Can online ads increase sales of consumer goods, like soft drinks and pet food?
AS good as Internet advertising market has been, there is still a huge hole where consumer goods manufacturers could be. Unlike automakers, banks and movie studios, makers of laundry detergent, soft drinks and toothpaste have proved largely Internet-averse, spending 1.5 percent or less of their total advertising budgets online. Consumer goods companies represented 7 percent of the $7.3 billion spent on online advertising last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The auto industry spent 21 percent and retailers spent 41 percent. Yahoo is trying to change that with Consumer Direct, a new program intended to demonstrate the one thing marketers want to know: how much Internet ads increase sales. Consumer Direct also aims to position Yahoo’s advertisers ahead of those in other media or online services by quantifying the sales bump — something television, newspaper and radio companies can rarely do. ”This is pretty darn cool,” said Charlene Li, an advertising analyst wit
