CPG Bites into Online Marketing

MAY 1, 2007

You've played the game. Now eat the food.

Nearly half of consumer goods companies plan to increase their interactive marketing budgets by 25% or more over the next two years, according to Coogan & Partners and SoftCoin's "Interactive Marketing Landscape Survey."

CPG firms have been increasing their online ads in particular, and eMarketer estimates that almost half of CPG category spending on Internet advertising in 2007 will come from food and beverage companies.

Internet advertising was the only medium to see a significant increase in food and beverage ad spending last year, according to eMarketer calculations of TNS data (and TNS does not include search in its calculations).

eMarketer senior analyst Lisa E. Phillips says that the Coogan/Softcoin study points to the scale of the CPG industry's interactive marketing.

"Like advertisers in other industries," said Ms. Phillips, "CPG companies spend far more on interactive marketing campaigns, such as microsites, advergames and downloadable music, than on Internet advertising such as display ads, search and e-mail. This year, CPG companies will spend $600 million to advertise online, just 3.1% of the total $19.5 billion expected."

As for interactive campaigns, food and beverage marketers have been actively using advergames to establish their brands.

eMarketer expects US spending on advergaming will hit $344 million in 2011.

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s advergaming site is one sign of a CPG marketer's success with this type of campaign.

The firm's candystand.com draws between 4 million and 5 million unique visitors per month to play Wrigley-branded games such as Orbit Video Poker. Earlier this year, the company launched a microsite, wii.candystand.com, which can be accessed through Nintendo's Wii Internet channel, even though it is not licensed or authorized by Nintendo.

Learn about emerging opportunities for CPG marketers. Read eMarketer's CPG Online: Food and Beverages Party On report.