Recognizing Audiences in the Murky Marketing Ecosystem

How the Integration of Marketing Channels Enables Consistent Consumer Recognition for Cross-Channel Advertising:

In this, the second of our MoneyAds Mentor Series, we look at how modern advertisers strive to create connected experiences for consumers and foster trust, all in (near) real time. Recognition – recognizing consumers across channels, offline or online – is the foundation for this, and it all begins with connected data to drive connected experiences when and where your audience is most receptive. While recognition may seem easy to achieve, the ability to do this across channels, devices and media is highly complex. The good news is, with more places to reach consumers, brands have the opportunity to drive expanded reach and greater relevance with ad technology partners.

As consumers, we live multi-channel lives and often interact with our favorite brands through a myriad of channels, and nowhere more so these days than on websites, on our mobile phones, or wherever we go to watch TV or videos. Our shift in behavior has impacted marketing so much that when recently asked, 28 percent of marketing leaders said they plan to reallocate resources to prioritize an omni-channel engagement strategy.

How can advertisers begin to execute such a strategy? A brand’s journey must start with its own invaluable customer data to recognize consumers consistently across channels, while respecting their need for privacy and discretion. While this concept has been table stakes in the offline world, the digital world has presented a slew of hurdles, such as rapidly evolving technology and platforms and the format of the data itself. The challenge then lies in the consistent application of consumer data across channels.

After all, if recognition drives connected experiences, then consumer data matching drives the connection of data.

Key takeaways:

1. A cross-channel view of the consumer is the foundation for true multi-channel advertising. After all, you can’t target who you don’t recognize.
2. Carefully craft the mix of digital channels to create connected experiences for your intended audience.
3. Adopt recognition and matching best practices that deliver the highest degree of accuracy and reach. Expertise in recognition across time and channels is essential.
4. Select an ad tech partner that is integrated with a large network of partners and publishers, especially those most important to your brand, to allow you to effectively leverage your customer data and boost your ability to reach consumers through their channel(s) of choice.
5. Recognition across channels does not mean annoying people across channels. Ensure you and your ad tech partners always use data ethically to protect consumer privacy.

I’m Supposed to Work with Who?

Study after study shows the value of multichannel marketing and how consumers who engage with a brand through multiple channels spend much more than single-channel consumers, with some estimating a 4X difference between the two groups, with others finding an average of $9 in incremental sales for every $1 of online advertising. As enticing as that value proposition is, for marketers tasked with creating the connected experiences needed to reap these benefits, they must make sense of an ecosystem that looks like this:

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Full article available at http://bit.ly/1LeEYVW (link is external)