How To Ramp Up Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy After a Slowdown

Recovery from a slowdown presents new opportunities for legacy and disruptive brands alike.

Earlier this year, advertisers were forced to change how they look at their omnichannel marketing strategy. Leaning into agency and technology partners, advertisers have been pushed to ask tough questions and make difficult decisions when it comes to advertising investments. Through conversations with our own clients, at brands and agencies, we found that there is no conclusive answer to questions concerning how to safely invest advertising dollars, but we did find that there were some quick wins to be had for advertisers who are willing to shift their strategy to join the momentum behind digital adoption.

Now, the question is: in the face of unprecedented change, can advertisers ramp back up after the recent slowdown?

The answer is yes. When advertisers are acutely challenged to engage and convert consumers, the core elements of your omnichannel marketing strategy matter more than ever.

We’ve taken a look at how a strategic channel and tactic mix can be practically applied to get your brands on-track for maximum success during the final quarter of 2020. For recommendations and considerations, keep reading.

Look to consumer insights to fuel your omnichannel marketing strategy

If you want to engage your audience, meet them where they are. And, with over four billion people staying home worldwide, consumers’ behavior and media consumption habits are changing rapidly. While we don’t know how or when the crisis will resolve, we have early insight into how consumer needs and behaviors may evolve as they seek to regain a sense of balance. To date, we’ve identified three consumer behavior patterns since the onset of COVID-19: streaming, app usage, and online shopping.

Streaming

Video streaming subscriptions and usage have surged, with 40% more time spent consuming and higher volumes of new subscriber requests among popular platforms according to a recent report by eMarkter.

In-App Usage

Digital-savvy consumers have gravitated towards apps that meet the needs of their temporary indoor lifestyles, largely in the entertainment, e-commerce, social, and messaging categories. This has resulted in 40% YOY growth in mobile app usage according to Conviva.

Online Presence

Time spent consuming content on the Internet is up +34%, according to eMarketer, while our nation’s e-commerce system is being pushed to its limits with increased online shopping, largely in grocery and household sectors

Realign your omnichcannel strategy with current business challenges.

Each company has unique goals. But overall, we’ve seen businesses’ marketing impacted in three distinct ways by COVID-19 — and they don’t always progress directly from one to another.

Find ways to get better results from your digital ads.

  • Pause lowest-performing tactics or audiences.
  • Test higher engagement and lower CPA ad units like high-impact or native.

Focus on your most valuable customers.

  • Adjust audience targeting to prioritize people who are most likely to take action.
  • Adjust ad scheduling and pacing to reflect most optimal time and dayparts for engagement.

Make sure your updated offerings show up in your creative.

  • Use dynamic creative where applicable to drive performance with limited budgets.
  • Update ad creatives to reflect changes in available products or services, limited hours, special terms or conditions like “senior hours,” etc.

Focus on your business and lean on digital media partners to help with your digital ads.

  • Ask your digital media partner if there is MORE they can do for you. Whether that’s helping you redefine your target audience or make quick updates to ad creative.
  • Utilize planning tools that save you time so you can quickly optimize bids and budgets.

Make the most of existing customers.

  • Repurpose user-generated content in your digital advertising campaigns to capture consumers’ attention and engage them in a non-intrusive way. Consumers are 2.4x more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands.
  • Target past converters, drive higher engagement and utilize direct mailing lists via CRM Onboarding. Look-a-like targeting allows advertisers to reach users whose behavior mirrors that of their most loyal customers.

Use automation to match your approach with changing customer behavior.

  • Follow the changing customer journey to inform where you should increase spend and where you can safely dial back spend.
  • If you have concerns over your ads surrounding questionable content, consider creating a blocklist of any concerning keywords surrounding worrisome or controversial current events. 48% of consumers report that they would avoid a brand that appears next to undesirable content or fake news.

Align your campaigns to your goals and priorities.

