentum then to get the leverage as we grow,” Gulden recently told investors. “I'm very happy with the way things have developed in the last three months. It shows the strength of the brand and the strength of this company.”
In context
It’s a big year for sport with a Euros football competition and the Paris Olympics, and both events are expected to drive sales of performance lines. However, Adidas’s results follow the initially shocking news that the sports brand would no longer sponsor the German national team, as Nike agreed a much higher contract than the €50m that the deal had previously cost the brand.
Sourced from Adidas, Seeking Alpha
GAT: Meta on track to surpass all linear TV spend
In just a few years, ad revenues going to Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp – could outgrow the entire global linear TV industry, based on current trajectories; the findings of a new Global Ad Trends report indicate changes to global advertising as social media stands to become the world’s largest ad channel.
WARC Media members can find the full report here
If you’re not yet subscribed to WARC Media, you can access a sample of the report here.
Why social’s supremacy matters
Global social spend is set to total $247.3bn in 2024, up 14.3% year on year, ahead of paid search. This could see it grow to become the biggest advertising channel by spend.
But that’s a tussle among the new giants. Perhaps the more consequential shift is that on current trajectory, just the adspend going to Meta alone is set to earn more than the entire global linear TV industry.
It’s a moment that would signal a changing of the guard, not only from old media to new, but from a significant plurality of companies making money from global ad growth to a consolidated market dominated by global tech players.
What’s behind this
Both Facebook and Instagram grew by more than 20% year on year in Q1 2024, and Meta is forecast to earn $155.6bn in ad revenue this year.
- Tools like Meta’s Advantage+, which automates aspects of creative and media planning, are increasingly popular with advertisers.
- Meta reportedly increased its ad load in Q4 2023 to 19.1%, with most Reels sessions now having seven or more ads.
Elsewhere in the market
- The +18.3% year-on-year increase forecast for TikTok in 2024 marks a significant slow-down from the 87.8% growth rate it clocked up last year, despite the introduction of new search and shopping ad formats.
- Pinterest is set to enjoy a 17.3% year-on-year increase in ad revenue in 2024, while Snapchat is forecast to grow 13.7%.
- X’s ad revenue in 2024 is predicted to decline by 6.4% globally and 5.1% in the US – but this appears to be stabilising.
Editor’s view
“Much of social media’s success has been driven by Meta’s remarkable renaissance. However, social’s stronghold on budgets can also be seen in TikTok’s rise, and a return to double-digit ad revenue growth at Snapchat and Pinterest.
“However, with this dominance comes challenges, such as rising advertising loads in social environments, and the impact of AI on media planning. In this report, we take a holistic view of the global social media landscape, which shows no sign of losing momentum” – Alex Brownsell, Head of Content, WARC Media.
Pizza Hut changes direction in China
Pizza Hut, owned by Yum Holdings in China, is transforming from a premium casual dining brand to become a mass market operation, a direction that is reflected in its pricing policy.
What’s happening
- Joey Wat, CEO of Yum Holdings, told an earnings call that the brand was “ready for accelerated growth”, having added 400 new stores in the past year and increased city coverage by 10% to over 750 cities.
- “We aim to broaden its addressable market with a strong value proposition for mass market appeal,” he said. “Our strategy emphasises widening price points, expanding into new categories and delivering emotional value to consumers.”
- More products are now being offered at an “entry price” of less than RMB50; sales of such pizzas grew double digit in Q1.
- Similarly, more products are being targeted at the growing number of one-person meal occasions.
- “We are driving the ticket average lower at Pizza Hut,” Wat declared. “But our focus remains the same: driving incremental sales and focusing [on] profit and margins.”
Why it matters
China’s economy may have grown faster than expected in Q1, but consumer confidence is low. “Consumers are more rational in their spending in the new normal,” Wat acknowledged, “but they do respond well to our exciting offerings and campaigns.” That points to brands needing to be agile and able to respond to new trends as well as being timely and targeted in their marketing.
Key quote
“Urbanisation and long-term consumption upgrades in Tier 2 cities and below present a particularly attractive opportunity for us. Housing and living costs are more affordable there. Tremendous consumption potential has yet to be unleashed” – Joey Wat, CEO at Yum Holdings.
Sourced from Seeking Alpha, Yahoo! News
[Image: Pizza Hut]
Chinese youth embrace the single life
A growing number of young Chinese are opting to live alone and stay unmarried, a lifestyle choice that’s affecting how they spend their money and driving a preference for niche brands over mega brands.
