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Some of those boring corporate websites are pulling in more eyeballs - and more influencers - than the flashy primetime TV shows, print magazines and general interest sites on which those very marketers advertise, according to AdAge.

Part of what's driving the traffic to the sites is good-old web display advertising and email pushes. Such packaged-goods marketers as Procter & Gamble and Unilever don't sell many products directly online, and their low-cost, low-involvement brands tend not to be the object of search queries - and therefore search-driven traffic. Yet the websites of P&G and Unilever now reach nearly 6 million and 3 million unique visitors, respectively, in the U.S. each month, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

Recent research by VNU's Nielsen BuzzMetrics found that 33 percent of creators of consumer-generated media (in the form of video or blogs) also provide email feedback to companies or brands via their websites, and 13 percent participate in brand or company blogs. Their engagement with corporate and brand sites is well above the norm for the general population.

"Visitors to [corporate and brand] websites have a much higher propensity to recommend products," said Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, whose research shows more than 40 percent of people who give a brand email feedback are likely to recommend it to others.