  • To reflect business priorities, ensure that credit is given across customer touchpoints with data-driven attribution or non-last-click attribution. Digilant can help.
  • Allocate budget towards surging channels such as CTV & Social: Screen time is on the rise and ad is streaming TV and social consumption.

The public health, political, and social upheaval of 2020 has been the ultimate test of character for advertisers. They have been charged with showing resilience and allyship – by revisiting priorities and pivoting digital marketing strategies to connect with consumers in new ways. In recent months we’ve learned that now is not the time for advertisers to sit still and wait for things to return to normal. Here’s what else we’ve learned since March 2020.

Habits triggered by COVID-19 are continuing during the re-opening of local, state, and national economies – these new behaviors are expected to remain well past re-opening.

  • Spending more on media doesn’t always yield better results. Media investments of any amount only pay off when you invest in the right omnichannel marketing strategy.
  • Rapid response capabilities are becoming table stakes for advertising partners and in-house teams – and for good reason. The ability to quickly pivot digital media targeting, update messaging and creative quickly will result in closing or widening the gap between consumers and brands.
  • A resurgence of demand for non-essential products and services as economies re-open isn’t enough to drive brand growth. How you differentiate your brand in the eyes of consumers will determine whether you grow faster or slower than the competition.

As an omnichannel digital services company that always trusts data over a hunch, we have evolved our approach media campaigns on behalf of our clients during this uncertain time. Our nimble approach to our client’s business has given us insight into what’s resonating with consumers and what isn’t. If you’re interested in ramping up your omnichannel marketing strategy to close the year strong, contact us today!

4 Leading-edge Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Tips to Implement Now

In traditional forms of advertising, brands have been at the center of the model, showcasing products and offerings that hopefully appealed to their audience. As the power of the consumer continues to grow, this model needs (and has already begun) to change. Implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy does just this. Omnichannel marketing puts the consumer at the center of the buying journey. Brands utilize key data points and tactics to showcase products and offers that appeal to that specific audience, throughout their entire buying journey.

80% of consumers expect, want, and prioritize brands who put them at the forefront of their shopping experience. Whether they are interacting with your brand in-store, online, on mobile devices, on social media or via emails & messaging brands should work to create a seamless, connected, customer-centric experience. 

However, with the variety of different channels and shopping preferences that consumers have, it can seem overwhelming to narrow down where to start or which ones are essential to implement now. We’ve narrowed down the list for you. Below you’ll find four leading-edge omnichannel marketing strategy tips to help propel your brand’s goals forward.

1. Make Sure Your Mobile Friendly

Mobile, mobile, mobile. It’s been a trending buzzword in the industry for the last few years. But, for good reason. American consumers spend upwards of 5 hours on their phone everyday and when you look at younger shoppers, that jumps up to 6 hours. The importance of advertising on mobile is clear, consumers are spending more and more time on these devices, browsing, watching video and shopping. Ensuring that you have mobile-friendly assets when launching a campaign is essential, however there are other great benefits your brand can take advantage of when investing in mobile.

  • Zip code targeting: Using consumer location data, you can use timely advertisements when consumers are within a certain radius of your store to drive in-store traffic. You can also offer specific in-store promos/coupons when you know they are within a certain vicinity of your store. This is an near perfect way of meeting your customer where they are in the buying journey
  • App ownership: You can create audiences based on app ownership behaviors paired with other demographic and pshycgorhpic insights you already have about your audiences. The more information you have about your consumer, the more personalized their shopping experience! 

2. Like, Comment, Share: The Power of Social Media

Tied directly to the importance of mobile advertising is social media advertising. During that 5 hour window that consumers are on their phone, about half of it is spent scrolling through social media. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, Snachat, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterst, consumers expect brands to have a social media presence. 70% of social media users visit a brand’s page to gain information and 49% of consumers will make a purchase decision based on their information you have. 

