Procter & Gamble Co. is swapping links — sorry employees with Google Inc. in a program to learn how each company targets and markets to consumers.
About two dozen workers at the two companies have switched workplaces over a period of weeks this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. For P&G (NYSE: PG), the nation’s largest consumer products company, the program is expected to offer a glimpse into the emerging youth market, which spends more time online than in front of a television.
The program speaks to the challenges of retailers and other advertisers to capitalize on the Internet. While P&G spends billions in advertising annually, a small share had traditionally been earmarked for Web promotions or even blogging sites. But P&G has been more active of late – in mid-November it announced the launch of its virtual “Pampers Village” here, a site that includes articles, blogging and promotions for Pampers diapers.
“We’re trying to open the eyes of our brand managers,” P&G’s Stan Joosten told the Journal. Joosten is P&G’s digital innovation manager, a job created last spring.
The job-swap plan was launched last January, following a meeting between Jim Stengel, P&G’s former global marketing officer, and Tim Armstrong, president of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) advertising sales and operations in North and Latin America.
Both companies had something to gain. Mountainview, Calif.-based Google controls 74 percent of “search term” advertising spending, the Journal reported, citing the research firm eMarketer Inc. Meanwhile, Cincinnati-based P&G ranked as the nation’s largest advertiser in 2007, having spent $5.2 billion compared with $4.9 billion in 2006, according to Advertising Age magazine.
Among the revelations for P&G workers: Google data revealed that online searches for the word “coupons” rose about 50 percent in a 12-month period, according to the Journal.
P&G regularly offers pamphlets of coupons for its products through its Brand Saver newspaper insert.
Goodie haaaaaaah
