AdRelevance Tracking Online Ads for Consumer Goods

Media Metrix subsidiary AdRelevance Inc., which tracks where, when, how and how much Web marketers and their competition are advertising online, launched a new service to meet the needs of the consumer goods industry.

The new category tracks a range of products by manufacturer (rather than retailer-distributor), including beauty supplies, drugs, toiletries, apparel, books, food, beverages, home and garden products, jewelry and accessories, automotive supplies, recreational gear and toys.

“The consumer goods industry has always been one of the most powerful forces in traditional media, but it’s been slow to get online,” said Will Hodgman, president and chief executive officer of AdRelevance.

“Now that these companies have begun to advertise on the Web, they’ll need real-time, comprehensive data that tells them how their competitors are marketing on the Internet.”

In addition to the new consumer goods category, AdRelevance provides competitive online intelligence for eight other industries, including automotive, financial services, PC hardware and consumer electronics, retail, software, telecommunications, travel and Web media.

“Retailers were the first companies to commit serious dollars to Web advertising because ads could be linked to actionable sites like those of Amazon.com, Dell Computer and MicroWarehouse where products could be purchased online,” said Charles Buchwalter, vice president of media research for AdRelevance.

“But consumer goods manufacturers emphasize branding and, for the most part, let distributors handle sales. It’s taken a while for these companies to recognize what a powerful medium the Web can be for building their brands.”

AdRelevance’s data for September 1999 indicates that while more consumer goods companies advertised online than companies in any other manufacturing or service segment, the average number of impressions purchased by each company was a fraction of what was purchased by companies in other industries.

For example, while 220 consumer goods companies advertised online compared with only 101 companies in the PC hardware and consumer electronics industries, the average number of impressions purchased was only about 776,000 — less than 23 percent of the 3.4 million purchased by hardware and electronics companies.