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4 Steps to Scale Your Multiunit Enterprise Marketing Strategy in 2023

Posted on by Sean Cotton

Brand marketing advice is often over-simplified – directed towards growing one brand, one product or one service. Multiunit enterprise marketing requires more complex, yet streamlined, solutions to effectively scale and drive sustainable growth. 

Take a large pharmaceutical company, for example. They typically have multiple business units, each overseeing multiple brands. Not only that, but they often need to reach and persuade multiple audiences – healthcare providers, patients, key opinion leaders, sales reps, procurement managers and caregivers. Essentially, they’re having to consider everything, everywhere, all at once. 

Without an integrated marketing and measurement strategy to tie it all together, chaos may be the only thing to scale. 

The Solution: Plan an overarching brand ecosystem alongside business line campaigns

Building a holistic ecosystem is the foundational structure needed to establish a flexible multiunit marketing strategy. It creates cohesive messaging and creative alignment, appropriate governance for audience targeting, and allows business lines to cross-share learnings that break down silos and level up organizational goals.

How do you accomplish this balancing act? 

  • Set cascading goals for each business unit to establish unified commitment
  • Create sub-ecosystems surrounding each core audience for authentic engagement
  • Optimize the user experience, paying close attention to the B2B2C relationship (if relevant)
  • Build a unified measurement framework to clearly articulate KPIs and desired business outcomes

Let’s break down these four key components for scaling multiunit enterprise marketing in more detail. 

#1 – Plan holistically using cascading goals for each business unit

Each business line has a unique agenda. This is inevitable. But, when you plan overarching and business line campaigns simultaneously, you can feed each agenda into a cohesive brand strategy. This upfront rigor in strategic planning will allow long-term flexibility. 

Start by establishing clear roles and responsibilities to delineate how each business unit contributes to the primary business and marketing objectives. We’ve found the best way to accomplish this is by using the cascading pyramid method of goal setting. 

Cascading goals are “first established at the highest level of the organization. Then, supporting goals are created for every department and team.” Those supporting goals are broken down into KPIs and then specific tasks or initiatives, getting more granular as you move towards the bottom of the pyramid.

Cascading Goal Pyramid

From a media planning perspective, you can assign each business unit unique OKRs and KPIs that contribute to topline goals. This is particularly important to account for the element of real-time spend optimization. When you align on KPIs early in planning, you can select channels with both business objectives and AI-driven optimization in mind. 

Client Example: Coegi works with a regional bank client with multiple business units: consumer banking, commercial banking and home equity. We have a unique audience-targeting strategy for each line of business using behavior-based indicators to ensure we’re reaching a qualified audience. However, every unit shares one core goal: growing new customers. As such, all media KPIs ladder up to that goal and drive the business in a cohesive and clear direction. 

#2 – Create ecosystems surrounding each core audience group

Take an audience-centric approach to media planning by using data and research to gain a deep understanding of core audience behaviors and values. This foundation will inform media and messaging decisions that reduce wasted impressions and build more authentic relationships.  

Apply this knowledge to build and nurture a marketing ecosystem surrounding each unit’s unique audience(s). For example, Coegi worked with BODYARMOR to expand and differentiate the brand in the crowded sports drink marketplace. They were looking to identify and reach new audiences for three distinct product lines: BODYARMOR Original, Lyte (sugar-free) and Edge (caffeinated). 

We created microtargeted audiences for each line, including: Blue Collar Workers, Grocery Gatekeepers, Veterans, Teenage Athletes and Health-Focused Adults. For each audience, we built a custom media plan and recommended messaging strategy – creating an ecosystem of organic touchpoints in their day-to-day lives. Read the full BODYARMOR case study here for more details. 

#3 – Optimize the B2B2C experience

Oftentimes, multiunit enterprises need to reach both professional and consumer audiences – requiring marketers to take a B2B2C approach. These brands need a marketing strategy that facilitates a conversation between the business and the end consumer, meeting them where they are in their level of awareness and knowledge. 

The business customer typically requires more brand-building content. Focus on ways to drive brand recall, establish a unique value proposition (UVP), and communicate benefits to their lives. VP of Marketing at Notion, Kate Rojas, quotes, “In a true B2B2C business model, your partners must be viewed as a true business partner and not just a channel to sell more products…” 

In the spirit of partnership, create a mutually beneficial system. For instance, if you are a financial brand communicating with advisors, sell them the offering that provides the quickest conversion or highest value reward. Then, use that inertia to help them cross-sell using your entire portfolio. This will benefit their bottomline while helping you establish loyal consumers who are invested in multiple offerings. 

