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Procter & Gamble Encourages Industry Stakeholders to Accelerate Transition to Digital Advertising Future
CINCINNATI, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Against a backdrop of dramatically increased online media spending and experimentation with new interactive ad units, P&G executive Denis Beausejour encouraged attendees at the @d:tech conference in Chicago to "step out of the box" and realize the full potential of interactive advertising. He also called for an advertising "stakeholders" summit to understand and accelerate the transition to the digital advertising future.
In a keynote address entitled "Branding and Bonding Beyond the Banner," Beausejour, P&G vice president - advertising, acknowledged "the web has the potential to be a dramatically more effective way for us to communicate with the people who buy and use our products.
"It has a unique appeal to us. No other consumer goods company touches the average family in as many ways, with as many trusted brands, as we do," Beausejour said. "Any medium that can help us deepen our bonds with those families is, by definition, of tremendous interest to us."
Yet, the web still has significant barriers prohibiting it from fulfilling its full potential. In addition to technical constraints and measurements, Beausejour said the biggest barrier to fully realizing the promise of the web is the fact that the industry has "built a box" around thinking about interactive advertising.
"We've settled on ad models like banners and buttons before the interactive show even begins. We've limited our trajectory at a time when ad space can evolve in unlimited ways. We haven't even begun to explore the possibilities out there."
STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE
P&G, the world's largest advertiser, recently stepped up its investment in interactive media, spending three million dollars this quarter, a dramatic increase over the previous quarter. This represents one of the largest interactive advertising investments to date by a consumer products company.
"But even more significant than the spending level is what we're spending on," Beausejour stated. "Eighty percent of the ads we're placing on the web this quarter are units that reach beyond the traditional banner." These new units include daughter windows, sideframes, push-advertisements, and interstitials. New technologies being utilized as part of these units and P&G's standard banner units include animated gifs, Enliven, Java, JavaScript, and Unicast.
During the speech, Beausejour demonstrated a number of new ad campaigns, including a popular unit by the Scope brand allowing consumers to send a "Scope e-mail kiss" to mom for Mothers Day. Early results from the latest campaign indicate that kisses are flying all over the web! The Scope ad can be found at www.pg.com/scope.
Concurrent with the increase in spending, the company has doubled the number of brands using interactive advertising from 5 to 10, and has significantly increased the number of content partners in which the advertising is placed.
TAKING THE NEXT BIG STEP
Despite this stepped up activity, Beausejour noted that P&G is spending a very limited amount compared to its overall advertising budget. So, why is P&G not a bigger player? "The advertising opportunities we currently have on the web are really pretty limited," Beausejour said.
Looking ahead, he stated, "If we can truly leverage the unique capabilities of interactive marketing, it will dwarf the power of traditional media to build relationships with our consumers. And if that happens, of course, those of you who are architects of this exciting new space will reap enormous rewards."
To accelerate the development of digital media to the next mass medium, Beausejour announced P&G will host an interactive advertising forum of large advertisers and key content and technology players "to figure out what it will take to transform the web into the space it can be."
Companies already signed on to participate include Coca-Cola, AT&T, Levi- Strauss and McDonalds. The summit, entitled FAST-Forum (Future of Advertising Stakeholders Forum), will take place in Cincinnati in late summer 1998.
FOCUS ON CONSUMERS
Beausejour closed his speech by underscoring the need for advertisers to be "passionate" about meeting consumer needs in this digital medium.
"And, even more important, we have an obligation to provide the vision and leadership required to make the web not just a tool for marketers...but an unparalleled resource for consumers."
Procter & Gamble markets more than 300 brands to nearly five billion consumers in more than 140 countries. This includes Tide, Ariel, Crest, Pantene, Always, Whisper, Pringles, Pampers, Oil of Olay and Vicks. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, P&G has on-the-ground operations in more than 70 countries and employs more than 106,000 people worldwide.
A full text of Beausejour's talk can be found at www.pg.com.
P&G INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING
FACT SHEET
MEDIA SPENDING FOR AMJ '98 $3.0 Million for April-May-June Quarter
(AMJ '98)
TOTAL PARTICIPATING BRANDS Bounty, Pampers, Always, Crest, Scope,
Olean, Tide, SunnyDelight, Pringles,
Cover Girl
AD UNITS IMPLEMENTED Over 80% of the media spending in the AMJ
98 Quarter will be dedicated to "Enhanced"
ad units, including:
* Daughter Window and Banner: A window
that pops up as user for a short period of
time and then defaults to a banner
* Sideframes: Dedicated ad space that is
held constant on the left side of screen,
often featuring consumer "solutions."
* Daughter Window and Sideframe: A window
that pops up and defaults to a sideframe.
* Enlarged Pop-Up Box: A time-phased ad
unit that consumed about a quarter of the
user screen.
* Interstitials: A full screen
advertisement that appears between page
loads.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES UTILIZED The following technologies are being
utilized in P&G's enhanced units as well as
standard banner units.
* Animated gifs
* HTML
* Enliven
* Unicast
* Java
* Java Script
BROADBAND INVOLVEMENT * The Cover Girl brand begins advertising
the @home network beginning in May '98.
SITE COVERAGE * P&G has dramatically increased the number
of sites on which brands are advertised.
These include InfoSeek, AltaVista, Sony,
CNN, USA Today, MTV, and Womens Wire,
HomeArts, BabyCenter, Phys, ParentTime,
Tripod, and Yahoo.
* Nature of content includes mass reach
(e.g. search engines/portals), health,
news, parenting, teen, entertainment chat,
community, and e-mail.
FEATURED AD CAMPAIGN Scope Send-A-Kiss Mothers Day Campaign
* Scope is running its third "Send an e-mail
Kiss" campaign, this one allowing users to
send mom an e-mail "kiss."
* In the first week of the Mothers Day
campaign, the ad unit generated a
TrueCount verified 16% interaction rate
(e.g. click, or click-within).
* Of those who interacted with the unit, 20%
sent a Scope e-mail kiss to mom.
* The Scope Mothers Day "Send a Kiss" unit
can be previewed at www.pg.com/scope
SOURCE Procter & Gamble
CO: Procter & Gamble
ST: Ohio
IN: MLM ADV
SU:
05/07/98 12:35 EDT prnewswire.com
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