Food marketing to children: The rapidly evolving digital...

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


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


Banner ads on 3rd-party websites


• 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.


Food company websites


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


Advergames


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


• Company-owned websites

Food company websites


Multi-brand immersive websites


• 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.


• 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


• AppleJacks.com

o 44,700 child visitors


Top cereal websites (2008)

Rudd Center (2009). Cereal FACTS. www.CerealFacts.org


Effects of playing advergames

Control

non-food

games

Unhealthy

Advergames

Healthy

Advergames

Harris, Speers, Schwartz, Brownell (2012). Journal of Children and Media


Snack-time

• Healthy to very unhealthy


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

*

* +

*


• 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


• 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%


Mobile apps


Video game placements


Social media

Facebook Twitter Snapchat

Vine

Instagram YouTube


166 tweets per day

320 tweets per day

Often….

In personal ways…

Even this…

Engaging youth


Top brands on Facebook

FanPageList.com (2017, April 5)

Ranking Company/Brand Facebook fans

(mil)

Twitter

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


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


• 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


• 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?


“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


• 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


Child-directed?


Age screening


• 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


Questions?

Please visit us at:

www.UConnRuddCenter.org

Thank you!

Facebook.com/UConnRuddCenter @UConnRuddCenter

Food marketing to children: The rapidly evolving digital...

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