Marketers who are debating the value of online marketing in generating in-store sales may be interested to learn that Quaker increased oatmeal sales by generating content that positioned the brand as an authority on breakfast cuisine.
The company launched a site for its “Awaken Your Senses” campaign with top food bloggers from Good Bite. Quaker partnered with the professional food writers, adopting a video content approach that featured Quaker-inspired cooking clips. Quaker also supports user-generated content with a community recipe challenge that asks online consumers to share their favorite Quaker recipes
Google reports that consumers who were exposed to this video content bought 9 percent more Quaker oatmeal and 8 percent less private label cereal.
Internet marketers may find that generating content which positions their brands as industry authorities and invites user engagement can produce similar sales results. While Quaker asked writers to produce video content, businesses might see similar success with branded blog marketing.
As Brafton has reported, consumers are increasingly reading blogs, with 40 percent of online Americans identifying themselves as active blog readers (up from 37 percent in 2010). More than half say that blogs have impacted their purchase decisions.
