“Going dark” leads to double-digit value share declines for CPG brands

Stephen Whiteside

Consumer packaged goods brands that “go dark”, meaning they stop all their mass-reach advertising, usually witness a double-digital contraction in value market share after one year.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands which stop mass-reach advertising typically witness a double-digital contraction in value market share after one year of “going dark”.

This finding emerged from a study presented by Nicole Hartnett, a senior marketing scientist at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, part of the University of South Australia, at the Advertising Research Foundation’s (ARF) 2023 AUDIENCExSCIENCE conference in New York.

“After 12 months without advertising, on average, brands experienced a 10% reduction in [value] market share,” she reported.

The analysis informing this conclusion was premised on the following:

  • A total of 377 cases from 365 brands...

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