July 2001
The CPG Digital Marketing Gap

by Jim Nail with Chris Charron, Greg Flemming, and Kimberly Chaskey

Consumers have integrated the Web into their household routines. But CPG marketers haven't kept up. The time has come for grocery products to close the gap by taking advantage of new ways to touch consumers.

EXCERPTS:

• ANALYSIS
  Content syndication boosts distribution and relevance. Aside from working with the top-traffic women's and family sites, marketers should work with Studio One Networks to create and syndicate quality sponsored content that matches consumers' usage motivations. Identifying a correlation between barbecuing and paper towel purchases, Studio One created the "Real Families, Real Fun" sponsorship for Bounty and syndicated it to 26 sites, including the CompuServe Interactive Services parenting channel and BabiesRUs.com.
  
  
• GRAPEVINE
  Marketers should gift-wrap their messages. An online sponsorship can be anything from a guaranteed banner position to exclusive cobranded content like Clorox's "Generations & Innovations" on Women.com. Where on this spectrum should marketers aim? Andrew Susman, CEO of sponsporship syndicator Studio One Networks, provided this test: "To be a true sponsorship, the consumer must feel that the content is a gift. The gratitute they feel for getting valuable information translates into higher purchase intent for the sponsor." We agree. The time-worn hard-sell ad approach doesn't work when consumers have control.