• by OMMA Magazine Writers , October 1, 2007

Michele Hughes, Director of Interactive Marketing Solutions, Procter & Gamble

Michele Hughes is responsible for providing digital marketing services and solutions to Procter & Gamble's brand-building teams.

A 16-year veteran of P&G, Hughes began her career there in the IT department of the UK organization. She has worked as an IT and business solutions professional across all parts of the business including sales, marketing, manufacturing and finance. During the last decade, Hughes has served in locations worldwide, spanning the United States, Switzerland and Thailand.

Before being promoted to her current position this year, Hughes was IT & business services leader for P&G's UK/Ireland business, working directly for the UK general manager. A graduate of University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, she earned her Master's in engineering prior to joining P&G in 1991. She currently resides in Cincinnati with her husband David and their daughter Iona.

How does the Internet fit into P&G's overall marketing strategy? Are you growing your online ad budget (pegged at $53.8 million in 2006 by TNS Media Intelligence)?

>All digital media and marketing are very much integrated into the whole brand-building framework. We have a holistic planning process in which we think about how to send the right message using the right channel to reach the right consumer segment.

For example, we know that in the Philippines or Asian markets, Internet penetration is still fairly low, whereas mobile phones are at about 80 percent. So we'll use the mobile channel there to reach consumers with the right message.

In digital marketing, we're seeing significant growth and it continues to grow significantly year on year. We've had some campaigns which involve no TV, just digital media. Our approach is grounded in understanding the consumer very well and understanding when and where consumers are most receptive to brand messages. 

Are some P&G brands better suited to online than others?

If so, which ones?

>Some, like our beauty brands, lend themselves more to interactive media where consumers are looking for deeper relationships with the brands. That allows us to get into much deeper marketing campaigns.

We have multi-brand programs such as HomemadeSimple.com, HealthExpressions.com and BeingGirl.com, which focuses on teen girls and is tied to our feminine-care products. We get 300 to 500 questions a day on the site in North America and visitors spend on average 16 minutes per session, so it's very much a destination site for that group.

P&G CEO A.G. Lafley last year said marketers have to learn to "let go" a little more to get in touch with consumers. How is the company "letting go" online?

>We're really experimenting with a lot of different digital media, not just online. We've been learning about Second Life through a campaign for Wella Shockwaves (the youth hairstyling brand) that invited people to join a water balloon fight in Second Life to compete for virtual prize money. And as part of an overall campaign for Crest Whitening with Scope toothpaste, we had a mobile promotion that featured an "Irresistibility IQ" quiz.

We also experimented in MySpace by creating a profile page for an imaginary "Miss Irresistible," with incentives for members to add her as a "friend." 

What's the biggest drawback of digital marketing?

>There's a lot of work to be done in terms of measurement; I would love to be able to get total unduplicated reach and segmentation to find the right mix of the media options. But getting that data is not easy and it's something industrywide we're collaborating on and trying to improve.

What do you think of Nielsen//NetRatings making time spent on a site its key metric?

>Time spent is a good measure. We use it on BeingGirl rather than just page views and it's something we do value and take into account because it helps show how relevant content is and how much it engages the consumer.