Dive Brief:
- Mondelez is shifting its advertising dollars away from TV and into digital media and eye-catching technologies like in-aisle holograms.
- The company's TV ad spend was down 18% in 2014 from the year before and has decreased nearly 50% from five years ago.
- At the same time, 32% of Mondelez's North America ad spending went to digital in 2014, and the company expects to increase that to 45% this year. Globally, Mondelez hopes that digital will comprise 30% of total media spending by 2018.
Dive Insight:
Shifts in the marketing budget come at a time when Mondelez is under pressure from investors, like William Ackman, to cut costs and improve its bottom line.
CMO Dana Anderson told The Wall Street Journal, "We are getting a lot of support for reinvesting our savings back into marketing. We are increasing advertising and promotional spending. We have a team devoted to sharpening and proving the return on our marketing investment. We are also shifting more of our spending to digital, as it typically costs less than traditional media but has twice the return on investment."
In its growth strategy outlined earlier this year, Mondelez announced it would boost ad spending to 10% of revenue from 8% today while also expanding its healthier offerings and building up its e-commerce business, which has included adding "buy now" buttons in shoppable ads.