General Mills Thrives on Increased Marketing Spending†

Boosting TV Ads Hiked Cereal Sales, But Digital ROI Even Higher

Advertising Age, February 17, 2009 — General Mills, one of the package-food industry's top performers, laid out a number of recent marketing successes at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference this morning, and offered a preview of the rest of its fiscal year.

The company has staunchly supported consumer-marketing spending increases — 19% in the first half of fiscal 2009, which began in June — while competitors, including Kellogg and Kraft, have begun to scale back on the heady marketing outlays of 2008, instead preaching bundling and greater return on investment. General Mills estimates that its consumer-marketing spending will be up by "double digits" for the full fiscal year.