ChasNote

According to AdAge:

“Much of the traffic to the big package-goods marketers’ sites appears to be coming the way originally envisioned in the online advertising model: as a response to online display advertising. Search-heavy Google accounts for a relatively small amount of traffic to the P&G and Unilever sites compared with display-ad-heavy Yahoo, the leading source of traffic for both marketers, according to ComScore.”

The article also cites a McKinsey study that shows profit-per-customer is significantly higher if you can get a customer to visit your corporate website, rather than just touching him or her with traditional advertising messages:

“More traditional mass marketers are coming to understand how profitable their web visitors are, said Norm LeHoullier, who recently retired as managing director of WPP Group’s G2 Interactive. He said a study by McKinsey & Co. for one package-goods brand G2 handled showed that while its website reached only 800,000 consumers annually, they were generating $40 in profit on average [per customer], compared with $5 for consumers reached by traditional media.”