How Brands Can Find the ‘Advertisable Moments’ They’re Missing

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There is no digital equivalent to primetime TV hours in the living room. Advertisable moments exist in a range of digital and physical contexts beyond TV sets and even beyond desktop browsers — and if a brand wants to capitalize on all available moments (especially those proverbial micro-moments) it has to look for ad opportunities in unexpected places. A new market landscape requires new methods of attack when it comes to targeting, messaging, delivery, conversion, and retention.

Seek advertisable moments by consumer, not necessarily by segment
Content consumption and device usage patterns vary by consumer segment, sure, but why limit yourself to pure blanket segmentation when you can base your targeting on the behaviors of individual consumers, ensuring that you’re reaching consumers on their terms in their favorite channels? Consumers now demand highly customized interactions, so it’s time to break with convention and target consumers based on personal preference.

Think differently about location
Location is not a just about where you are, it’s about who you are. Context is key when you’re designing hyperlocal campaigns that connect with consumers in a meaningful way. And I’m not talking about geofencing, which simply isn’t scalable, and really isn’t effective at driving incremental sales that affect your bottom line.

It may be important to you that Helen frequents a neighborhood that’s home to your new coffee chain, but it may be even more important to you to know about who Helen is — where she lives, her shopping patterns and preferences, demographics, lifestyle, etc. With this information, you would know that not only is Helen a regular coffee drinker, she’s also a mom and a fitness fanatic — perfect fodder for a very pointed message in the mobile interstitial you’re about to serve her. Look further than current location to where one spends their time to build meaningful engagement practices.

Plan for mobile first, not mobile only
Despite the steep rise in mobile usage, mobile-only partners and solutions are entirely too limited. Adults 18–54 may spend more than half of their online time on mobile (Boomers clock in close behind at 37%),  but 85% of American workers user a desktop at work, and 73% of US adults own a personal desktop. That means that while consumers spend a lot of time on mobile devices, their choice and mix of devices can vary by day of the week and time of the day.

Mobile-only solutions have become popular of late, but they just don’t cut it when it comes to creating a seamless experience that can reach a consumer at any time. Operating in silos by device type is a sure-fire way to miss opportunities to connect with and engage your ideal consumers.

Find opportunities in the online to offline connection
Easier said than done, of course. Consumers have more than 800 possible paths available to them, and observing and affecting those decisions is hardly straightforward.

But the goal of any marketer is to convert consumers to buyers and to keep them coming back. So limiting your efforts to digital only or offline only does not allow you to guide the consumer journey. Even if you are at the point of doing both, you must link the two.

Further, you have to start linking all of the digital activity. In fact, about 42% of consumers will start an activity on one device and finish it on another. The ability to resolve consumer identity across channels (both online and off and across the two) will be the lynchpin of success in the new market.

Advertisable moments exist everywhere, but the right time in the right place for the right consumer exists in just one place — you have to be willing to do the right kind of looking in the right place to make the difference in that moment. It’s about thinking differently about who consumers are and what location means, a deeper understanding of behavior patterns, and paying attention to the cracks between devices where opportunities are often lost.

Matthew Tilley is senior director of marketing at MaxPoint, a marketing technology company that generates hyperlocal intelligence to optimize brand and retail performance.  Before joining MaxPoint, he led the marketing of promotion settlement and consulting services at Inmar, one of the leading digital and paper coupon process in the US.

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