Consumers use social media as a tool to explore, learn new information, read peer and influencer reviews, discover new products, and even make purchases. All of this makes it a great channel to incorporate into your omnichannel marketing strategy as you have a captive audience ready and willing to explore new brands, products or services. Use this opportunity to hone in on personalized ads. Target certain audiences with interest-based, intent-based or even shoppable ads ads on their social media platform you know they are more active on. All of this personalization increases your brand perception and in turn, sales. 

Interested in seeing a real-world brand put the power of social media advertising to use? Read about Popcorner’s used Facebook in their recent product launch here

3. Add to Cart: In-Store Attribution

Online shopping is another hot industry buzzword that, not surprisingly, has garnered even more attention as coronavirus-related stay at home orders continue into the later half of the year. 63% of shopping occasions begin online. Clearly people begin researching and browning online, but when it comes time to make a decision, e-commerce sales account for about 14% of all sales. These numbers show us the importance of both an online and in-store consumers experience (also known as an omnichannel marketing strategy).

If your digital advertising campaigns are working and drawing customers to your store to make a purchase, that data will be lost without an offline tool to track and correlate in-store purchases with your digital advertisements. In-store attribution measures campaigns’ impact on real-world store visits using mobile and offline location data for attribution. This strategy is essential to tie your entire campaign together. 

4. Not Playing Around: The Growth of Video Games

Gaming is one of the fastest growing entertainment industries in the United States and just like online shopping, it’s seeing dramatic increases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic – Microsoft reported a 130% increase in multiplayer engagement across March and April of this year. Between apps, consoles or computer games, about ¾ of Americans households have a video gamer in their home. 

With this growing audience, digital advertising tactics continue to expand in order to target this group of people. Below are some examples of how you can reach and interact with this group to continue your brand’s conversation with consumers: 

  • In-App: Target relevant audiences by app or by type of app. 
  • Consoles: Similar to Connected TV, reach cord-cutting audiences who have opted to use their gaming console as a television. Using video ads you can reach this audience as they browse and watch television on Wii, Playstation, and XBox. 

Understanding your audience: the key to an omnichannel marketing strategy

All of these strategies have one thing in common: they all are used in an effort to better reach and interact with your consumers. That is the #1 tip to keep in mind for any successful omnichannel marketing strategy: understand your consumer. As advertisers it can be overwhelming to keep up with the different channels and tactics emerging on what seems like a weekly basis. But, if you keep the question in the back of your mind “will this help me better understand and target my audience?” it can help you stay on track with your business goals. 

Uncovering and implementing audience information and insights will elevate any omnichannel marketing. Find a partner who can do just this and take your campaign to the next level. At Digilant we rely on consumer insights, campaign performance benchmarks, and data-driven strategy to push your campaign to the next level. Interested in learning more about how our data-driven approach can help uncover your audience insights? Let’s Talk

Leveraging Marketing Analytics Benefits for Strategic Ad Spend

Marketing analytics is the practice of using technology, applications, and methods to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The practice can also measure the impact of individual marketing initiatives or efforts, such as advertising campaigns, emails, content, and social media posts. Essentially, marketing analytics analyzes, tracks, and measures the performance of overall campaigns and efforts according to predefined metrics. For instance, a company can use sales revenue attributed to an advertising campaign about a promotion to measure its performance.

With many organizations using a mix of traditional and digital media, marketing analytics methods and tools have been able to combine performance data across multiple advertising sources. This performance data provides marketing analytics benefits related to not only assessing the effectiveness of current efforts but also providing insights about future decisions. Integrated performance data that is easily accessible from a single tool can provide both macro and micro views, allowing marketers to make strategic decisions on advertising spend based on a larger picture.

