Reckitt-Benckiser to move part of ad budget to Internet

NEW YORK Reckitt-Benckiser, marketer of Mucinex and Delsym, will be moving a portion of its consumer advertising budget from television to the Internet beginning April 1, according to a report published Monday on Advertising Age’s Web site.

All told, the company is planning to shift an estimated $20 million in ad dollars previously earmarked for television to the web for more than 15 of its brands. According to Ad Age, Reckitt-Benckiser typically spends upwards of 90% of its $475 million budget on TV, and less than $1 million online.

“We’ve seen a fundamental shift in consumer consumption and media habits migrating over to digital video,” Marc Fonzetti, Reckitt-Benckiser's media manager and internet specialist, told Ad Age. “We want to aligned with professional content. … With broadband getting to the scale that it has, the shift has happened. The integration of traditional and digital media is here now.”