Goodman Fielder has handed trade marketing investment to Initiative Australia following a structural overhaul 18 months in the making. The move marks the FMCG giant as an early outlier as industry re-engineers for retailer media. CMO Christine Fung thinks it may be the shape of things to come – and says combining above and below-the-line spend represent a major growth opportunity for both brands and agencies that can cut new turf.
Trade and marketing budgets have historically been siloed – with sales handling the former and leveraging spend in negotiations with retailers for shelf space.
The challenge is making those investments work together to drive both awareness and sales while ensuring cohesive comms. Fung said that is about to change for Goodman Fielder.
Initiative will now oversee trade dollars invested with the likes of Coles, Woolworths-owned Cartology, and ultimately IGA owner Metcash, as well as traditional media investments across the broader market. That shift puts both Goodman Fielder and Mediabrands-owned Initiative into a niche club: circa 95 per cent of Australia’s retailer media investment is handled by brands directly rather than via agencies.
Neither brand nor agency would be drawn on the quantum of trade investment, but sources suggest it could equal media spend and depending on category, surpass it. Goodman Fielder’s main media spend was reported to be circa $12m annually when Initiative Australia won the business in 2020.
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