Summary of Marketing Analytics Benefits

Besides providing marketers and executives with an overall picture of campaign performance, marketing analytics provides the following advantages:

  • Perform A/B tests on various creative elements, such as copy and content, call to actions, images, and designs.
  • Pinpoint what types of creative messages are working and which ones are not. This can also be identified according to different audiences or market segments.
  • Identify trends among various promotional campaigns, promotional programs, products/services, media consumption behaviors, and audience or market sentiments.
  • Provide data on the return on investment (ROI) for specific campaigns and individual marketing efforts, such as webinars and live events.
  • Measure growth trends and changes in audience behaviors, such as shifts towards responding to email and social media versus print or television advertising.
  • Help predict the results of future campaigns or individual marketing efforts.
  • Identify areas for improvement or market opportunities.
  • Help shape overall marketing strategies and determine when shifts in strategies are necessary.
  • Monitor consumer behaviors and responsiveness.

Identifying and Using the Right Tools

To reap the rewards of marketing analytics benefits, each company or organization often has to experiment with different tools and methods to get it “right.” Outlining the organization’s goals, what needs to be measured, and why, can provide a solid blueprint for finding the optimal tools. Some analytics tools have free versions or features for marketers to try out before upgrading to paid versions. For instance, Moz’s keyword tool has a free version that lets copywriters and content strategists perform basic keyword research for blog posts and other forms of digital content. The Pro or paid version expands available features to advanced SEO research and tracking.

Other tools like HubSpot and Domo reveal trends and performance across various digital channels, such as web and landing pages, emails, and online content. From a centralized dashboard, marketers can view overall performance trends for blog posts, email campaigns, and landing pages. Performance metrics are also available for individual pieces of content, web pages, and emails. Comparisons can be made according to specific periods, such as year-to-year, month-to-month, rolling 90-day or quarterly stretches. Tools like HubSpot can provide complete content management or customer management systems, integrating both current and potential customer contact information.

Analytics tools, such as SEMRush, can provide marketers with comprehensive comparisons between leading competitors. Companies can see how internal web pages and advertising campaigns are ranking in relation to competitors that may be targeting the same keywords and similar audiences. Comparison tools can also help identify content or keyword opportunities that marketers may have previously overlooked.

Regardless of the set of tools a company chooses, there are a variety of ways to approach the objective of leveraging marketing analytics benefits. While some companies choose to handle everything in-house, many organizations use the services of digital advertising and analytics partners, like Digilant to help maximize ROIs on advertising budgets. Since Digilant specializes in omnichannel marketing and analytics and is made up of veteran specialists, we can lend institutional knowledge and critical and unbiased perspective of advertising performance to in-house teams.

Digilant can complete audits of digital advertising efforts and build custom analytics dashboards to connect and visualize advertising data in a single view. Reports and visualizations can easily be shared and interpreted by your team and key stakeholders and can save you precious time and resources by eliminating manual work and the need for expensive data storage, preparation, and visualization tools. 

Now is the time to start reaping the rewards of marketing analytics benefits. To get a complete view of your current marketing and advertising initiatives and to identify opportunities to get more out of your advertising investments, contact us today.

How political ads are changing in 2020

How political ads are changing in 2020

With many US consumers continuing to hunker down at home and many stating a mistrust of ‘fake news’ on both social networks and television, political advertisers are wondering how to best connect with their constituents as the race for the White House and many Congressional seats heat up. We spoke with two digital experts about how the political ad space has changed so far in 2020.

As the countdown to the US Presidential Election heats up, what trends are you seeing in how the major parties are advertising?

“Less of a focus on social due to brand safety and consumer trust issues and a greater focus on putting ad dollars towards channels like display and CTV and publishers (esp publishers part of PMPs) with greater transparency and reporting on brand safety metrics that advertisers care most about.”

-Raquel Rosenthal, CEO, Digilant

Read the full post here.

Election 2020: 6 Solid Ways Political Advertisers Can Win With CTV

(Toolbox Marketing) Election 2020: 6 Solid Ways Political Advertisers Can Win With CTV 

With the Trump vs Biden election day around the corner, many political advertisers are gearing up their plans for a historic campaign season. But with COVID-19 and mail-in voting concerns, many are shifting messaging and considering alternative approaches to reach voters where it counts.

