Ever since Procter & Gamble Productions started shooting episodes of TV longest-running soap opera, “Guiding Light,” in 1955, the company has been in video business
Its milestones include the animated character of that robust bald man with an earring dubbed Mr. Clean who debuted on TV in 1958 to the accompaniment of what would become a classic jingle.
While it’s still producing “Guiding Light” and its brands fill lots of 30-second slots on the traditional screen, P&G has migrated to the Web, with its own online productions and niche Web sites that obliquely plug the company’s broad product array.
“When we create, whether it’s a TV show or a Web show, it’s not about Procter & Gamble,” Pat Gentile, P&G national TV programming manager, told an audience at the ANA Brand Innovation Conference last week.
Last year, P&G launched its own online soap opera, “Crescent Heights” about young twenty somethings that included product placements of, appropriately, Tide in its three-minute Webisode segments. The idea is to reach younger consumers more likely to be looking at PC or cell phone screens.
Far from expecting instant hits with its Web ventures, Gentile said P&G typically works on a three-year profitability plan, assuming losses for the first year, aiming at break even in the second and hitting profitability in the third year.
Capessa.com, a topic-driven site aimed at women, and Petside.com, for animal lovers, are both examples of Web niches created to draw consumers in for content, and offer coupons and information about P&G products in the process.
P&G partnered with Yahoo on Capessa.com.
Procter & Gamble has also spawned two sites in the social network genre. Vocal Point offers women a chance to communicate on a range of subjects through message boards and get tips on household issues. Tremor aims at female teens perceived to be trend-setting “connectors” to sample its products and put the word out about them.
“We’re always looking for new ways to reach consumers in advocacy messages by word-of-mouth,” said Steve Knox, P&G CEO of Tremor/Voice Point. “Connectors are people with social networks about five or ten times the size of those normal people have.”
Capessa.com had viral origins. It was launched on the basis of feedback culled from Vocalpoint, according to Roger Fishman, founder and president of the Zizo Group, which helped P&G create its topical Web sites.
“The reason Procter & Gamble invests in this is that we’re creating new and innovative ways to reach the consumer,” he said.
