Is Big Tobacco Back as a Big Advertiser?
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Tobacco advertising, once nearly a $1 billion ad category, may seem as much a relic as Peggy Olson’s typewriter. But with the three largest U.S. tobacco companies entering the electronic-cigarette market, Big Tobacco is poised to once again become a significant spender.
The e-cigarette industry is projected to roughly double in size this year to an approximately $1 billion market in 2013 from a $500 million market in 2012, and to grow at a 50% compound annual rate over the next few years, according to a Citibank report. “It’s an exciting time to be in U.S. tobacco,” said Citibank analyst Vivien Azer.
R.J. Reynolds, the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S., last week held its first press conference in two decades to launch Vuse, its “digital vapor cigarette.” Marketed by its R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., Vuse will next month begin marketing in Colorado — the first state in an eventual rollout — with print, TV and direct mail marketing from CHI, London.
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