Digital CPG Blog

For many industries, online advertising has been a game changer.  Online search and display advertising has brought a level of accountability and measurability that marketers of past eras could only dream about, making John Wanamaker’s famous advertising saying almost obsolete (“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”). 

If I sell digital cameras online, for example, I can hop onto the Google search platform and pay only when an interested person clicks on my ad.  And better still, I can set a precise return on those search dollars by tracking not only who clicks, but who ends up actually buying because my sale is online.  This can turn much of my advertising work into a math exercise.   

But what about the Consumer Packaged Goods category?  Although CPG is by category one of the largest advertisers in the world, to date, they haven’t really been able to connect the dots between online advertising and consumer sales.  Why?  Because there hasn’t been a measurable direct response platform for CPG online.  As a CPG brand, I can spend like crazy on online ads, but I’m left guessing whether the advertising actually worked in driving more sales (let alone whom it might have worked on). 

CPG shouldn’t be left guessing when it comes to online advertising ROI.  And apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so.  News today from Kantar-owned firms Compete Inc. and Cannondale associates that they are combining online consumer data and offline loyalty card data to actually tie online advertising exposure to a subsequent purchase in the grocery store aisle (post here).  What a great idea.  Here’s a quote from the news that should get your juices flowing  if you are in digital CPG:

‘It’s really finally connecting the dots, getting down to actual in-store purchase volumes, amounts spent, loyalty switching, etc.,’ Pace said. ‘Not only can we see how exposure to advertising campaigns last month had an impact…but we can compare that to the consumer’s previous purchase levels of that product.’

It is great to see digital CPG advertising take a step in this direction.  We are working on the same goal of accountable online advertising at Alice.com, but instead of tying offline purchase data, we provide the CPG brands with an actual direct response platform online.  Consumer sees the ad/coupon/free sample and responds with a purchase at Alice.com, giving the brand a direct view into ROI for that ad unit.  It is one of many efforts percolating to bring better accountability to online advertising for CPG.  We think these efforts are long overdue.

Let us know if you disagree or think there are better ways to make online advertising work for CPG.