Both American Express Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their advertising expenditures earlier this year, a sign overall ad spending has begun to rise.
In January and February, AmEx’s ad spending was up 17.9% from a year earlier, while Chase’s rose by 48.7%, according to Kantar Media Intelligence.
“What’s interesting to me is the product mix,” Jon Swallen, Kantar Media senior vice president of research, tells PaymentsSource, noting that for AmEx the mix of ad spend between personal and business cards was almost reversed from the previous year
In the first two months of 2010, AmEx spent 24% of its ad spending on business cards and about 60% on personal cards. This year, AmEx spent 66% on business cards and only 25% on personal cards.
AmEx has been focusing on its small-business ad spend, particularly for the Open program, which supports small businesses, Swallen says. “It’s a very optimistic campaign and tied to ‘booming’ businesses,” he says. “One aspect is the connection with the Baby Boomers who own the businesses, and another is the concept of business growth.” AmEx declined to comment for this story.
For Chase, the switch in emphasis was the opposite AmEx’s, as its Ink small-business card ad campaign did not get nearly the level of advertising support as it did two years ago, garnering only $4 million out of $46 million the issuer spent on credit card ads, Swallen said.
Instead, most of the ad spend during the first two months of the year was for Chase personal cards, particularly the Freedom cash-back rewards card and several cobranded cards, including Chase’s Disney, United Airlines and Continental Airlines cobranded credit cards, Swallen says. Chase declined to comment on its ad spend.
Although most companies are focusing more on promoting just one product, such as Capital One with its Venture card, Chase and AmEx both are bucking that trend, focusing instead on several cards.
“AmEx and Chase far and away are advertising the most diverse portfolio of credit card products,” says Swallen. “Everybody else is doing advertising around one card.”
AmEx and Chase are casting a much broader targeted net, Swallen says. “That strategy requires more money, and [those two issuers] are spending more to do it,” he says.
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