• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Monday, January 8, 2007 11:45 AM

Marketing titan Procter & Gamble is leading the charge into social networking in a big way with two new Web sites targeted primarily to women and developed as online communities where it can do some market research. The move by the world's largest advertiser, likely means more marketers will follow suit.

Capessa was produced by P&G for Yahoo's Health section and went up Dec. 21. Videos there include "How I Lost My Baby Weight--Julie's Story" and "Mommy Meltdown--Leiah's Story." The content-development partnership with Yahoo is the biggest social-networking deal Yahoo has done with a marketer.

The People's Choice Community site kicks off Wednesday, a day after CBS airs this year's People's Choice Awards, produced by P&G and in a ratings slump.

The sites will have a slicker look than well-established social-networking sites, reflecting the older audience of 18- to 49-year-olds that P&G is aiming for, compared with the teenagers and 20somethings that crowd MySpace. As a result, on Capessa, instead of encouraging women to post homemade videos, P&G will offer them the chance to be interviewed by P&G's production firm.

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