As more people are at home and in front of the big screen, connected TV (CTV) is shaping up to be the platform of choice for savvy political advertisers who choose to drive voters efficiently and effectively to the polls. According to eMarketer, political advertising in the 2019/2020 election cycle would reach $6.89 billion. Another study by Centro suggested that 63% of respondents consider CTV as one of the top five most promising developments for their digital campaigns. As political advertisers are recognizing the need for data-driven political campaigns, in this exclusive interview with Toolbox Marketing, experts share why CTV offers both audiences reach and return on ad dollars.

Here are the top ways experts think political advertisers can win with CTV in the 2020 election campaign:

1. Offers an Audience of Young Voters and Powerful Targeting Capabilities

Raquel Rosenthal, CEO of Digilant

“The top reasons political advertisers should turn to CTV/OTT are to stay in-step with voters. For political advertisers, the saying “go where your customers are” can be translated as “go where the voters are”. As streaming continues to surge, this means including CTV in media buys to reach high propensity and on the fence voters. By laying on comprehensive first party and third-party donation and voter data on top of standard demographic data, political advertisers can enhance campaign storytelling with immersive full-screen ads.

“It’s no secret that the rise of CTV and content streaming, in general, is having a huge impact on how political advertisers are investing in media spend this election season. But, if I had to boil it down to what elements of CTV will have the greatest impact on voter engagement, it’s the unmatched audience of young voters and powerful targeting capabilities both of which come at a cost that can’t be matched with linear TV.”

Read the full post here.

Heard on the Street: Diversifying the Digital Ad Stack

“The reason that brands now want to work with fewer partners is because they want a holistic view of what’s happening. So if they’re working with too many partners, they’re data-siloed and don’t get a full picture. So by working with an end-to-end partner, [they can] make sense out of the whole puzzle.”

Heard on the Street Episode 56: Diversifying the Digital Ad Stack

with Digilant CEO, Raquel Rosenthal

Brand advertising has gone through a transformative period… and we’re not talking about a pandemic. Of course, the entire ad world has been upended in the past six months, but ample change was already underway beforehand. The evolution of customer data and in-housing are two factors driving brand advertising’s transformation.

One company that is natively primed for this ongoing transformation is Digilant. As we discussed with CEO Raquel Rosenthal on the latest episode of Heard on the Street, the company offers a multi-faceted service model that both diversifies its market opportunity and mitigates its risk as a player in the ever-shifting advertising world.

This multi-faceted approach includes interlocking pieces such as ad tech software, agency services, and consultancy services. These can be mixed and matched in various ways. For example, clients can use Digilant’s software for in-house brand marketing work or rely on the company as more of a full-service agency.

“Since Digilant started as an ad tech company, we’re differentiating as a new type of emerging agency and consultancy. We have deep knowledge of data, technology, analytics. From our DSP/DMP days, we have product and engineering and data science teams and expertise. We have knowledge of how ad tech and martech technology fits together.”

Listen to the full Podcast here.

Programmatic vs Performance Marketing: Understanding the Risks and Potential Returns

In an age of data-driven marketing, in which brands have copious amounts of consumer information and insights at their fingertips, advertisers are becoming more nimble in where they invest their advertising budgets. In an effort to optimize toward specific campaign goals, advertisers are opting for different formats and payment models of digital advertisements to suit their needs better. Programmatic vs performance marketing has sparked many conversations in the last few years as aspects of performance marketing such as affiliate and influencer marketing have grown in popularity. Advertisers might find it difficult to differentiate the two and figure out which one will work best for their goals as they both have unique risks and rewards. We’ve outlined the two marketing models, taking note of unique benefits and drawbacks you might face when deciding where to invest your digital advertising dollars.