Why Chinese singles matter
China’s solo lifestyle movement is evolving alongside the country’s wider economic development. It’s influencing how young people shop, what they choose to do in their spare time, and the types of brands they prefer. While the Chinese government is implementing new policies to tackle its low birth rate, it might not be enough to counter the current trend and its economic implications.
What’s happening
“We’re seeing more young people embrace lifestyles that balance individual leisure time with work and what might be considered traditional family obligations,” Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of marketing solutions platform WPIC Marketing & Technologies, told Jing Daily.
With more time to pursue hobbies and spend time with friends, young Chinese are spending more on items that complement a solo lifestyle, including pets and leisure sports, while valuing sustainability, self-care and healthy living, Cooke added.
Auction house Christie’s, meanwhile, has observed an uptick in young consumers from Asia. In 2023, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 54% of Christie’s global new buyer spending, according to the South China Morning Post. The news service also reports that high-net-worth individuals in China are getting younger. The proportion under 40 years old has increased from 29% in 2019 to 49% in 2023.
Takeaways
- By 2035, China will be home to 400 million people aged 60 and above, comprising 30 percent of its total population, and making it one of the largest ‘senior single’ economies in the world.
- Women are increasingly choosing to stay single as their earning power grows, and their economic influence is contributing to new types of consumption.
- The rise of quiet luxury reflects changing lifestyles and values, with younger Chinese choosing more subtle expressions of luxury over flashier items from bigger brands.
- The Chinese government, meanwhile, is launching a ‘new era’ marriage and childbearing culture to counter its low birth rate across more than 20 cities.
Sourced from Jing Daily, South China Morning Post
Affordability bites for McDonald’s, new value propositions offer an answer
McDonald’s must be on the side of the consumer and “laser-focused on affordability”, according to CEO Chris Kempczinski.
Context
- He told an earnings call that consumers around the world faced elevated prices across their everyday spending and were being careful – which in turn was putting pressure on the QSR industry.
- “In Q1, industry traffic was flat to declining in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the UK. And across almost all major markets industry traffic is slowing,” he reported.
What it means
- “We know our customers are looking for reliable everyday value now more than ever,” Kempczinski said.
- “Staying on the side of the consumer and executing against our plan is our model for driving long-term growth regardless of the broader landscape,” he added. “As consumer pressures have mounted we have reacted with agility to proactively meet evolving customer needs.”
- That has included the launch of everyday value menus across many international markets. “Featuring value bundles at various price points, these new offerings provide smaller, more affordable meals to our customers,” he explained.
- McDonald’s will also look to get existing customers to visit more often, leveraging its digital capabilities and loyalty data.
Getting the message across
- “We always have to be finding ways to be driving consumer interest around great marketing plans,” said Kempczinski. “And if we’re doing great marketing, you can grow the business just with your core menu.”
- “When we shift marketing investment from traditional mass media like television, print and billboard ads, to collective investment in modern and digital capabilities to personalise the experience, we drive profitability,” he added.
- In the US, he sees a need to move away from local value messaging to develop “a strong national value proposition that we can then use our media scale to drive high consumer awareness on it”.
Key quote
“We must be laser-focused on affordability, which means good entry-level price points available every day. In the markets where we’re doing this well, the business is outperforming” – Chris Kempczinski, CEO at McDonald’s.
Sourced from Seeking Alpha
Coca-Cola looks to innovation and digital marketing
The Coca-Cola Company says it is innovating and delivering bigger, bolder bets, and backing them with digital marketing.
Four types of innovation
- The renovation of core brands, eg Fanta recipe refinements to improve taste.
- Re-engaging with consumers in a novel way to drive relevance of the core brands, eg Coke Creations.
- Product innovations, eg Minute Maid Zero Sugar, Jack Daniels and Coke.
- Non-product-based innovation: eg new bottle/can sizes.
What does success look like
- “We do not set ourselves an artificial strategy objective of ‘it has to be x percent [of sales] from innovation’,” CEO James Quincey told an earnings call. “As it happens, about 25% of the growth comes from innovation, but it is not set that way.”
- “As it relates to product innovation, we have a very clear set of metrics on whether it’s still growing in the fifth quarter after its launch,” he added.
