• by Ken Liebeskind , February 6, 2002

According to the results of a joint study released today by the Advertising Research Foundation, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and MSN, increasing online advertising's share in the media mix significantly increases the branding effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

For the study, Unilever's Dove Nutrium devoted 2% of its advertising budget to the Internet, specifically MSN.com, with the rest going to television and print, and according to the results, the campaign would have been more effective had Unilever put more money online.

"The optimal mix is 15% of the budget online," according to Greg Stuart, CEO of the IAB. "The campaign lifted brand metrics 19%, but if they had put 15% of the budget online, they would have gotten a lift of 24%," he said. "It would have lifted purchasing intent, brand image and unaided awareness."

The study was conducted by Marketing Evolution and Dynamic Logic, who tracked the number of online and offline impressions of the campaign. "They looked at exposures," Stuart said, adding that "if TV gets an 85% reach and print gets 50, what would happen if we lower the budget spend in TV and print. Impression levels would go down a little, but when you put more online, the reach goes up dramatically, frequency goes up and online is more efficient so you end up with better results."

There have been many Internet branding studies conducted in the past, but this is the first to be based on a recent advertising campaign. "It's the first real world marketing mix study and Dove is willing to talk about it publicly," Stuart says.

The IAB hopes the study will induce companies to increase their online ad budgets. "Interactive needs to be considered in the planning process," Stuart said. "Now they throw a bone to online and send it wherever. It needs to be higher up in the strategic decision process. This gives marketers justification for higher spending. Studies have proven that online works, but we didn't know how it works relative to other media opportunities."

One problem with this study is that it only pertains to one product and one website (Dove/MSN). "We'll be working with more publishers and marketers. We have AOL, NYTimes, iVillage and more and we're getting marketers signed on," Stuart said, although he wouldn't name the marketers. "By next fall we'll have more data."