Parents Media Update Opps: J.M Smucker plans to increase spend in fiscal Q4 (Score 34)

Update: J.M. Smucker (JMS) announced it has improved sales and market share by adjusting its marketing investments to follow consumer behavior, per its recent earnings report. The company plans to increase marketing spend in its 2021 fiscal Q4, which started February 1st. It will focus on mass media, targeted digital ads and click and collect programs. Execs did not specifically disclose how much more it will spend on advertising, but it did not SG&A expenses are expected to rise by between 3% and 4%, mainly due to marketing spend. 

Please refer to the articles below for targeting and spend information

Agency & martech readers-- We have not seen any more appointments since the AOR hire we told you about earlier this year. Keep reaching out to see if you can win any of this company's business. It works with Digitas on creative, Moxie on digital, Zenith on media buying with PSOne serving as omnichannel marketing AOR.. 

The last update was published on January 27th:

Update: J.M. Smucker (JMS) announced Publicis Groupe's PSOne as its omnichannel marketing AOR. The agency will handle omnichannel creative strategy, content and media buying, planning and strategy. This expands PSOne's creative and media planning AOR duties that it picked up in 2018. The agency evidently has pleased JMS enough with its creative and media work to earn additional responsibilities. 

Please view our updated digital display, national TV and podcast ad spend chart for JMS's brands here. All data is courtesy of Pathmatics, iSpot and Magellan. Please refer to the article below for additional spend and targeting information. 

Agency & martech readers-- As you know, agency reviews commonly follow one another, so start reaching out in order to be top-of-mind. We believe you will face competition from Digitas (creative assistance), Moxie (digital assistance) and Zenith (media buying assistance). 

The article below was originally published on December 8th, 2020: 

We told you about J.M. Smucker (JMS) cutting ad spend earlier this year. It recently announced it is ramping spend back up, with a focus on improving digital consumer engagement as its eCommerce business has been flourishing amid the coronavirus pandemic. eCommerce sales grew by 45% compared to 2019, now making up 11% of total sales. The company's plans to increase spend come after it increased net sales by $76.2m (4%) in fiscal 2021 Q2 (ended October 2020), per its recent earnings transcript. 

In other news, JMS hired assistant brand managers Rachel Taylor (November 2020) and Jonathan Shepherd (October 2020). Taylor comes from The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, were she held the same role, and Shepherd most recently served as international brand and category manager of GNC. It also hired marketing analyst Kimberly Stima from HMT Associates, where she served as senior account executive. These hires reinforce the company's recent plans to increase marketing spend. 

Please view our digital display, national TV and podcast ad spend chart here. All data is courtesy of Pathmatics, iSpot and Magellan. JMS also spends on other brands, but these are its top ones. 

Sellers-- JMS primarily targets Gen-X and millennial parents through national TV and digital display ads. It increased spend in both channels this year for the majority of its brands compared to the same time period of 2019. It also invests in print, OOH and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Sellers should reach out soon offering relevant ad space to capture some of these extra marketing dollars. 

Agency & martech readers-- JMS currently works with Publicis North America (creative and media planning AOR), Digitas (creative assistance), Moxie (digital assistance) and Zenith (media buying and planning assistance). There are no signs of an upcoming review; I recommend looking for work elsewhere for the time being. We will be sure to update you if anything changes.