What is Programmatic Marketing?

Programmatic marketing uses automated, real-time bidding to place ads across a variety of channels to relevant and targeted audiences. This streamlined ad buying can be done across desktop, mobile, and video, targeting audiences based on demographics, psychographics, purchase-intent, interests, and more. The popularity of programmatic marketing has grown tremendously in the past decade – projected to reach $147 billion by 2021

What is Performance Marketing?

Performance marketing is a form of digital advertising in which the advertiser only pays when there is a measurable result, such as a click, form fill, or lead generation. This form of digital advertising flips the traditional pay before you go methods on their head. Some of the more popular channels and tactics for performance marketing are: 

  • Social Media: 79% of the US population uses social media, so whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok, or Instagram, most brands are likely to find and interact with their audiences on social. Social media performance marketing campaigns look to drive clicks, shares, comments, and sales.
  • Sponsored Content: Using an “expert” in your vertical to tell your story and promote your brand is growing in popularity. MuseFind found that 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than a brand or traditional celebrity endorsement. Popular KPIs for this method are leads, acquisition, and purchases. 
  • Native Advertising: Designed to look like the website’s content, these ads should be contextually relevant to the sites they appear on. Advertisers should use this method to foster clicks and impressions.

Performance Marketing and Affiliate Marketing are Not the Same

Affiliate marketing is a subset of the umbrella term, performance marketing. Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing model that rewards affiliates with a portion or percentage of the sales they promote for a product or brand. It falls into the performance marketing category as affiliates are not paid upfront, but rather once the desired action has taken place, such as a sale. 

What are the risks: programmatic vs performance marketing?

With any form of digital advertising, there are risks you should be aware of when investing budget. However, many of these risks can be mitigated with a strategic partner that prioritizes transparency and is knowledgeable and diligent in avoiding common risks such as brand safety and ad fraud. 

Programmatic

  • Brand Safety: Everyone remembers the Youtube advertising scandal in 2017 when brands pulled millions of dollars in advertising from the platform after their ads were shown next to extremist videos promoting hate speech. This sparked the need for better brand safety measures as brands demanded protocol to ensure their ads were appearing next to acceptable content. Three years later, brands still need to be aware of brand safety measures when investing in programmatic. At Digilant, we partner with Companies like Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify, data-driven companies that have developed formulas, algorithms, and data-driven tools to prevent ads from ever appearing alongside undesirable content. These tools, in conjunction with private marketplace deals and exclusion/inclusion sites, help to diminish the risk of negative ad placement. 
  • Ad Fraud: This isn’t a risk unique to programmatic, but rather something all digital advertisers need to be cognizant of when investing money. How do you know your ads are being seen by actual people? Just like brand safety measures, working with a digital advertising partner that puts issues like this at the forefront of their media plan is essential. Partnering with companies like AppNexus, who actively works to detect fraudulent clicks before they appear in your analysis, while also creating robust inclusion lists are two ways Digilant works to combat ad fraud.

Performance Marketing: 

  • Regulatory Rules: Keeping up to date with compliance-related issues such as regulatory rules, publisher fraud, and placement transparency is important for any type of digital advertising. However, as performance marketing tactics are commonly used to gain consumer information, such as emails, keeping up to date with new and updated rules can be a daunting task. 
  • Lots of impressions, but no earning: Although free ad impressions are not necessarily a bad problem to encounter when your brand is working to drive a specific action such as email subscription or sales, it can be frustrating not to see those actions come to fruition. It might take numerous impressions to finally reach that ultimate goal of closing a sale. 

What are the potential returns: programmatic vs performance marketing?

Both programmatic and performance marketing have similar advantages with regard to consumer insights and transparency. In both models, advertisers are able to see who is interacting with their ads, where they are interacting with their ads (which sites), and other valuable insights that will help streamline future campaigns. However, there are also unique rewards that both of these models provide for advertisers.

