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Why didn't we think of it? Ads on milk cartons.
By Jamie Jones
In the field of alternative media, which is mostly about putting ads where they were never put before, great minds toil, turning the world upside down looking for virgin venues untouched by human slogans.
David Ronick and Kim Hall opened the door of the refrigerator.
What they saw is what we all see every morning, actually several times a day.
They saw a milk carton.
So what do you do with a milk carton, besides pour milk from it?
You slap advertising on it, and think of the advertising that would fit so nicely: Wheaties, cookies, and things that go with milk.
Ronick and Hall did not think long. They formed BoxTop Media to enter the business of putting messages on milk cartons and, in time, other similar venues.
"When we were thinking about the concept, milk struck us as a great product to start with. It’s got really interesting properties and positive associations," says Ronick, who co-founded BoxTop Media with Hall last summer.
"Milk is in 98 percent of all homes in America, so milk container ads have an amazing visibility and go where other ads can’t—on kitchen tables at home and in the refrigerator."
Hall has worked in advertising for 13 years in agencies that include Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi. Ronick calls himself a "serial entrepreneur." He has started up two other companies prior to BoxTop Media.
The idea of putting ads on milk cartons is so elementary, it’s almost a no-brainer. So why hasn’t it been done before?
Ronick and Hall explain that milk production remains a local process. Local dairies produce, package and distribute milk. While advertising has been done on a local level, they say they are the first to create a national network, with Boxtop serving as a liaison between dairies and advertisers.
Some dairies have aggregated in the past few years, too, which may have made its role somewhat easier.
BoxTop Media plans to reach dairies across the country, but right now its major markets are New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Seattle.
Its ads take up a full side of four-sided paper milk containers.
Hall and Ronick say they have established relationships with dairies that produce over 100-million milk containers a month. That’s about 10 percent of the market, they say.
Those millions of containers are not created equal, however. BoxTop Media classifies milk-drinkers into three demographic categories.
Milk drinkers who buy skim and one-percent milk tend to be older, more affluent, and childless. Whole-milk consumers on the contrary are traditionally younger and often are parents.
Half-pint drinkers are overwhelmingly children, who see milk carton ads at school.
"Obviously, milk goes into the hands of children, which can be very powerful to marketers, and we are aware that we have to be careful not to abuse that power," says Ronick.
"It is unique that we can get to children in schools where there is very little advertising, and at lunch when they’re talking to their friends, and at a time when we’re not disrupting class time."
Food advertisers are natural potential clients for BoxTop Media. Cereal, cookies, pancake mixes and snacks go hand-in-hand with milk.
But the company has secured the business of several technology advertisers so far as well, many of whom probably buy ad space on milk cartons as much for the novelty as for the actual reach.
And how about those public service messages, the ones about missing children?
Traditional public service advertisers usually bartered for their ad space.
And Ronick and Hall don’t think that they’ll go away. The way that public service advertisers place ads might change, though.
Milk cartons are only a start for BoxTop Media, which plans to sell space on other types of food and beverage packaging.
October 26, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jamie Jones is a staff writer for Media Life.
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