Key quote
“We’re building on our innovations by driving awareness and excitement through an increasingly digital marketing media mix” – James Quincey, CEO at The Coca-Cola Company.
Sourced from Seeking Alpha
Mondelēz seeks to drive purchase frequency
Snack foods giant Mondelēz reports that shoppers in many markets are increasingly price sensitive and, in North America especially, purchase frequency is down in certain categories.
Squeezed consumers
- CEO Dirk Van De Put told an earnings call that “penetration is still pretty good, but people are much more conscious about price points”.
- “The [purchase] frequency is coming down,” he reported, “particularly with the lower income consumers, and particularly the brands that are important for them.”
- Sensitivity to absolute price points is leading many consumers to choose smaller pack sizes in biscuits and chocolates.
- Additionally, in North America, Mondelēz is seeing increased promotional intensity combined with a significant shift in sales to non-tracked channels, including club stores, dollar stores, and emerging e-commerce platforms.
What Mondelēz is doing
- The business is increasing advertising & commercial spending year-over-year in the high single-digits, “which is driving consumer and customer loyalty”.
- It is increasing total distribution points which it anticipates will help maintain or increase volumes and market share.
- It is launching additional multi-packs, but also reducing the size of some multi-packs from six to five or from 12 to 10 in order to hit particular price points.
- “For those lower income consumers who are buying very carefully and evaluating very carefully when and what and at which price they buy, we will need to become more agile in the promo mechanisms that we will play out,” said Van De Put.
Key quote
“What we need to do going forward,” said Van De Put, “is largely [about] trying to figure out in which way can we get the frequency, particularly from the lower income consumers that we would like to see.”
Sourced from Seeking Alpha
Super Bowl spots often lack memorability
Many Super Bowl ads struggle to achieve top-of-mind memorability with consumers just weeks after the big game, according to research by Spikes, the innovation consultancy.
Why Super Bowl spots matter
Big-budget ads that run during major events and occasions are a useful way of attracting eyeballs and generating short-term buzz. Better understanding the half-life of these commercial spots can help marketers determine if they truly represent value for money.
- Spikes polled 2,000 consumers in the US around two weeks after the NFL season-closer, where ad inventory costs millions of dollars, and got them to name an ad they recently watched...
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Radio is a cost-efficient way of boosting performance campaigns
Radio advertising boosts daily web sessions by 9%, according to new research from Radiocentre into its performance marketing capabilities.
A study from the industry organisation, Radio: The Performance Multiplier, also finds that, on average, radio generates additional web sessions twice as cost efficiently as other demand generation media combined.
Takeaways
- Only 8% of a radio spot’s full potential effect is delivered in the first 20 minutes following transmission – meaning that 92% of radio’s effect is excluded by typical short-term time-window attribution approaches.
- Reallocating budget from other media into radio can turbocharge typical pure-play online performance channels, including organic search, paid search and paid social, at no extra cost.
- The best-performing campaigns are characterised by higher weekly reach and consistent use of distinctive audio brand assets.
Why it matters
Two things. Firstly, current measurement techniques appear to underestimate radio’s influence on performance outcomes – and that could be holding back investment in the medium.
Secondly, reallocating budget to radio may help brands break through the ‘performance plateau’ – the point at which the success of a traditional mix of search, social, and online display begins to level off and long-term growth is stifled.
About the research
Radiocentre and research agency Colourtext used regression modelling techniques to analyse the effect of 1.6 billion multimedia impacts on 30 million web sessions, sourced from a range of in-market campaigns, with the aim of deciphering radio’s true effects within the performance marketing mix.
Sourced from Radiocentre
How Australians plan to tune in to the 2024 Summer Olympics
WARC’s latest Spotlight Australia infographic shows that the majority of Australians plan to follow the Olympics this year, with approximately half the country planning to watch either live events (46%) or highlights (53%) on TV, making it the most popular channel for engagement.
Only one in five says they have no plans to watch the sporting event at all.
Why live sporting events matter
Marketers increasingly prize sport for its ability to drive mass reach. Last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup broke Australian TV viewership records during the Matildas’ semifinal match with England, drawing 11.5 million viewers...
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Beyond brand vs performance
Thinking in terms of brand-building or performance-driven channels ignores how advertising really works, say the authors of a major new report into the business effects of advertising spend; instead, there are three critical dimensions that marketers need to start considering.
