Digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is on the up as consumers return to offices, use public transportation, shop at grocery stories and frequent airports in greater numbers. In a piece from AdMonsters, Stephanie Gutnik, Yahoo’s Global Head of Digital Out Of Home, dishes on what’s driving the increase in DOOH advertising, creative engagement tactics, how it fits into an omnichannel marketing strategy, and more.

The post Yahoo’s Stephanie Gutnik on the Return of Digital Out of Home Advertising appeared first on Chief Marketer.

A global pandemic has turned consumers’ attention toward the value of a robust, healthy immune system. And as a result, ingesting foods that support that health—like probiotics—has become increasingly important for many.

“Because of the pandemic, almost 30 percent of consumers are consuming more functional foods and beverages—and the probiotics category has benefited a lot from that tailwind,” says Kallie Goodwin, Vice President of Family & Wellness Brands at Danone NA. So when it came time to launch its new probiotic-packed product, Activia+, the brand leaned into immunity as a hook.

We spoke with Goodwin about marketing its latest product launch, and how it partnered with retailer shopper marketing programs, tapped influencers to court a younger demographic and leveraged scientific research to support its health claims.

Chief Marketer: What are Activia’s overall marketing strategy and communication objectives? And how do they connect to the new Activia+ campaign?

Kallie Goodwin, Vice President of Family & Wellness Brands at Danone NA: As we’re talking to our consumers, we know how important your gut is to your overall health and wellness. And we know that a lot of the body’s systems are connected to the gut. Our original A to Z, “Your gut is where it all begins” campaign, is anchored in that insight. It helps educate primarily our female target that how you feel on the inside impacts how you feel on the outside, “from active to zealous.” It empowers you to be your best self.

So when we developed and were looking at launching our Activia+ Multi-Benefit Probiotic product, which offers both the probiotic benefit from Activia through our superior probiotic strains as well as an immunity benefit delivered through vitamin C, D and zinc, we wanted to continue that communication strategy with the A+ Feels ad, using the same kind of creative tone and style—the sing-songy, highly-visual approach.

We know immunity is top of mind for consumers right now, obviously, with the pandemic. A lot of consumers are looking for immunity benefit in their foods, and 44 percent of consumers are interested in yogurt to help support their immune system. We wanted to launch it in a really big way, and we knew that leveraging our existing creative idea, which they’ve seen for the last 18 months, would help instantly communicate to consumers.

CM: Besides TV advertising, what channels have you used to market the new product?

KG: We looked at a variety of channels, but are focused on video, in television and online, to drive awareness so that people know about the product and to drive them to the shelf. But it’s not just television. We also have a robust conversion program driving trial and conversion at shelf with coupons, both digital and print, and in-store promotion tactics.

CM: What shopper marketing tactics are you using? How are you cutting through the clutter?

KG: It’s a two-pronged approach. The first is working specifically with every customer team to marry our trade program. So, promoting and getting the right feature and display on the product. At the same time, it’s integrating into that retailer’s shopper programming. Whether it’s Publix or Kroger, each has their own mechanics and rich shopper data for them to reach their customers, and so it’s about leveraging those programs to make sure we’re reaching the Kroger shopper the way they’re used to being reached, through their loyalty card, ads targeted specifically to them through the Kroger retail media group, etc. We have a robust program specific to each customer. That’s one tactic.

For the second, we layer on national consumer promotion tactics by working with a partner like Quotient, where we’re delivering digital coupons through a coupons.com-type platform that also can connect into specific retailers, but more at a national level. We’re trying to give consumers a reason to try us through a discount in the way in which they’re used to receiving those discounts.

CM: What are the consumer insights that this campaign is based on?

KG: We’ve seen that—because of the pandemic—almost 30 percent of consumers are consuming more functional foods and beverages and the probiotics category has benefited a lot from that tailwind. Activia, however, has been outpacing the probiotic category because of our superiority as the number one probiotic and the number one recommended probiotic by doctors. So when thinking about how to expand Activia as a brand anchored in the gut health space, immunity was just a natural place to go next. Seventy percent of your immune system actually lives in your gut. And as I mentioned before, we know that consumers are looking for foods to help support their immune system.

How do we go about doing it? The consumer we’re trying to reach, this healthy go-getter who is a younger millennial consumer, is looking for multiple benefits in their products. So rather than just a standalone immunity benefit, we wanted to bundle it with our existing Activia probiotic and then use vitamins and minerals to help deliver that immune system support.

Then there are other trends that we’re also aware of and incorporating into this, which is additional scrutiny on sugar. Sugar has replaced fat as the biggest dietary demon and a lot of consumers, particularly this younger millennial, are really mindful about sugar. Each bottle of Activia+ only has nine grams of sugar and 70 calories. So all in, when you combine the functional benefits of the product with this delicious, convenient format, it makes it a winner in our book.

