During the third quarter of 2007, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand sites brought in a total of 66 million U.S. visitors, an increase of 10 percent over the same period last year, according to comScore.
All of the top ten positions were held by food or beverage brands. The average 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.
KraftFoods.com was the leader in the category with 10.5 million visitors (up 8 percent over last year), followed my MyCokeRewards.com with 8.6 million visitors (up from just 66,000 visitors a year ago), and Millsberry.com, a kids site from General Mills, with 5 million visitors (up 11 percent).
A number of other brand sites did well in the category during the past year. Candy sites attracted a significant number of visitors, including Wrigley’s candystand.com (up 1 percent to about 3.8 million visitors), MyMMs.com (up 79 percent to 2.3 million visitors), and Hersheys.com (up 12 percent to 2.1 million visitors).
UncleBens.com increased from just 191,000 visitors a year ago to 3.6 million visitors this year, using targeted banner ads on Oprah.com and FoodNetwork.com that attracted close to 2 million visits to the site. Pampers.com ranked as the 12th most visited site in the CPG category, drew 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, senior vice president 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.”
