Philip Morris is planning a $350 million (€345m; £221m) US promotional push for its four key tobacco brands.

In a bid to raise the market share of Marlboro, Parliament, Basic and Virginia Slims, the tobacco giant will pour the bulk of the cash into discounts for retailers and customers. Second-quarter spending on these brands dipped year-on-year, though their share rose 0.2 points.

The news came as Philip Morris posted a 14.1% rise in Q2 net earnings across its tobacco, food, finance and brewing interests to $2.6 billion on a 1.5% increase in revenues to $21.1bn. Profits at the tobacco division rose 5.1% to $1.5bn.

Data sourced from: AdAge.com; additional content by WARC staff