CM: How are you appealing specifically to younger generations through your marketing tactics?

KG: In two ways: in tone and personality and in look and feel. We don’t want to be—and we’re not anymore—the old Activia for your mom. We know that a lot of that is just how we show up. Are we showing up in a modern, vibrant way? And that is the beauty of the A to Z campaign. It shows a variety of different women, a variety of different body styles, all living their best lives in an active way that has this very youthful energy.

The second way is in diversifying our media mix and leveraging influencers to help us tell our story to a younger audience. In 2021, we partnered with Iskra Lawrence, an outspoken influencer, model and younger, new mom. That’s going to continue to be part of our strategy moving forward. Are we partnering with the right influencers that are helping us show up to those younger demographics?

CM: What are the biggest challenges for marketers looking to cut through the clutter in the wellness space today?

KG: There are two that keep me up at night. One you’ve already highlighted: cutting through the clutter. There are so many different options in health and wellness. There’s constantly new brands coming to market with different benefits—some of them more backed in science than others, if I’m being honest. In that case, we rely on the superiority of Activia and the fact that we are the number one doctor-recommended probiotic to help us in that superiority effort. But still, it’s a very busy media landscape. We spend a lot of money on Activia as a percentage of our total yogurt marketing budget because we want to make sure that we’re cutting through that clutter with a really clear message.

The second one is more specific to a brand like Activia in the health and wellness space. You have to make sure that you have the science and are constantly reminding consumers of that superiority, but it has to be in a way that’s very subtle so that we’re not seen as medicinal. [We want to be] seen as a proactive part of people’s health and wellness and not a reactive one—like, “I take this when I don’t feel good” kind of thing. So as we’re on our journey to modernize and be our target’s ally in a proactive health and wellness way, we have to walk that line.

The post Danone NA VP Talks Activia+ Product Launch Within the Wellness Space appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Online spending accounted for more than a fifth of total retail sales in 2020, according to a piece in Multichannel Merchant, up from 15.8 percent in 2019. So, if you haven’t perfected your ecommerce marketing strategy yet, here are a few tips for creating a compelling digital shelf through mobile optimization, image selection, positive reviews and more.

Use Keyword-Rich Copy

Brand copy should contain search term keywords that shoppers would use to find your product. This applies to the title, feature bullets, product descriptions and metadata—all key elements of proper search engine optimization.

Make it Mobile-First

Optimize your copy for mobile by ensuring that four components—brand recognition, product type recognition, variant recognition and size recognition—are applied to your hero image. This will allow consumers to find your product more easily, reduce accidental adds to shopping carts, create incremental sales across platforms and improve mobile conversions.

Savvy Image Selection

Product images should be up-to-date, accurate and high-quality, with your digital shelf featuring an average of 3-4 images. Your product’s primary image should be the most compelling, but the supporting gallery of imagery can include real-life moments and use cases.

For more tips on how marketers can enhance their digital presence—through reviews and rich media forms, among others—read on in Multichannel Merchant.

The post Ecommerce Strategies: How to Make Your Brand’s Digital Shelf Stand Out Online appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Complicating matters: Estimated opt-in rates are looking paltry, around 20-30 percent. That means that targeting audiences and attributing online behavior just became a more challenging task for digital marketers.

Apple’s policy change, in addition to other data visibility limitations like privacy regulation, has had a ripple effect across the digital marketing industry. Facebook, for instance, reduced its conversion tracking window from 28 days to seven and cited Apple as the impetus. Though the result of these limitations is a muddling of data insights and less accurate reporting, marketers who continue to leverage Facebook ads can focus on three core principles that hold true despite this erosion of data, according to a piece in AdMonsters by Elliot Gensemer, Senior Director, Account Services at Metric Theory.

Efficacy of Channel Marketing Data

Though Facebook has limited its attribution window to seven days, Gensemer writes, in some cases clients’ conversions occur outside of that 28-day window. Therefore, blinds spots in data reporting already exist. He recommends creating benchmarks to account for data blind spots, focus on where the data is most reliable and adjust channel performance goals.

Focus on Incrementality

Optimal budget setting depends on leveraging incrementality of conversions, or focusing on how many new customers were gained from the investment as opposed to attempting to determine how advertising is contributing to the growth of the business. Gensemer suggests investing in tactics that have the greatest incremental impact and gauging the lift that occurs from each channel and tactic.

For more on these principles, including leaning into personalization through ad creative and user experience, read more in AdMonsters.

The post Key Next Steps for Marketers Navigating the IOS 14.5 App Tracking Update appeared first on Chief Marketer.

