• by Masha Geller , May 27, 2002

If you think, based on all the research we’ve seen so far, that women were interested in making travel plans for the long weekend two weeks in advance, you’re very much mistaken. They were busy surfing the web for something much more important – the M&M Global Color Vote.

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that the official M&M Mars website skyrocketed 145% in traffic during the week ending May 19, as surfers logged on the site to participate in the Global Color Vote for the newest M&M candy color. MMS.com attracted 336,000 unique surfers at-home that week as compared to 137,000 visitors the week prior.

Purple took the top spot as the most popular color choice, as the voting page for purple captured 30% of the total visitors to the site. Nineteen percent of the site's audience logged on to the aqua color voting page, while the pink voting page drew 9% of surfers. The M&M site attracted a predominantly female audience with a 67/33 gender split.

During the same time period, Mars, Inc. Snackfoods ran an online advertising campaign alerting Web surfers to the debut of a new candy color, asking surfers to vote for their favorite color. Online advertising impressions by Mars, Inc. Snackfoods for M&M's surged 170% to 25.5 million during the week ending May 19, as compared to 9.4 million the week prior, NetRatings reported.

"The recent online ad campaign by M&Ms is a great case study in how Web advertising can leverage a strong brand, drive site traffic and enhance brand loyalty all in one fell swoop," said Charles Buchwalter, vice president of media research at NetRatings. "M&M Mars scores twice by including the consuming public on the choice for a new color and also in receiving a significant boost in brand exposure."