Site sponsorship gives company research, relationships.
Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, is pooling several brands behind a two-year sponsorship of teen site Bolt.com, New York City, in a deal announced last month.
Participating P&G brands including Pantene, Tampax, Always, and Pringles are sponsoring content: Pantene hosts “Hair Help,” where kids swap advice, while Always and Tampax sponsor “Fact or Fiction” discussions on feminine health.
In exchange, Bolt turns its 3.5 million members into a research lab for P&G, using its teen-segmentation model and tapping opinion vehicles like tagbooks (members answer questions in each other’s profiles) and daily polls (questions suggested by members).
The deal “helps P&G connect with teens by providing relevant information about teen targeted brands through useful tools and advertising,” says Doug Milne, brand manager of P&G iVentures. Leveraging its marketing expertise at Bolt.com lets P&G “begin to develop more engaged relationships with the next generation of consumers.”
Bolt’s other sponsors include Johnson & Johnson’s Clean & Clear, whose deal includes talking postcards at Bolt.com and a link to its own Web site. Bolt recently launched a co-branded channel with America Online (aol.bolt.com) and the first wireless platform for mobile devices, dubbed Bolt Everywhere.
In a similar strategy, General Motors, Detroit, teams with online affinity groups ClubMom and CollegeClub to reach mothers and young adults and drive traffic to gmbuypower.com and dealers. GM will give product information, advice, and purchase incentives to ClubMom’s 1.4 million members, and use CollegeClub’s AutoGuide research and financing service to talk directly with first-time buyers.
Sites like Bolt with a lot of member-generated content may be the ticket for reaching teens online. A September study by MarketResearch.com, Marketing to the Internet Generation, found that teens like to confab online, but still prefer malls for shopping.
“Online tweens and teens make heavy use of the Internet to keep in touch with their friends and do homework assignments. But for most kids in this age group, shopping online remains a low priority,” says Ruth Washton, one author of the study. “They still look to the mall as the place to shop because [that’s] where they hang out with their friends.”
Still, online spending among the first Internet generation (consumers two to 24) will hit $14 billion by 2004, the study says, up from $619 million in 1999. Driving that growth will be “e-wallet” sites that let kids shop without credit cards, as well as increased Internet access at home. About half of the group – roughly 45 million consumers – have at-home access now. MarketResearch.com is a division of Kalorama Information, New York City.
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