Off the Shelf: The Retail & CPG Blog

Already we can see this being taken on board. ‘Adverting Age’ predicts some of the largest advertisers in the US will each shift half their $1billion-plus budgets to digital media in the next 3 years. With such a massive change of emphasis across channels the crucial questions will become the 3 ‘W’s’:

·        When to target?

·        Where to target?

·        Who to target?

These simple questions will keep advertisers awake at night, and form the foundations of all marketing presentations in the years to come.

Traditionally, demographic data has served as the baseline for potential buyers. However this neglects the multiple roles a person can fulfil. As well as being a voting adult of certain gender and location, marital status and credit rating the same person can be a parent, avid gamer, day trader, sports fan, etc. etc. the list is almost endless. Clearly a move from this dated demographic ‘macro-segmentation’ to ‘micro-segmentation’ is essential. To make these new digital advertising budgets effective new solutions will need to supplement current demographic information with data insights to include consumer behaviours and preferences across all channels.

Key to succeeding in this endeavour is the challenge of collection and collation of huge volumes of data across the multiple channels an organisation may operate across. Harnessing this ‘global’ data view will provide the building blocks to assemble highly relevant audiences for the advertising spend, for example:

·        Detailed anonymous profiles with full visibility of an individual

·        Analytics engine

·        Detailed modelling and visualization capability

·        Continuous running and dynamic update of models containing thousands of ‘micro-segments’

·        Real time updates based upon individual behaviour

·        Auto delivery to of campaigns to relevant channels for advertising and content targeting

·        Comprehensive reporting to provide a single, integrated view of the targeting metrics, advertising management, inventory, orders and sales applications.

This will provide a transparency and level of measurement and accuracy not currently possible with today’s limited approach. This will showcase more effective targeting of the advertising spending and provide greater relevance for both content and advertising. This will create a virtuous cycle where successful advertising increases sales and customer loyalty leading in turn to more effective data inputs and follow on advertising spending.

All we can hope is the message behind such large figures - $200billion – is understood loud and clear. In turn as advertising acts upon this ‘wake up’ call we will finally see the promised move towards an effective use of advertising spending across the relevant channels through accurate real-time targeting of content and advertising.

- / -

Accreditation: Paraphrased from original article in Teradata magazine. “On target – Effective advertising centers on insights about consumer behaviour” Tim Bridges, VP Media and Entertainment CGNA.