New data from Isobar, a renowned market research company, revealed that the national industry campaign, Paper & Packaging – How Life Unfolds, has helped expand the audience of 18 to 49-year-old consumers who feel positive about paper and paper-based packaging products from 38 million to 50 million consumers.

According to Isobar’s 2019 Segment Research, this expanded audience is good news for papermakers, as these 50 million consumers demonstrate enhanced buying power, accounting for almost half (49%) of grocery trips, 47% of book purchases and 51% of documents printed at work and home among this age group.

Additional Attitude and Usage Tracking, conducted by Isobar in October 2019 to measure the results of the Paper and Packaging Board’s (P+PB) campaign, also shows increased preference for these recyclable products. Among those aware of the campaign, 65% report they believe paper and packaging products are an environmentally smart choice because they are made from trees (a renewable resource) – up 17% over four years. In addition, 69% say they prefer paper-based product packaging to packaging made from plastic, a 13% increase over four years.

“This data validates the robustness of our consumer targeting strategy and our effectiveness reaching them,” says Mary Anne Hansan, P+PB president. “It is encouraging to see that when the industry speaks with a unified voice, we have an impact.”

The campaign’s 2019 Impact Report also reveals positively-trending marketing measures, reported to the industry regularly, including record-high website visits as a result of a focused content-marketing campaign and video viewership topping one million, with over half of viewers watching the videos to the end, a completion rate well above industry standards, notes Isobar. In addition, website visitors downloaded more than 70,000 printable templates and tools for business and personal use.