STUDY SHOWS ONLINE ADVERTISING IMPROVES OFFLINE SALES - From E-business Daily, April 24, 2002

Web site banner ads have gotten a bad reputation in some quarters because of a notoriously low click-through rate. However, a new study from comScore Networks shows that online advertising, despite low click-through rates, has a significant impact on customer awareness and offline buying habits.

The study, conducted in conjunction with Nestle Purina PetCare Company, observed the habits of 50,000 consumers. These came from comScore's opt-in panel of 1.5 million Internet users. comScore's system routes participants' page requests through comScore servers that can control which ads the users see when they view the pages.

The study group was served Web pages that contained ads for Purina products and the control group saw ads for unrelated products in the same space. The study group was divided into a low-exposure panel that saw 1 - 5 ads and a high-exposure panel that saw 6 - 20 ads.

The results showed a low click-through rate for both panels. The low-exposure panel clicked on 0.08 percent of the banner ads, and the high-exposure panel clicked on 0.05 percent of the ads. However, in post study surveys, the researchers found a much higher brand awareness and a propensity to buy the Purina products.

Those who saw no ads had a much lower brand awareness. When asked what brand came to mind when they thought of dog food, only 22.2 percent of those who received no Purina ads mentioned that brand by name. While those receiving the ads said Purina 31.8 percent of the time. The score was higher among those who received more ads -- 35.4 percent -- versus those who were in the low-exposure group -- 28.2 percent.

When asked whether they would consider buying Purina for their next dog food purchase, 61.8 percent of those who received the ads responded positively, versus 46 percent of those who had received no Purina ads.

According to Michael D. Moore, worldwide director of Purina Interactive, "This data reinforces the impact of online advertising in supporting our brands. Overall, online media are effective, efficient, and unique platforms for communicating brand benefits to our most valuable customers."