Milk Carton Ads Reach 96% of Households

Milk cartons - from the half pints sold at schools to gallon jugs sold in grocery stores - have increasingly become platforms for marketers.

While the best-known milk carton campaigns - the faces of missing children prominent throughout the 80s - have moved online, other campaigns have promoted things like frozen dinners from Stouffers, graham crackers, Duncan Hines brownies, and Cheerios, writes The New York Times.

BoxTop Media, which specializes in ad campaigns on milk containers, worked with Knowledge Networks to conduct a study on whether milk-carton ads were really effective, and discovered that, for the nearly 30 campaigns that were studied, there was a “significant improvement in sales.” That could mean as much as a 4% to 6% improvement for a large brand, while new or smaller brands could see improvements of as much as 100%.

Marketers that advertise on half pints in schools must be cognizant of the fine line they need to walk when advertising to children. Campaigns often promote milk itself, reading, or exercise, using characters like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman and the Transformers.

Brands advertising on milk cartons via BoxTop Media include General Mills, Kraft, Kellogg, Quaker, Disney and Paramount.

There are more than 20 gallons of milk produced each year for each person in the U.S., according to the Agriculture Department. BoxTop Media further claims that 96% of households drink milk, milk is the most frequently purchased item in supermarkets, and consumers see milk containers every day, multiple times per day. Over 4 glasses of milk are consumed per household each day.

The BoxTop Media Advertising Network reaches the top 100 DMAs, with distribution in over 20,000 stores.