FMCGs are urged online to exploit consumer interest

Media Week

14/04/2008

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 TVadvertising.

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."