Consumers, on the other hand, typically require more basic education about the category itself and the value it offers. This is especially true for more complex and regulated industries, such as finance, IT and healthcare. 

Client Example: Coegi uses a B2B2C content marketing strategy focused on driving brand awareness for our client, Athene, a leading retirement services company. Their end customers often need general education on the importance of retirement annuities. Financial advisors need more technical content about the brand’s benefits. Knowing this, we tailor content to their unique needs within one intertwined strategy so that the B2B and B2C units work together in support of the brand’s goal.

#4 – Build a comprehensive, cross-unit measurement framework

Even with unique campaigns by brand, product, or division, it’s critical to share and apply key takeaways. Insight sharing across units helps avoid a siloed view and allows the business as a whole to optimize more efficiently. 

This is also imperative for flexible budget allocation. When all units are part of an integrated strategy, budget can be allocated to the strongest performing lines, as determined by a test-and-learn approach. 

For specifics on how to create a unified measurement framework, view our 5 Step Guide to Measuring Marketing ROI. 

Read our Measurement Guide here

Create Your Multiunit Enterprise Marketing Strategy

An HBR article states, “multiunit organizations must ensure some degree of customization even as they pursue standardization. They must respond to the distinctive features of local and regional markets to achieve the best results.” 

So, while a nuanced approach for each unit, market, or even location is necessary, brands need to maintain some level of standardization for efficiency and scalability. By planning business line campaigns within this holistic strategic framework, you can ensure appropriate top-line budget allocation for each effort and avoid evaluating any one line in a vacuum.

5 Essential Influencer Marketing Tips

Posted on by Coegi

It’s hard to overestimate the power of a strong influencer endorsement. Trusted creators are powerhouses for building brand equity in a non-invasive way. 

They make word of mouth marketing scalable and efficient, when done well. However, many brands fail to reap the full benefits creators can offer. 

Why? 

  • Influencer marketing is often siloed or disjointed from overall business objectives and media strategy. 
  • Content performance can be difficult to quantitatively measure. 
  • And, with seemingly unlimited choices, it can be hard to identify the best influencers for your brand. 

But with the right building blocks,you can overcome these challenges. Here are our top five influencer marketing tips we apply to maximize our clients’ investments at  Coegi.

5 Essential Influencer Marketing Tips

1. Align influencer selection with business goals

First, define the business objective. What are you hoping to achieve with influencer marketing? Do you want to generate mass reach? Build market share within a specific niche? Or, are conversions, sales or leads the desired outcome?

After defining the goals, you can determine the mix of creators necessary to achieve those objectives: 

  • Mega influencers (1M+ followers): Ideal for driving mass awareness through celebrities or other large personalities. 
  • Macro Influencers (<1M followers): Reach engaged followerships in a more authentic way than mega.
  • Micro influencers (<50K followers): Ideal for driving consideration and conversions from more curated, but scalable, audiences. 
  • Nano influencers (<10K followers): Ideal for building brand community through long-term partnerships and driving action within niche interest segments.

Remember – bigger following does not always equal better results. Higher follower counts and millions of impressions comes a higher price tag and a less precise audience. Timing is another consideration, as larger-scale creators often have longer lead times due to heavier editorial calendars. 

Learn more on how to choose the best influencers for your brand from one of Coegi’s account supervisors and influencer marketing connoisseur, Natalie Carson:

How to Choose the Best Influencer for Your Brand

2. Find influencers that resonate with your brand style

Selecting the right size of creator for your goals and budget is important. But, finding the perfect creator match goes beyond surface-level numbers. 

  • Does your brand tone match the influencer’s personal brand voice? 
  • Is your product or service offering aligned with their follower interests? 
  • Does their content style and visual aesthetic complement your brand image? 

Finding creators that already fit your general brand standards will make the partnership process more streamlined and the content creation more genuine. 

But the real magic happens when a creator becomes an ambassador who truly knows and advocates for your brand over months or even years. You can nurture these relationships through evergreen discount codes and affiliate links, which will incentivize the creator while helping you track actions taken by their followers. 

3. Prioritize creators with strong follower communities

Users are becoming more perceptive to blatant advertising and ingenuine messaging. Take stock of how strong the creator’s rapport is with their followers. Do they truly influence their audience? This is especially important when attempting to reach Gen-Z consumers, who are hyper aware of sponsored content. 