Programmatic

  • Real-time optimization: As soon as a campaign is launched, advertisers are able to track impressions, clicks, and other KPIs for any given ad. You no longer have to wait to see how a campaign does, but rather can switch in successful ads for those not performing as well – all in real-time, with real insights on the spot. 
  • Increased Audience Reach: With nearly 285 million active internet users in the US, once you plug in campaign parameters and target audience details, there’s still potential to reach millions of consumers throughout your campaign. 

Performance Marketing:

  • Low(er) risk: Because you are paying for a specific action, it automatically reduces the risk of spending and not seeing the desired results. 
  • ROI focused: Performance marketing is an extremely results-driven advertising model, so for brands looking to invest in digital advertising while keeping the top of line goals in mind, performance marketing is a great solution. 
  • Build Your Brand: As Performance marketing includes tactics such as influencer marketing and affiliate marketing, you are able to build your brand through different people and their audiences, which can have great benefits in regards to impressions and, hopefully, sales.  

So, which one should I choose?

After reading about programmatic vs performance marketing, you may be thinking: how do I choose the best option for me? The answer to this question depends not only on your brand’s overall goals but largely includes specific campaign goals. Digital advertising campaigns can have different strategic goals, which in turn will result in different buying models. If you’re looking for broad-scale and reach for a new product release, choosing programmatic will help foster a successful campaign. However, if you’re looking to drive newsletter sign-ups and you’re on a tight budget, performance marketing may be the way to go. 

Advertisers will spend nearly $140 billion in digital advertising in the US this year alone, so it is no surprise that this money won’t go into one single bucket. Rather, as more insights, data, and technology are released and adapted, advertisers will spend it strategically across platforms and models that best suit their needs. 

Finding a strategic digital advertising partner that understands the nuances of these different areas, the risks you should be aware of when choosing one and how best to optimize tactics to make the best of our campaigns is essential. At Digilant, we have experience and expertise across programmatic and performance marketing. We’re eager to hear your goals and work to find the best solution for your specific needs. Let’s talk!

SalesTechStar Interview With Todd Heger, Chief Revenue Officer At Digilant

The programmatic ad buying experience is changing; the transforming needs and behaviors of users during this new normal brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting how consumers want to be spoken to. Todd Heger, Chief Revenue Officer at Digilant joins SalesTech Star in this QnA to share a few trends and observations on how crucial it is for businesses to get their messaging right, especially now.

What are some of your near-future predictions for programmatic ad buying and how will changing behaviors, lifestyles and user habits due to Covid-19 play a role here? 

Third party cookies have historically been the “currency” of programmatic advertising, but with GDPR and CCPA compliance in effect and the ban of cookies across Google, Facebook, Safari looming, we’re starting to see a greater reliance on viable alternatives to third party cookies. This shift will trigger a fundamental change in how programmatic advertisers media plan. Out of necessity, first party data will become a larger part of programmatic media plans, but for advertisers who have yet to aggregate and first party data, context and placement will become the golden ticket to maintaining scale and engagement.

Of course, this is easier said than done. COVID-19 has heightened consumer expectations for advertisers. Consumers expect brands to step up and have greater discretion with what ads say and where they are placed – robust contextual data that includes sentiment and tone paired with smart placements can help.

Why should brands be focusing on an omnichannel approach to provide a seamless and more personalized experience to consumers, during these times especially? 

Right now, it’s critical for advertisers to get their messaging right. This means, messaging needs to be timely AND it needs to be uninterrupted and meet consumers wherever they are along the customer journey. The number of channels consumers use to discover and shop brands and retailers is growing quickly, in large part due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Sure, consumers are spending more time on the internet and on social media, but we’re also seeing significant growth in emerging channels like streaming TV and podcasts. Having a singular, omni-channel strategy vs. siloed strategies will be the best way to keep up with today’s hyper-connected consumers.

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