• by Masha Geller , July 11, 2003

In keeping with my summer tendency to send readers off into their weekends with good news, here's a report from Nielsen//NetRatings that should brighten things up a bit.

The researchers today said that consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) have officially evolved from being 'old-economy' and 'slow to embrace the Web' to leading some of the more innovative websites and ad campaigns among traditional companies. According to the report, in the last year, ad impressions by food and beverage CPGs have jumped 91%. Also, the top 10 food and beverage CPG sites reached 8.8 million unique visitors or 7% of the active Internet population during May 2003.

Through online advertising and the creation of interactive websites to promote product lines, the Web provides CPG companies with another channel to reach a qualified target audience.

"With home broadband penetration at 36%, CPG companies now have greater potential for utilizing rich media advertising to increase their branding efforts and Web presence, in addition to providing consumers with useful content," said Dawn Brozek, Internet analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings.

NetRatings says that Kraft Foods has been especially adept at utilizing the Web to brand their products. Among the top ten food and beverage sites in May 2003, five are owned by Kraft Foods. Content such as recipes and games serve to promote company products and in the case of interactive games, cleverly brand various product lines. With CPGs looking to expand sales to Hispanics, Kraft Foods has also launched comidakraft.com for the Hispanic market

As you may remember, one of the most successful examples of using the Web as the centerpiece of a promotion was the 2002 M&Ms Global Color Vote. During the final month of voting, traffic to MMs.com skyrocketed 563% from January 2002, prior to the campaign. On the day the new color was revealed more than half a million unique visitors flocked to the site, compared to their weekly average of 31,000.