Smaller creators tend to drive higher conversion rates due to having greater trust and engagement with their followers. Regardless of size, creators that organically align with your brand and are true advocates (ie. they actually use your product!) will be much more likely to influence purchase decisions.  

Lastly, be sure to thoroughly vet creators and avoid those with significant amounts of bot traffic or paid-for followers. These can inflate engagement and follower numbers but are useless for building your brand. 

4. Don’t treat influencer marketing as an “add on” to your media strategy

Influencer should be woven into a holistic marketing strategy, not treated as a separate tactic or handled by a random third-party. Consolidating your paid media and influencer marketing within one digital media agency offers three core benefits:

  • Measurement and Accountability – By integrating influencer with digital media, you can measure influencer campaign success using the same performance lens as other channels. 
  • Cross-Channel Budget Fluidity –  Centralization empowers marketers to move budget with agility where performance indicates – whether across channels or within creative rotations. For instance, through smart contract negotiation, a viral influencer post can be turned into a paid campaign from the creator’s handle or amplified by the brand. 
  • Seamless Audience Targeting – Media agencies can upload first-party data segments used across other channels to understand which influencers your audience already engages with and synchronize targeting to reduce media waste. 

Sharing cross-channel learnings and insights will make the overall media ecosystem stronger and allow for a more holistic, data-driven approach. 

5. Let your creators create

Good creators are storytellers and social media experts. They have their thumb on the pulse of social media trends. They understand the algorithms. And they know how to communicate with their audiences. 

90% of consumers view micro influencers as credible, believable & knowledgeable. 

Empower these partners to have an authentic voice when speaking on behalf of your brand – not a scripted actor. We’ve all sat through cringeworthy scripted ad reads on YouTube and raised eyebrows at ill-fitting product endorsements on Instagram or TikTok. And I’m betting you didn’t end up using those particular affiliate codes. 

You will see stronger results if you allow creators to communicate with their followers in a way that comes naturally. Simply let them create content, not ads. You can’t build brand authenticity without allowing your creators to be authentic with their audiences. 

View our Practitioner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing for more tips plus a step-by-step process on how to launch an effective influencer marketing strategy. 

The Practitioner’s Guide to Influencer Marketing

Build Audience Ecosystems, Not Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

The New Approach to Audience First Marketing

You’re not at war with your customers, so why are you “targeting” them with campaigns? 

It’s time to shift advertising’s rhetoric and redefine what it really means to be audience first.

From my perspective, placing the consumer at the center of your marketing strategy requires marketers to stop running advertising campaigns and start creating audience ecosystems. 

What is an audience ecosystem? 

An audience ecosystem is the culmination of a brand’s omnichannel marketing and communication touchpoints surrounding, and informed by, a core audience group. It blends paid, earned and owned content. It breaks down the walls between marketing communication channels. This takes brand marketing to a more holistic level where the results are greater than the sum of its parts. 

Each audience segment you’re looking to influence needs a unique ecosystem of media touchpoints tailored to their identities, values and behaviors. This is key to creating authentic messaging and organic placements that show up in their day-to-day experiences.

How can the audience ecosystem benefit your brand?

Curated audience ecosystems provide a flexible framework from which you can select content channels and nurture lasting relationships. It is a tool to focus media planning and brand messaging on audience insights. This helps avoid the rat race of clamoring for attention through one-off ad campaigns, or trend hopping to the next shiny marketing opportunity that may not matter to your consumers.

Brands need to take a backseat and let the customers drive. Your business success hinges on your ability to align with their needs, beliefs, values and personal identities. So, your media plan should be a reflection of those consumer insights. The ecosystem model serves as a playbook  to sustain long-term brand growth by avoiding waste, improving brand perception, and keeping the brand top of mind to defend and grow market share.  

The Audience Ecosystem in Practice

To start building an audience ecosystem, use consumer research and insights to identify potential marketing placements within the following categories: 

Depending on your brand and budget, you may not be able to tap into each of these buckets at once. But, that should not stop you from brainstorming – dream big, then scale back as needed. 

Take a look at an ecosystem proposal we built around an ‘Avid Gamer’ audience for a CPG beverage brand:

Gamer Audience Ecosystem

This shows how incorporating media activations on gaming sites, exploring partnerships in the gaming space, and amplifying the brand presence on key retail media networks can cooperate to anchor the brand in the daily life of an avid gamer. 