A company that’s taken advantage of social commerce and experienced impressive results is fashion brand Rothy’s, which tapped Shopify’s partnership with Pinterest to sell its products. A major plus: Shoppable pins on Pinterest connect to Rothy’s inventory on Shopify automatically, which means that when a product goes out of stock in Shopify, consumers will no longer see the ads for that product on Pinterest. And it’s helped Rothy’s scale its digital advertising efficiently, according to a piece in AdExchanger.

Using the Pinterest Shopify app, Rothy’s and other brands can upload product catalogues to Pinterest and allow consumers to shop “Product Pins.” Brands can also now retarget users that have shown interest in their products. For more detail on how brands are using Shopify and Pinterest to sell inventory, read on in AdExchanger.

The post How Rothy’s Used Shopify and Pinterest to Scale Digital Advertising appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The results speak for themselves: The brand’s programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaign in the fourth quarter of 2020 increased consideration and intent to purchase by 66 percent, thanks to simple creative, location-based ad placement and programmatic retargeting.

Jägermeister had soft-launched its cold brew drink in 2019 with a DOOH campaign featuring video, and results were encouraging enough that the brand and its agency ENGINE decided to expand the campaign the following year with programmatic DOOH specialist Vistar Media. Ads were placed on billboards and urban panels as well as in liquor and convenience stores, gas stations and supermarkets throughout seven states, including markets in California, New York, Atlanta and Boston.

The creative for the OOH ads was relatively straightforward: “Hey New York”—or the appropriate market—“try new Jägermeister x Cold Brew Coffee” alongside a photo of a frosty bottle and glass. What set the campaign apart was the ability to “identify when and where every OOH ad was served,” says Jägermeister CMO Chris Peddy. “Vistar was able to match this data set with all devices that were in proximity of the screens at the time the OOH ads were shown.” The owners of those phones and other digital devices were then retargeted with mobile advertisements.

Locations for the OOH ads were chosen to target three audience segments: 21- to 34-year-olds, coffee and cold-brew aficionados, and people who had previously bought spirits. But being an alcoholic-beverage company and a member of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), Jägermeister had to adhere to stricter rules than most other brands when deploying its messaging.

For instance, in keeping with Legal Drinking Age (LDA) compliance and DISCUS guidelines, the only venues where the ads could be displayed were those used primarily for activities where at least 71.6 percent of attendees could be expected to be of legal drinking age. “We also considered the effect of the pandemic on consumer foot traffic,” Peddy says, “and adjusted our venue-type list to focus on essential errands, per the local phases of quarantine and lockdown at the time.”

Along with the 66 percent lift in intent to purchase Jägermeister’s Cold Brew Coffee, the campaign achieved a 73 percent increase in awareness of the product. There was a spillover effect for the parent brand as well, with purchase intention for Jägermeister overall up 14 percent.

Peddy is pleased not only with the results but also with DOOH marketing as a channel. “It not only allows us to intercept highly-specific audiences throughout their daily lives, but it also allows us to create thoughtful, strategic activations,” he says. “Add-ons like mobile retargeting, device ID retargeting in CTV, brand studies and foot-traffic studies take a versatile, easy-to-activate medium and turn it into a real powerhouse and cornerstone of intelligent campaigns.”

The post Jägermeister Taps Programmatic DOOH to Amp Up Cold Brew Awareness appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Mobile Optimization

According to data from Namagoo, the 2020 holiday shopping season saw mobile purchases surpass desktop for the first time. Brands should therefore optimize their mobile experience, starting with user-friendly account creation and an accessible and clearly visible search function.

Real-Time Intent

Tap technology to develop individualized promotions based on location, device, time of day and more. Use relevant, tailored promotions, such as buy-one-get-one-free or free shipping, to keep customers engaged.

For additional ways in which brands can increase engagement and conversions through ecommerce, including by preventing customer journey hijacking and offering flexible payment options, read more in Multichannel Merchant.

The post Four Ways to Increase Ecommerce Engagement and Sales appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Live Chat

Forrester research reports that 44 percent of ecommerce users say having questions answered by a live person while considering a purchase is one of the most important features of a website. It facilitates personalization and a more unified customer experience.

AI-Based Search

Artificial intelligence-based technology can tag and organize content so that users can find products through a visual search. An example: Pinterest allows consumers to select a photograph online, and then the platform provides a similar item using image recognition software.

For more tactics for converting omnichannel shoppers, including creating a unified customer view and A/B test landing pages for different devices, read more in Multichannel Merchant.

The post Four Tips for Delivering a Seamless Customer Experience for Online Shoppers appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Last year at this time, Facebook’s lower user acquisition costs were attractive to performance-based advertisers, and ecommerce brands and small businesses took advantage. But an increase in competition within the marketplace is driving prices up.

