FMCGs are urged online to exploit consumer interest

by Ann-Marie Corvin, Media Week 15-Apr-08

Exposure to online advertising can significantly increase consumers' desire for fast-moving consumer goods by as much as 18%, according to research by PHD and Yahoo.

The research, based on an integrated online video and TV campaign for
McCain Home Fries, revealed that consumer exposure to both TV and online
campaigns led to an 18% increase in purchase intent and a 12% rise in

brand favourability compared to consumers who were only exposed to TV

advertising.

Among other results from the PHD and Yahoo research, which ran for three
months last autumn across a selection of terrestrial and satellite TV
channels and Yahoo's UK music portal, online advertising led to a 16%
lift in consumers' opinions of the McCain product compared with
pre-campaign levels.

Those who were exposed to the online McCain campaign as well as the TV
execution, were 8% more likely to have a "very favourable" opinion of
the product than consumers who had just seen the TV ad.

FMCG brands have been traditionally slow to embrace online advertising.
But recent statistics suggest the tide is turning, with 2007 online ad
spend figures, published last week by the IAB, revealing a 1% rise in
total ad spend from FMCGs last year.

Warren Burke, Yahoo pan-European commercial director, said: "These
findings highlight how positively online video advertising can impact on
a brand's marketing objectives - particularly in key metrics such as
purchasing intent and brand favourability."

Andrew Marsden, a former marketing director at Britvic for 10 years,
said: "If you are on the web, you have to come out of the page you are
on to watch the ad, whereas in TV, viewers are more likely to accept the
ad break. Ads for FMCG on the internet need more of a promotional
benefit - you don't have the limitations of time, so there is the
potential to make it much more rewarding."

To this end, digital marketing agencies have been examining more
creative methods of involving FMCG companies in online advertising, with
I-Level - whose clients include Proctor & Gamble and Becks - launching
social media initiative Jam last month.

"We've seen a lot more reviews coming up from the FMCG sector in the
first months of this year - so 2008's ad spend figures among this sector
should definitely show a marked increase," said I-Level managing
director Mark Creighton.