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CPGmatters: P&G, Walmart Reach Out to Family Shoppers with Integrated Co-Marketing Campaign

Written by Guest contributor

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the monthly e-zine, CPGmatters.

Procter & Gamble and Walmart last year began co-developing original family-friendly programming with "Family Movie Nights." In mid-April, the two extended that partnership with plans to air five more P&G-produced original movies for TV broadcast in 2011. They also hinted at producing a TV-series pilot based on one of the films in coming months.

Each presentation -- including the latest, Truth Be Told, which aired on Fox on Saturday night, April 16 -- packages a family-friendly movie with advertising clusters that feature P&G brands and Walmart, individually, as well as in integrated messages.

Company executives told CPGmatters that Family Movie Nights have been surprisingly effective in encouraging purchase. Walmart's broader campaign, Family Moments, included selling the movies on DVDs in-store and helping parents to create family-oriented game nights.

Ben Simon, director of marketing for Walmart's Family Moments programs, noted that the company's research showed moms wanted more family programming. Moreover, he said, Walmart "realized that a lot of dollars we put into advertising were helping to fund and create shows that moms were having issues with."

Typically, the two companies are the sole advertisers around the broadcast, although they've let a few others in. And while some of the early movies took advantage of the obvious opportunities for product placement, P&G has scaled that back quite a bit lately in the interests of making the stories themselves more credible to viewers. The movies have fared well enough ratings-wise - in the top three in their time slots, even on weekend nights.

During the Truth Be Told broadcast, the first clutter of ads opened with a device that would recur throughout the broadcast to draw the viewing family unit to an advertising-relevant issue: a "Family Night Faceoff" quiz. First question: "At what age do babies truly first smile?" After offering multiple-choice answers, the spot promised to provide the answer later.

Then the screen segued into an ad for Pampers, featuring inspiring shots of babies and parents. The next spot showed a checkout conveyor at a Walmart with a pie followed by a package of Pampers Sensitive wipes and Pampers Cruisers. Immediately thereafter, a spot ran for Bounty, then one for Pringles.

Finally, back to the quiz about babies smiling; answer: "5 to 8 weeks old." Immediately following was another highly-integrated advertising message, urging viewers to "use Pampers Sensitive wipes and Pampers Cruisers and buy them together at the Walmart everyday low price" of $25 for Cruisers and $1.97 for wipes.

So it went all evening long through the airing of Truth Be Told, the latest example of a marketing package that P&G and Walmart have found works for them -- and believe may work for other brands and companies.

"Part of what we're doing," Mr. Simon said, "is trying to become a catalyst for more of this type of programming" for other advertisers, and networks. "We hope we'll start to see a real renaissance across all of prime-time, when there really should be a lot of co-viewing for the entire family."

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