Commentary

FMCG + Digital + Buy Button = A Whole New Ball Game

The latest news from Nescafe fits in with a seismic shift that digital was always set to deliver. It wasn't news about how well its latest coffee tins and bottles were selling in a supermarket, but rather an indication that going direct to market, via Tumblr, is working out very well for the brand.

It has 45 Tumblr sites with an additional 20 planned before the year is ended. So far the sites have provided an additional $200,000 worth of sales, but that is with only ten sites having a "buy" button. Before the year is out, 16 more will have the facility. In terms of metrics, monthly visits are up nearly a third (29%) so far this year and people are staying 18% longer. Is it me, or is Nescafe talking like a publisher -- or more to the point, like an online retailer? It sounds like it is, because, well, that is what it's becoming.

It's not alone. Mondelez has probably been the most outspoken of the FMCG giants about its desire to drive direct sales. It's nine months into an ecommerce strategy that it predicts will see it sell a billion dollars worth of goods online each year by 2020. P&G has announced that it is getting past complicated third-party arrangements in China by selling direct online and Unilever set itself the task of increasing ecommerce sales by 40% during 2015. I have yet to see a report on how that has gone, but the point is very clear. The FMCG giants are all aiming to sell to customers direct. 

For digital marketing this has to represent a bonanza. FMCGs were always reticent to get involved in the early days of digital because a shopper's relationship with them was entirely routed through their supermarket of choice. However, slowly the FMCGs have moved on from awareness generating in digital display to throwing budget at social. Now, however, that display and social spend is being mixed in with content strategies that aim to not just make consumers like and remember them, but to click a "buy" button right there and then.

As Nescafe is showing, that means moving away from the misconception that consumers are going to seek out a home page to a more diverse strategy where their content is made highly discoverable on generic platforms, such as Tumblr. A native advertising explosion is surely in the wings here, and so too is a rolling out of more social media advertising with that all-important "buy" button replacing the intended result of raising awareness and share of voice.

This is not the best news for supermarkets, but for digital marketers, it's very exciting. A chance for FMCGs to show their full range unlimited by the politics, and payments, that go in to deciding who gets which shelf space in stores. Going direct will seriously take power away from supermarkets and put it back in the hands of brand managers. They will, in turn, be increasingly looking to deploy ecommerce strategies through digital marketers that go way beyond the spray-and-pray approach of display. For content and social marketers, this is a most welcome transition. For supermarkets, not so much.

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