BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JANUARY 22, 2001 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- SPECIAL REPORT ONLINE EXTRA: Unilever's Mark Olney: "It's Tough to Flex a New Muscle" The brand exec says the Net offers exciting ways to reach consumers, but online advertisers must make the effort to learn its lessons Unilever, the consumer packaged-goods giant whose products include Snuggles fabric softener, Lipton tea, and Dove soap, is a big spender on online advertising -- at least compared with other traditional advertisers. The company doles out around 4% of its marketing budget, or roughly $140 million, for online marketing. With programs ranging from e-mail to sponsorships of specific areas on content providers such as women's site iVillage, Unilever is studiously figuring out what makes online marketing successful. Mark Olney, vice-president of Unilever's North American Interactive Brand Center, spoke with Business Week editor Heather Green late last year. Q: Can you briefly describe your history with online advertising? A: This is our third big year. We initially got involved in this because we saw it as a new opportunity to communicate with consumers and understand consumers' needs. The nice thing about the Net is it allows you to get broad feedback. Q: Have your expectations for what you can accomplish been met? Why are some traditional advertisers hesitant? A: It is still very early days. If TV advertising were to start today, there would be lots of concerns about it. Part of it is the competitive environment. For many consumer packaged-goods companies, TV has always been a significant portion of the media spend. That's the system we grew up in. With TV, I know I played a role in driving awareness of my brand. It's tough to flex a new muscle. To do these things right, it takes a lot of great creative work. Now is the chance, when the turmoil is going on, to take advantage of the lessons that are being learned. Q: What is appealing about online marketing for Unilever? A: The Net gives us the chance to not only deliver products today to consumers but develop new ones as well. My big mantra has been about the consumer being in control. So much that's emerging in terms of technology and ability to opt out with e-mail marketing, for instance, shows that they are in control. Consumers are understanding the influence they will have in shaping the products in the future. Q: What kinds of metrics do you look at to show that online marketing works? A: We do some of the normal research that we would do in traditional research: attitudinal and recognition research. We work with DoubleClick, and we measure the performance in certain content areas that are relevant. Still, we need to recalibrate people's expectations. The idea is that anything you do in terms of marketing, you will have an immediate impact. When you are talking about changing behavior in marketing and how a consumer buys and shops, the question becomes: What's the time frame, how long is the timeline. Q: Are online ad publishers and services being more flexible in how they work with you? A: Yes, there are new business models that we are developing with iVillage, AOL, and MSN. AOL recognizes that for consumer packaged-goods companies, the solution isn't yet in sight because we don't have the ability to measure online sales. Because the products are bought in stores and not online, we have to find different ways of figuring out the effectiveness of the advertising. Like it or not, we have to make sure that the money we spend proves its point. The other thing that is happening is the recognition of some of those partners coming to us that there needs to be continued evolution of the ad model. It's sometimes disappointing when people describe their work as: "I serve banner ads." I don't know who created the banner, but there has to be a better way to use the medium. We need to have a little bit more flexibility and take more risk as a complete industry. Q: Can you explain some of the differences in how partners work with you? A: If we talk about the Digital Futures Lab, where we look at interesting, cool technology, we're starting to spar around even newer ideas with MSN. I don't think that this kind of cooperation would have happened a year ago. We're set to do some work with AOL TV in the first quarter. It's the kind of work that takes our relationship almost to another channel. Then with iVillage, our venture Substance.com [a health and beauty site expected to be launched during the first half of this year] is a new business model that is being created to provide a much richer experience for the consumers. Q: What do you expect to happen in the online publishing industry? A: There will be some continued consolidation. We will be far more selective about what we want to do. We will be more focused and do less experimentation. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Do e-Ads Have a Future? TABLE: The Wide World of Advertising CHART: Dot-Coms Are Spending Less to Advertise Online... ONLINE EXTRA: Unilever's Mark Olney: "It's Tough to Flex a New Muscle" Pepsi's Aim Is True INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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