To prepare for this development, Jen Strojin, SVP of account services at growth agency Aisle Rocket, suggests that brands should develop benchmarks for metrics on Facebook, including cost per acquisition and lifetime value. Companies advertising on the platform should take a data-driven, efficient approach to marketing, she says, particularly in Q4 when holiday spending picks up. That includes closely monitoring campaign results and audience performance.

For more on how brands can navigate Facebook’s price increase, read on in AdExchanger.

The post How Marketers Can Approach the Rise in Facebook Advertising Costs appeared first on Chief Marketer.

If your B2B organization hasn’t hired “hybrid” sales reps yet, it probably will be doing so soon—or risk falling behind the competition. That’s one of the key takeaways from McKinsey & Company’s report “Omnichannel in B2B Sales: The New Normal in a Year That Has Been Anything But.”

“Hybrid sellers are typically defined as reps that were previously ‘in-person by default’ but now sell with a fairly even mix of remote—mostly via video—and in-person, supplemented by phone or email as needed,” explains Rock Khanna, senior partner at McKinsey. Of the nearly 3,500 respondents to McKinsey’s February 2021 B2B Pulse survey, 28 percent said their organizations had hybrid reps in place, and 77 percent of those introduced this “specifically to address the surge in video/virtual selling due to COVID-19,” Khanna says. “The expectation is that this will be the number-one sales role very soon.”

That hybrid model extends to marketing as well. “Our previous research shows that the average B2B customer interacts with an organization through seven channels, and 20 percent use 10 or more,” says Liz Harrison, partner at McKinsey. “This means there is an even higher bar to craft, develop and activate effective marketing campaigns. This underscores the importance of properly harnessing your data assets in order to understand your audience across channels and drive more positive business outcomes.”

McKinsey found that just under one third of buyers prefer in-person meetings with sales reps—even now that the country is opening up again. That figure is consistent across all stages of the buying process: identifying and researching new suppliers, considering and evaluating new suppliers, ordering and reordering. Slightly more buyers favor what McKinsey calls “remote human interactions,” including video and phone calls, emails and texts. And digital self-serve was nearly as popular. In fact, when it came to reordering, it was the most popular option, with 36 percent of buyers preferring it, compared with 34 percent favoring remote human interactions and only 30 percent opting for in-person meetings.

B2B organizations are striving to give current and potential customers what they want. While 57 percent of such companies reported selling in person as of February 2021, only 15 percent expected traditional in-person meetings to be the rule going forward. “Essentially, what we’re looking at is the difference between in-person being an option versus it being the default,” Harrison says. “Even though the majority of companies are still selling in person, and will continue to do so as part of their omnichannel go-to-market, compared to their pre-COVID-19 model, they won’t choose for every interaction—be it with customers or internal—to be in-person.”

That’s one more reason that companies need to have a data-based 360-degree view of the customer. “A foundational customer data set must exist inside an organization, with the goal of having a unified view of the customer across channels,” Harrison says. “Investments in data and technology will ultimately augment personalized marketing in an omnichannel environment.”

Fortunately for B2B companies, the omnichannel approach works. Of those surveyed in February, 58 percent said the hybrid sales approach was somewhat or much more effective when reaching and serving existing customers than “in-person by default” selling. In comparison, only 17 percent judged it somewhat or less effective. Effectiveness ratings when it came to new customers were similar: 60 percent of the B2B organizations surveyed said omnichannel selling was somewhat or much more effective, with 16 percent citing it as somewhat or less effective.

Another way to look at this is by channel. Forty-one percent of the B2B survey respondents ranked ecommerce as effective, making it the most highly rated sales channel. In-person meetings came in second place, with 37 percent rating them effective, followed by videoconferences (31 percent considered them effective).

Transitioning a B2B sales organization from the traditional in-person model to a hybrid model has its challenges, of course. Two-thirds of the B2B respondents said their sales teams have experienced channel conflicts—for instance, sales reps losing commissions because customers are purchasing via the website.

“Organizations should consider a way to figure out a role for sales reps to play in advocating ecommerce and incentivize them for that role,” Harrison says. “One example could be to pay reps a percentage commission on ecommerce sales for customers in their territory, compared to a slightly higher commission they may earn for traditional sales. Also, organizations should work closely with reps to ensure they play a role in follow-up services—delivery, onboarding, service check-ins—as it is incredibly rare that 100 percent of B2B customer needs can be handled via digital alone. Finally, organizations should provide guidance to reps on where they can and should add value—for example, advising where reps should be involved in certain types of customer interactions and which types should go to self-serve.”

The post McKinsey & Company Report: Omnichannel Is the Way Forward for B2B appeared first on Chief Marketer.