Digital CPG Blog

PricewaterhouseCoopers released a study in June predicting that digital ad spending in the U.S. will top print spending for the first time this year.

But “CPG companies on average spend six percent of their marketing budgets on online media, half of what other companies in other industries are spending,” Douglas Brooks reports.  “Clearly, there is an enormous untapped opportunity for the CPG marketer who gets it right. And that means having a clear, holistic view of your digital marketing spend across your entire organization.”

Brooks urges that marketers start with the following basic questions to get it right:

• Over the short term, what are the goals of the digital campaign and how do they tie with those of the broader advertising and marketing program?
• Over the longer term, how does this campaign contribute to brand goals such as share of shelf, sales and market share uplift?
• What specific consumer actions does the company want to drive—do you want them to visit a Web site, print a coupon, buy online, go to the store?
• How will the team track information disseminated and measure the success of the campaign, both in terms of direct consumer response as well as the effect on offline activity

Brooks later suggests that what’s great about digital is that it allows for – and requires constant experimentation and refinement. Indeed, the area is still so new it is ripe for innovation, particularly by the CPG industry, where consumers are pleading for products and conversations that respond to their modern lifestyles.