Post on 25-May-2020
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY November 17, 2016
Jennifer L Harris, PhD, MBA
Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition April 18, 2017
Food marketing to children: The rapidly evolving digital landscape
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Research on digital food marketing to
children and teens
• Evolving marketing tactics
• Regulatory issues and opportunities
Today
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Expenditures by type (2009)
TV 44%
23%
8%
10%
Digital 8%
Other 7%
In-store/packaging
Promotions/events
In schools
Child and teen targeted
digital food marketing:
$123 million
+60% from 2006
FTC (2012) *Excludes cost of kids’ meal toys
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Banner ads on 3rd-party websites
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• 3.4 billion food ads on children’s websites (July 2009 – June 2010)
• Five websites = 89% of ads
oNick.com, NeoPets.com, CartoonNetwork.com, DisneyChannel.com, Roblox.com
o 22% to 31% child-audience share
• HFSS foods = 84%
Banner ads
Ustjanauskas, Harris, Schwartz (2012). Food and beverage advertising on children’s websites. Pediatric Obesity.
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Food company websites
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Food company websites
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
17 branded sites targeting children
oGames: 165 on 82% of sites
• 67% with branded content (i.e., advergames)
Cereal company website content (2008)
Cheyne, Dorfman, Bukofzer, Harris (2013). Journal of Health Communication
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Advergames
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
17 branded sites targeting children
oGames: 165 on 82% of sites
• 67% with branded content (i.e., advergames)
o Videos: 10% of pages
• Commercials and “webisodes”
o Promotions
• Cross-promotions, licensed characters,
sweepstakes
o Information gathering and personalization
• Polls, quizzes, registration, “tell a friend”
Cereal company website content (2008)
Cheyne, Dorfman, Bukofzer, Harris (2013). Journal of Health Communication
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Company-owned websites
Food company websites
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Multi-brand immersive websites
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• 102 websites with 10%+ youth visitors
• 35% with advergames
o 1.2 million total unique child visitors per month
o 23% more child visitors per site (M=36k vs. 29k)
o 8% fewer teen visitors (M=31k vs. 28k)
• Advergame sites by food category o Cereal (8); snacks (5); candy (5); fast food (3)
Company website visits (2009)
Harris, Speers, Schwartz, Brownell (2011). US food company branded advergames on the Internet: Children’s
exposure and effects on snack consumption. Journal of Children and Media.
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Millsberry.com
o 387,000 unique child visitors
o 2.8 visits-per-month, 24 min-per-visit
• Postopia.com
o 154,000 unique child visitors
o 2.0 visits-per-month, 15 min-per-visit
• AppleJacks.com
o 44,700 child visitors
o 1.2 visits-per-month, 3 min-per-visit
Top cereal websites (2008)
Rudd Center (2009). Cereal FACTS. www.CerealFacts.org
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Effects of playing advergames
Control
non-food
games
Unhealthy
Advergames
Healthy
Advergames
Harris, Speers, Schwartz, Brownell (2012). Journal of Children and Media
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Snack-time
• Healthy to very unhealthy
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Consumption effects
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Healthy food Unhealthy food Unhealthy food -child plays
advergames
Gr
co
ns
um
ed
Healthyadvergames
Control games
Unhealthyadvergames
*
* +
*
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Child-directed food company websites
discontinued
oMillsberry, Postopia, McWorld.com
• Fewer visitors to child-directed websites
Changing digital landscape
Website Child visitors (2-11y)
2009 2012
HappyMeal.com 189.3 118.7
PizzaHut.com 195.3 39.9
McDonalds.com 98.1 25.4
Dominos.com 175.6 22.6
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Fewer banner ads on youth websites
o 2009 to 2013: Sugary drink ads down 72%
o YouTube and Facebook = 31% of ad views in
2013 (2 billion)
Changing digital landscape (cont’d)
Sugary drink category
Avg # banner ads viewed per month on
youth websites (000)
2010 2013 Change
Soda brands 50,684 6,409 - 87%
Regular soda 23,011 4,679 -80%
Children’s drinks 8,927 10,247 +15%
Sports drinks 4,751 2,188 -54%
Energy drinks 1,791 1,812 +1%
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Mobile apps
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Video game placements
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Social media
Facebook Twitter Snapchat
Vine
Instagram YouTube
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
166 tweets per day
320 tweets per day
Often….
In personal ways…
Even this…
Engaging youth
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Top brands on Facebook
FanPageList.com (2017, April 5)
Ranking Company/Brand Facebook fans
(mil)
followers (000)
4 McDonald’s 70.2 3,404
7 Red Bull 47.5 2,153
9 KFC 44.9 1,151
14 Oreo 42.7 827
23 Starbucks 36.6 11,865
24 Pepsi 36.3 3,066
30 Nutella 31.9
36 Pizza Hut 29.3 1,526
48 Kit Kat 26.0
50 Monster Energy 25.5 3,282
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Experiment
Two 13-year-old boys,
5 food company likes
Avg daily posts:
• 5.8 from liked
companies
• 1.6 shared
• 1.9 sponsored
Recommended pages:
Candy/gum, fast food,
soda/other drinks,
snacks
Harris, Heard, Kunkel (2015). Marketing unhealthy foods to children on Facebook: Social policy and public health
concerns. In Dimofte, Haugtvedt & Yalch (Eds.), Consumer Psychology in a Social Media World
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Coke wanted to make a personal
connection with teens
• “Share a Coke” campaign o 250 popular teen names on bottles
o Shared through social media
• Online celebrities
• Encouraged teens to post too
Influencer marketing
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Marketing in disguise
• Peer-led: endorsement and distribution
• Everywhere, all the time
• Interactive, consumer-initiated
• It’s personal
• No standard measurement
How is this different?
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
“Governments and supra-national actors should devise ways to ensure that children participate in the digital world without being targeted by marketers with immersive, engaging, entertaining marketing that has been demonstrated to be injurious to their health.” (WHO, 2016)
Regulating digital food marketing
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/322226/Tackling-food-marketing-children-
digital-world-trans-disciplinary-perspectives-en.pdf?ua=1
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• International reach
• Audience composition
oNo food sites >35% children
oChild audience data not available (social
media, mobile devices)
• Content
oOverall impression of the site
o Age screening to limit access
Regulatory issues
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Child-directed?
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Age screening
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
• Children’s Online Protection and Privacy
Act (COPPA)
o Parents’ permission required
o 2013 rules update: Now includes social
networks, mobile apps, geolocation,
photos/videos, cookies, user names
• Protecting children on mobile devices
oNow marketing is personal
Privacy protections
UCONN RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY & OBESITY April 18, 2017
Questions?
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www.UConnRuddCenter.org
Thank you!
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