By Oren Harnevo, CEO of Eyeview
Data is driving more innovation than ever before and when it comes to digital advertising, it will continue to have a big impact for retailers. Historically, data has helped retailers create better customer experiences through enhanced ad targeting capabilities, typically from either demographic or behavioral information. It also plays a major role in most media buying decisions today — especially when it comes to display and search advertising.
But as digital video advertising becomes more prevalent and extends beyond the confines of traditional television to digital channels including connected TV, a new opportunity is opening up for retailers to reach consumers on an individual basis. By integrating data into their digital campaigns, retailers can make storytelling more personal and impactful. They can use data to create engaging narratives and develop customized graphics in real time. That is the true potential for data: delivering the right message to the right consumer, at the right time.
Advertisement
While some leading-edge brands are embracing the potential for innovation, the fact remains that the vast majority of digital video ads (close to 95%) result from simply repurposing a broadcast ad for digital channels. The question remains: Why?
There are several reasons. First, marketers have grown accustomed to treating television viewers as a single mass audience, largely due to the fact the technology to permit smarter targeting simply didn’t exist. Now that it does, it is imperative that marketers shift their thinking to adapt to the new landscape and embrace the new companies and technologies making this possible.
Second, the concept of creating thousands of different versions of a digital video ad can be both complicated and costly, and the technology required to make data-driven creative can be very complex and hard to understand. Last, the broadcast industry works with the gross rating points (GRP) model when it comes to measurement. And, although data driven creative can return performance metrics that are more effective, it doesn’t affect the standard GRP.
So how does data-driven advertising creative work in its most effective form?
So now that we know using data to create more thoughtful, relevant and effectively targeted ads is possible — how can retailers and their agencies start experimenting with this approach and more effectively integrate data into their overall advertising strategies?
As a first step, they need to really consider their audience and their message. Who are their target customers and what is their typical journey before, during and after the transaction? What is the customer demographic and location? What other demographic information do we know about them and how can we use this to understand them better?
Consider how a campaign for a large toy retailer might target two different customer personas across desktop and mobile channels. The first message each receives would be a general brand awareness ad, likely after browsing for different products from their desktop at home. Subsequent ads could be delivered via mobile when the buyer is on the go and traveling in close proximity to a store location. Based on this data, the ads could deliver customized messaging, with discounts or offers on specific toy models, along with a local map and a voiceover that conveys distance and direction to the nearest location.
For each customer persona, the creative will change based on their demographics and past browsing behavior. A new mother will get a broadcast quality ad with video content of toys that are safe and appropriate for babies, while a video game enthusiast will see an ad that highlights the latest game consoles or newest video game releases.
This data-driven approach can also be highly effective for retailers that want to tailor video ad creative for product offers based on changing weather patterns or seasonal events like the holidays.
There is no question that data can increase key performance metrics across the board, by helping to make advertising smarter, better targeted and more effective. While data-driven media buying is already a mainstay, data-driven creative is just starting to take shape. Already this approach has been proven to drive higher brand performance metrics when compared to standard video ads (according to internal research), confirming the enormous potential for brands and agencies looking to adopt this approach.
Oren Harnevo is CEO ofEyeview, a provider of personalized digital video advertising solutions for brand marketers.
