May 2023 APAC advertiser of the month: Vegemite

Vegemite has registered the biggest increase in advertising awareness in Australia for the month of May 2023, of all the brands we track in the market. Data from YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks consumer perceptions toward brands on a daily basis worldwide, shows that Ad Awareness of the food spread saw an uplift of 6.1 percentage points over the four-week period.

In May, supermarket chain Woolworths and the Royal Australian Mint announced the release of a limited edition range of $2 coins to celebrate 100 years of the savoury yeast product. These coins come in three designs and are enclosed in one of Vegemite’s three brand colours: yellow, red or black.

The first coin features a jar of Vegemite, with the words “100 Mitey Years” at the bottom. The second coin features a slice of Vegemite toast, with the words “Tastes like Australia”. The third coin features a child eating a slice of Vegemite on toast, with the words “Happy Little Vegemites”.

Three million Vegemite-themed coins are available across Australia for Woolworths customers to collect, when they pay in cash.   

According to data from YouGov BrandIndex, Vegemite’s Ad Awareness score rose from a low of 14.6 on 26 April to a high of 20.7 by 24 May. Ad Awareness is a BrandIndex metric that measures the percentage of people who have seen an advert from a particular brand in the previous two weeks.

Additionally, cold and flu medication brand Panadol recorded a six-point spike in Ad Awareness from 13.5 on 26 April to 19.5 by 22 May, while airline Virgin Australia saw its Ad Awareness climb 5.7 percentage points from 22.0 on 5 May to 27.7 by 22 May.

Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. A brand’s Ad Awareness score is based on the question: “Which of the following consumer brands have you seen an advertisement for in the past two weeks?” (% Yes). Data from surveys of adults aged 18 years and above residing in Australia from 26 April to 25 May 2023. Ad Awareness scores are based on a four-week moving average. The change in scores for each brand is calculated by taking the difference between the highest and lowest scoring days within the period. Learn more about BrandIndex.