P&G Launches Another Online Series

P&G has been experimenting with web soaps for a while including CRESCENT HEIGHTS which was "brought to you by" Tide. A PARENT IS BORN is their latest venture.

Just as it did with the soaps, P&G is creating places where it can gather a big audience, with the goal of building goodwill toward brands such as Pampers diapers, Iams dog food, Febreze fabric freshener and Dawn dish soap.

Case in point is A PARENT IS BORN, which follows the real-life Barstons from early pregnancy through the birth of their first child in a series of four- to five-minute videos available on the Web. The series is sponsored by P&G's Pampers brand and is found on the Pampers Web site. A 30-minute version aired on DirecTV in late August, and P&G plans to syndicate the series in other online venues.

A PARENT IS BORN doesn't directly sell Pampers but helps shape how consumers feel about the brand, building what Gentile and other marketers call "brand equity." Following the young couple as they learn the baby's gender, decorate the child's room and talk about their hopes for their budding family can build an emotional connection to the brand that is valuable for creating long-time customers.

For Pampers, a $9 billion P&G brand, the show helps position it as a product concerned not only about keeping babies dry, but about the well-being of families, a key marketing message in the company's plans to double Pampers sales over the next several years.

A just-launched Web site, www.dinnertool.com, like the soaps, doesn't carry only P&G advertising, but is meant to be a destination site that brings a like-minded audience together. Dinnertool is a meal-planning site that generates recipes from a given list of ingredients, giving Moms a place to go when they need ideas for mealtime. "It fits nicely with our brands," Gentile said, especially after-dinner cleaning products such as Joy, Dawn and Cascade.

A PARENT IS BORN website