Why new dimensions of effectiveness matter
Brand and performance have been useful groupings for channels’ respective effects, but at a time when driving value is becoming as, if not more, important than driving volume, the authors believe that much more nuance is needed when planning and modelling the full effect of advertising spend, given the long tail of effects (pictured)....
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How Athletic Brewing tapped the power of marketing mix models
Athletic Brewing, the non-alcoholic craft beer manufacturer, has tapped into marketing mix models to help find the right balance of growth and profitability.
Why a marketing mix model matters
Rigorously examining budget allocation can help brands better understand how to boost return on investment (ROI) and reduce non-essential spending. Marketing mix models are one way of achieving this objective at a granular level.
- As a seven-year-old company in what has become a fast-growing category, Athletic Brewing faced the challenge of driving growth in a profitable way.
- It partnered with Keen Decision System, an omnichannel marketing mix model provider that also...
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Connected TV and retail media central to this year’s US upfront
The US upfront is expected to be a seller’s market this year because of an improved economy, tighter inventory due to the Olympics and presidential election, and no writer’s strike, according to data from Advertiser Perceptions.
Channels including connected TV and retail media are also expected to be a greater part of the mix.
Why the US upfront sales matters
The annual upfront TV ad sales season in the US is a key indicator of the health of the media and marketing ecosystem, taking into account the popularity of programming, the size of ad budgets, the state of the overall economy, and how new media channels fit into the overall picture.
Takeaways
- Advertising Perception’s (AP) March survey of 156 US advertisers who influence upfront video budgets showed that 34% plan to increase their upfront allocation this year, and anticipate allocating a median of 45% of their upfront video budgets to CTV, up from 40% a year ago. AP believes CTV spending will outpace national linear by 2026.
- Access to media brand data (including retail data) has emerged as the number one reason advertisers say they plan to purchase TV inventory during the upfront, with brands expressing interest in products built on streamers’ first-party viewing data, retailer sales data or ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) data from Smart TV and streaming device providers.
- As currency solutions besides Nielsen receive accreditation from the Joint Industry Committee (JIC), only 41% of advertisers say they plan to transact solely on traditional currencies; 59% plan to use alternative currencies either alongside Nielsen demos or exclusively.
Key quote
“For buyers, CTV will be a more central part of upfront conversations than in years past. And with the Olympics and presidential election this year, advertisers may need to be more aggressive with their plans than in prior years if they want to lock in with specific inventory at guaranteed rates” – Eric Haggstrom, director of market intelligence, AP.
Time for FMCG brands to stand up in the plastics debate
Some of the world’s biggest FMCG manufacturers have been making encouraging noises about how they are addressing the problem of plastic pollution but more radical change is needed than keeping screw tops attached to drinks bottles.
Context
- The UN is aiming to conclude a global plastics treaty by the end of this year which would manage plastics over their lifecycle.
- The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution has this week advanced discussion from ideas to treaty language, including limiting the total amount of plastic produced.
- Nearly 400 million tonnes of new plastic is produced every year, according to UNEP estimates, and that total could double by 2040; plastic also accounts for 5% of global emissions currently but that could rise too.
- The UN estimates that less than 10% of plastic generated globally gets recycled. And recent research from The 5 Gyres Institute concludes that for every percentage increase in plastic produced, there is an equivalent increase in plastic pollution in the environment.
Takeaways
- The Institute also found that 56 FCMG multinationals were responsible for at least half of the world’s plastic litter (the half of the 1.87 million items collected over a five-year period across 84 countries that had discernible branding); Coca-Cola alone was responsible for 11%.
- Most of the rubbish collected was single-use packaging for food, beverage, and tobacco products.
- In a recent earnings call, Unilever claimed to have reduced virgin plastic use by 18% over the past year, while increasing use of recycled plastic by 23%.
- Tradeable plastic credits, which would allow companies to balance the plastic waste they collect against the waste they produce, are seen as an answer by some companies.
Why plastic pollution matters
Virgin plastic is being produced faster than old plastic is being recycled and the world is awash – literally – with the results. FMCG brands and their single-use plastics are a major contributor to the problem and will play a crucial role in solving it. But as Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher noted, brands can’t do it alone: “You need the cooperation of retailers [on refill and reuse], you need the cooperation of governments in terms of law change.”
Sourced from Guardian, Financial Times, Globe & Mail, Seeking Alpha, AP
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