CPG brand sites attracted a total of 66.4 million US visitors in the third quarter of 2007 – up 10% compared with the year-earlier period – and all of the top 10 positions were taken by food or beverage brands, according to a comScore study of CPG brand sites.
On average, each visitor made 3.9 visits to sites within the CPG category, viewing 10.5 pages per visit and spending an average of 9 minutes per site visit, according to the study.
KraftFoods.com led the category with 10.5 million visitors in Q3 (up 8% versus last year), followed by MyCokeRewards.com with 8.6 million visitors (up from only 66,000 visitors a year ago), and Millsberry.com, an interactive kids site from General Mills, with 5 million visitors (up 11%).
Several other players have also gained traction in the category during the past year. Several candy sites have attracted substantial numbers of visitors, including Wrigley’s Candystand.com (up 1% to nearly 3.8 million visitors), MyMMs.com (up 79% to 2.3 million visitors), and Hersheys.com (up 12% to 2.1 million visitors).
UncleBens.com, which increased from 191,000 visitors a year ago to 3.6 million visitors this year, relied on targeted banner ads on Oprah.com and FoodNetwork.com that resulted in nearly 2 million visits to UncleBens.com.
Pampers.com, which ranked as the 12th most-visited site in the CPG category, attracted 1.7 million visitors with its interactive site focused on baby development and parenting advice.
“To date, most CPG marketers have been reluctant to move a significant portion of their marketing budgets online because the internet is not a primary sales channel for their products,” said Carolina Petrini, SVP of consumer packaged goods solutions at comScore. “However, many brands have found success by attracting a wide audience online through effective promotions and site activities that appeal to consumers’ lifestyles.”
“Savvy brand marketers are beginning to understand the importance of the online channel as a means of engaging consumers, which will ultimately lead to offline sales,” she concluded.
