15 OCAK 2002

Ambalajlı ürünler,internet'i niche marketing için kullanıyor.

by David Martin, Marc Ryan

Life can be tough when you're the new kid on the block. Finding a sense of belonging in a new environment can be a lengthy process, and advertisers are finding these facts of life don't change on the Internet. The myriad targeting opportunities on the web offer a daunting array of choices for marketers, who face a supply of millions of surfers with countless interests. Consumer packaged goods firms appear to be pondering this task as they increase their presence online and attempt to target consumers in the most effective way.

Compared to the third quarter of 2000, consumer packaged goods firms today are placing nearly twice as many ads online, as the overall consumer goods industry becomes the fifth largest on the 'Net. Portal websites have been the largest beneficiary of CPG spending over this time period, but during the first quarter portal share has dropped. During Q3 and Q4 of 2000, portals hosted 56 percent of all consumer packaged goods ads; in Q1 that number fell to 45 percent. While this means that portal sites are still hosting more CPG impressions due to increased spending, other website genres are hosting a larger share of those ads.

Percentage of Industry Impressions on Portals

Portal websites offer the attractive mix of an extensive and diverse user base with audience segmentation among subsites. An advertiser can reasonably canvass with a run-of-site branding campaign, and then drill down to specific sections of the portal to focus its target. While effective, that focused targeting sometimes pays off better on niche websites than on portals. Many niche sites that offer content such as sports news or that are geared towards women do a better job at attracting a very specific user demographic. In cases where consumer packaged goods companies seek a very specific target audience, many are turning to niche sites as the solution.

Top Genres Hosting Consumer Packaged Goods Advertising, Ranked by Q1 Share of Impressions Hosted
Q1 Rank	Genre	Share	Q3 Share
1	Portal	45%	56%
2	Sports & Recreation	14%	6%
3	Fashion Romance & Celebrity	7%	1%
4	Search Engine	5%	0%
5	Kids & Family	4%	4%
6	Personal Expression	4%	5%
7	Telecom & Internet Telephony	3%	8%
8	Games	2%	3%
9	Home & Garden	2%	1%
10	Movies & Television	2%	1%
11	Yellow & White Pages	2%	0%
12	Incentive	2%	0%
13	Automotive	1%	4%
14	Community	1%	3%
15	Music & Streaming Media	1%	4%

The result of this shift is a marked increase in niche site share over the third quarter of 2000, cutting into portal dominance. Sports and recreation sites more than doubled their CPG hosting to 14 percent, and Fashion sites moved into the third position with a seven percent share. Kids and family sites maintained their share and reaped more impressions, while games, home and garden, and movie sites made gains as well.

Within the industry, AdRelevance AdDemographics data shows that a few campaign strategies that feature niche sites appear to be paying off. Alcohol advertisers, attempting to focus heavily on the male market, did so with precision by making sports and automotive sites two of their top priorities in the first quarter. Portal sites, previously the number four host for alcohol ads, dropped to number 12. In doing so, alcohol ads in the first quarter were viewed by males 77 percent of the time.

Selected Consumer Packaged Goods Segment Ad Demographics, Q1
Segment	Males	Females
Alcohol	77%	23%
Cosmetics	43%	57%
Food	50%	50%

Cosmetics advertisers didn't knock portals down their list from Q3 2000, but increased their advertising on fashion, personal expression, and kids and family sites to achieve a 57 percent female demographic. Conversly, food advertisers achieved a fifty-fifty demographic split in the first quarter. While their portfolio of sites included niche sites, portals remained the number one choice, offering up a broader demographic that countered that of the focused niches.

Consumer goods companies are oft considered the mainstay of the "old economy", and as such, many have viewed their online spending as the necessary element to a stable Internet economy. As their online presence grows, CPG ad placement will be closely scrutinized as a possible indicator of which ad-supported sectors of the new economy will flourish in the next few years. While portals remain the number one choice for consumer goods advertisers, a turn toward niche sites for product focusing may indicate a confidence in specific content-supported ventures that have been the target of heavy criticism over the last few quarters.

While niche sites appear to be benefiting from the online demographic experimentation of CPG companies, a consistent share of CPG ad hosting will only be reached if niche sites can continue to demonstrate their value in attracting a focused demographic. Until then, portal sites-with their massive share and offerings of a little bit of everything-shouldn't feel too threatened.