“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
Today’s column is written by Jennifer Pelino, vice president of omnichannel media at 84.51°.
There is so much data that can make a person’s every touch point and experience more rewarding. It’s all about personalization. And the idea of personal assistants, in some form, is all the rage. As Apple’s Siri, Google’s recently announced Home, Amazon’s Echo and other similar mobile applications continue to be deployed and gain acceptance, the concept represents a great opportunity for brands.
When I’m headed to the beach, I want to receive a message on my mobile phone that the weather has changed from overcast to sunny, triggering thoughts of refreshments and the amount of sunscreen I have with me. I can potentially stop at a nearby store since my mobile notified me of the nearest location selling my sunscreen.
And what about providing me special offers, incentives or even just additional awareness about a sponsored street festival only one minute away where I might find my favorite adult beverage? Yes, thank you, I’d love to stop by and pick up an offer for the product; I’ll be more than happy to sing the praises of a brand and help it gain new consumers.
As a marketer, this tells me I must ensure integration online, offline and with merchandising touch points to engage across the shopper journey. The consumer has more access to information and control of the buying process than ever. What used to be a simple linear chain of product discovery has turned into a spider web of touch points.
Mobile impacts each area and enables the path-to-purchase evolution. Every marketer has the ability to be there at every moment of the buying cycle – if activated upon effectively.
Combine Verified Purchase Data With Location Data
Marrying these two types of data provides an opportunity for a unique connection in a fragmented landscape. Marketers can better understand the local competitive landscape and find their best prospects and customers through past purchase behavior and do so by using mobile to fit into their daily lives.
Through mobile, marketers have the ability to dismiss locations with transportation difficulties or those with high competitive performance. They can also identify a promising, underserved location on a heavily trafficked commuter route to help lead a consumer to their preferred store format based on their profile and the expected nature of their trips.
Add Context
Marketers should customize communications to cohorts of members based on their purchase and online behavior in context. Doing so will increase brand loyalty since relevant communication is more engaging.
Marketers want to understand past consumer purchases because this is the strongest indication of how they will actually act. But it’s also important to blend this knowledge with what they aspire to consume or experience so that marketers can capture them at that moment when their attitudes or preferences change due to income or life stage situation.
Omnichannel
Marketers can’t afford to focus on individual channels; the omnichannel experience must be delivered. It’s essential to not only give customers the experiences they expect, but to integrate it into their lives.
Marketers must correlate touch points and behaviors to devices and leverage that in campaigns. The back end has to be seamlessly quantifying the impact of a variety of media types, including digital display, video, mobile, social, linear TV and addressable TV.
Cross-channel measurement solutions can provide a quick and accurate understanding of the impact of a single channel in isolation and the interaction and success of multiple channels of media, allowing marketers to hold all media accountable for results and enable optimization for future campaigns.
This is where a measurement solution partner is key. Ideally it would constitute media exposure information with other critical data streams from demand-side platforms, data management platforms and publishers that can be attributed back to customers and households. Attention is needed to prepare the data to be merged together into a single-source data set.
Mobile can be the start of wonderful daily experiences. Mobile communications are in-the-moment personal assistants telling me where my next fun summer adventure is, what to wear for the weather, where to get everything I need and the branded products with the benefits I desire.
Doesn’t everyone want their own personal butler? I know I do.
Follow Jennifer Pelino (@JenniferJPelino), 84.51° (@8451group) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.
