P&G's Top Five CPG Brands in 2021

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is one of the biggest CPG conglomerates and most admired companies in the world. Some of your go-to everyday items are owned by P&G - Old Spice, Crest, Charmin, and over 60 more brands. We’ll take a look into P&G’s top five brands for January through September 2021 and compare their overall digital ad strategies for the year so far.

5. Crest Promotes Healthy Gums 

Since January of 2021, Crest spent an estimated $17 million on digital advertising, with high Instagram spend in February and March earlier this year. However, Instagram spend at the beginning of Q2 2021 decreased significantly. Crest has allocated 60% of its monthly budget to Instagram ad placements, garnering around 1.2 billion monthly impressions on the platform.

Some of Crest’s top brands are Crest Gum Restore Toothpaste, Crest 3D White, and Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste. Three of the top ten creatives were hosted on Twitter and promoted one of their top three brands, the toothpaste that could help heal gums in seven days.

4. Febreze’s Video Ads Advertises Fresh Air Anywhere, Anytime

Febreze has 487 unique creatives in 2021 so far, garnering 2.3 million impressions. Febreze only advertises on three digital platforms: Instagram, Desktop Video, and Mobile video and notably omits other social media channels like Twitter and Facebook.

Since consumers have gotten back on the road this year, Febreze’s digital ads primarily focused on their car vent clips and tailored the messaging by the season. One car vent clip video ad that was first seen on January 4, 2021, highlighted having fresh scents even with windows up during the winter season. Another car vent clip video ad that was first seen on April 5, 2021, promoted fresh scents in the car during the warmer seasons.

3. Pampers Goes All-In on Desktop Video

Pampers is No. 3 on P&G’s list of top brands in 2021 so far. While Crest and Febreze’s main digital advertising platforms were Facebook and Instagram, Pampers spent more than 50% of its monthly advertising on Desktop Video at $14.3 million. YouTube has been one of the top sites for Pampers so far this year and garnered more than 758 million impressions.

According to The New York Times, diapers have been the latest pandemic shortage. A few months before the media began covering the diaper shortage and the increase in diaper prices, Pampers’ monthly spend on Desktop Video plummeted in July of 2021 from $2.9 million to $268 thousand.

 Pampers stuck to the recipe of traditional lighthearted 15 to 30-second video ads, but one of the top ten creatives was a 1-minute Pampers tear-jerker film called “When A Child Loves You”.

2. Old Spice Advertises Over 20 Brands

Old Spice has been promoting its Shea Butter Body Wash and a line of deodorant products in its digital advertising this year. Spending more than 50% more on advertising than Pampers, Old Spice has over 1,800 unique creatives so far in 2021. The grooming product company has allocated a majority of its budget to Instagram ($25.2 million) and Desktop Video ($14.2 million), with Instagram being its top site for advertising.

 Looking at Old Spice’s top ten brands, each product is advertised on at least three or four different platforms. The line of deodorant products such as the Old Spide Dynasty Collection, Old Spice Captain, and Old Spice Sweat Defense are among the top deodorants. A few of the body wash and lotion products also made it to the top ten brands, with the Shea Butter Body Wash ranking No. 2 in overall spending at about $4.7 million.

1. Olay Focuses on Desktop Video

The skincare brand, Olay, takes the No. 1 spot on P&G’s Top Five, with an estimated spend of $55 million. While the other top P&G brands focused on Instagram, Desktop Video, and Twitter advertising, Olay spent 72% of its total digital ad budget on Facebook. Interestingly, nearly all of this spend occurred in Q1 of this year. Since then, Desktop Video has emerged as the top channel for the skincare brand, but overall spend has decreased dramatically and has not picked up since March of 2021.

In terms of creatives, the brand does well at capturing the skincare needs of the moment,  speaking to consumers about Zoom calls and online classes when promoting its sculpting cream which was first seen on March 17, 2021, and even calls out “Virtual Learning Essentials” at the bottom of the Facebook ad. 

Overall, P&G’s digital advertising strategy didn’t leave any platform behind. Instead, P&G was able to place their eggs in multiple baskets, finding different ways to advertise each of their products and thus garnering massive impressions on every platform. If you’re looking for more insights into P&G’s top brands and digital ad strategies, we’ll get you set up with a demo!