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The research will be welcomed by the online industry, as FMCG has been slow to move online.

The research, which involved 1,500 participants including a control group, tested a campaign for P&G laundry brand Ariel Sensitive across the Yahoo! Music site.

The more traditional units, including standard Flash ads and in-banner streaming ads, were most effective for increasing both unaided and aided awareness of the brand.

The streaming units within the music video player were most effective for delivering brand favourability and deeper brand metrics such as top-of-mind saliency, strapline association and purchase intention.

Blake Chandlee, director of media sales at Yahoo! UK & Ireland, said the study suggested that the advent of rich media, such as video advertising, could be the catalyst for FMCG brands to make the leap into online.

Chandlee said: "The FMCG category has a long-standing history of using television as the primary advertising medium for brand impact and has shied away from using the internet to build brands."

Online ad revenues grew 41.2% year on year in 2006, but the growth stemmed mainly from the medium's strengths in direct response, rather than brand building.

Meanwhile, a recent YouGov study, commissioned by online advertising network Utarget, suggests consumers spend more time browsing the web for entertainment, including watching video, than to complete tasks.

The survey of 2,095 adults found that 95% would be amenable to pre-roll advertising on online video, as long as the ads were under 15 seconds long.

Utarget chief executive Phil Cooper said UK consumers were used to the trade-off, with advertising being slotted around free content on TV and the same would apply to pre-roll video advertising on the web.

Internet users aged 18 to 24 spend more than 10% of their time online watching video, compared with 7% for 25 to 34-year-olds, 4% for 35 to 44-year-olds, 3% for 45 to 54-year-olds and 1% for over 55-year-olds.