"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)

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Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing | Setting the Stage
Today, food products figure prominently in how children and teens spend their
own money and influence family spending. “Both parents and their children report that
young people have the highest purchase influence on food, when compared with other
nonfood spending categories,” noted the IOM report. 49 Sweets, snacks, and beverages
account for a third of children’s direct purchases. 50 Teenagers spend 21 percent of their
own money on food, reported Teenage Research Unlimited, “whether from drive-thrus,
convenience stores or restaurants. On one level,” the market research company commented,
“it’s obvious: they’re growing, and they’re always hungry. But more than that, eating
represents one of the best ways for teens to gather with friends. Although many business
owners and some malls discourage teens in groups, restaurants tend to be fairly
obliging. Eating tends to be a very social activity for many teens.” 51
Children’s media culture has also expanded dramatically during the past several
decades. The rise of “kidvid” TV channels—such as Nickelodeon, Disney, FoxKids
Network, and the Cartoon Network—increased both the number of outlets and the
amount of programming available for children, offering marketers a variety of new opportunities
for directly reaching this lucrative demographic group. With the launch of the
World Wide Web in 1993, these networks began expanding their franchises onto the
Internet and across a proliferating array of new digital platforms, joined by hundreds of
new media ventures aimed specifically at children and teens. 52
Food and beverage companies were among the earliest pioneers of digital marketing,
harnessing the power of the Internet and other popular new media to target young
people. In the mid-1990s, such major brands as Kellogg’s, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer,
McDonald’s, and Frito-Lay launched websites, where they began developing a variety of
techniques for directly interacting with children online. 53 Taco Bell launched a joint “multimillion
dollar” venture with videogame company Nintendo in 1997; Pepsi forged a similar
partnership with Sony. 54 In 1999, Jack in the Box created “Jack’s World,” an “interactive
Internet playground loaded with fan-friendly freebies.” 55 The food industry was also heavily
involved in early efforts to secure a stronghold for online advertising. In 1994, Procter
& Gamble issued a “call to action” for marketers to begin focusing their attention on the
Internet, and founded a new group four years later called the Future of Advertising
Stakeholders (FAST), with the active participation of companies such as McDonald’s and
Coca-Cola. 56