The 5 Step Process to Creating Audience Ecosystems

Now that we’ve discussed the philosophy behind the audience ecosystem, let’s discuss five practical steps you can take to begin implementing this for your brand:

#1 – Research & Planning: Aligning with Identities and Community Values 

First, determine what your community will find the most value from in your product. From there, craft a unique messaging strategy for each audience. 

  • Which of your brand’s value propositions matters most to this audience? 
  • What pastimes or hobbies does this persona participate in? 
  • How does this audience self identify – and how does your offering compliment that?
  • What type of media do these people watch, read, listen to, and engage with? 

Use your intuition as a guide, then support or refute with research. I recommend social listening as well as syndicated research to strike a balance of quantitative and qualitative data. Once you understand where your audience is engaged, you can show up with contextually relevant, personalized messaging. 

You don’t want to invasively interject into their lives. Instead, the goal is to align with their identity and add to their badges of self expression. For inspiration, look to brands with distinct value propositions and well-cultivated community bases like Dove, Trader Joe’s or Lego. These beloved brands truly tap into human behavior and community values – business performance follows naturally. 

#2 – Channel Selection: Surrounding Your Audience with Meaningful Touchpoints 

Next, use that consumer knowledge to show up where your personas are most present – physically and digitally. You want to show up in expected and unexpected ways. Where is there a lot of noise, and where is there competitive white space? Identify which channels you believe will create the biggest impact and strategically invest. 

Remember, people don’t want to be attacked, targeted, or followed with advertising – just look at the latest changes to privacy laws. Consumers want personalized advertising that makes them feel understood, not watched. 

#3 – Activation: Bringing the Ecosystem to Life

By planting an ecosystem of media tactics around each audience, you can develop strategies to allow each channel to add new life to the ecosystem and support one another. Ecosystems are delicate and require tending to operate functionally. It will take some experimenting to find the right balance of media spend and channel mix to drive the results you want.

You can rotate attention across different elements of the ecosystem to align with timing whether it be tentpole events, product or service seasonality, socio-political climate, changing user behavior, or a variety of factors. Knowing you have the support of the greater ecosystem, you can feel more comfortable lifting focus from certain channels to lean into others. 

#4 – Optimization: Fertilizing to Fuel Brand Performance

Finally, map out and assign value to each touchpoint within your ecosystem based on the expected impact. With campaigns, the goal is direct attribution. With ecosystems, the goal is incremental improvement over time. Test and learn to see what blend of tactics keeps your ecosystem in balance. Determine what areas need more or less attention to lift up the entire system and drive full-funnel business outcomes  

Also, experiment with measurement beyond media KPIs. For example, organic reach is necessary to drive business outcomes and instrumental in evaluating the integrity of your holistic ecosystem. But it shouldn’t be the media campaign KPI. You should complement reach and frequency with tangible metrics that indicate consideration such as clicks, video completions, downloads, and landing page visits. 

#5 – Rinse and Repeat: Continue Learning and Refreshing

Unlike a campaign, this process never ends. You can’t expect the audience research you did 12 months ago to apply precisely today – the environment changes, people change. Data can become stale in as little as 3 months. You have to continue to learn and refresh to avoid becoming obsolete.

This is why today’s marketing plans need to be living documents. Yearly planning and even quarterly media planning is becoming less feasible, and brands that are inflexible to changing market conditions and consumer behaviors are falling behind. The ecosystem model allows for long-term planning without injuring what is already in place on the campaign level. 

With that in mind, understand that the primary challenge of the ecosystem approach is timing. Like a garden, it needs time to grow and flourish. There’s a lot of financial pressure and limited patience surrounding marketing performance from business decision-makers. You’ll likely need to balance the campaign-centric and audience-centric playbooks, but the goal should be to prioritize sustainable brand success over quick wins. Slow thinking is critical when you consider the complexity of measuring all the diverse channels in your ecosystem. 

Remember These 3 Key Mindset Shifts When Going from Campaigns to Audience Ecosystems

The audience ecosystem methodology makes omnichannel media planning more digestible and flexible, which is key for today’s marketing landscape. But even more importantly, it can help brands build more meaningful and lasting customer connections. 

After reading, I hope you leave with these key mindset shifts: 

  1. Place the audience, not the brand, at the center of your media plan 
  2. View marketing efforts holistically, rather than through a campaigns lens
  3. Use marketing to add to your audience’s identity, not your brand’s status

For help bringing this transformation to your marketing strategy, contact Coegi today. 

Want to dive deeper? For more discussion on how to implement the audience ecosystem model, listen to our podcast episode here: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LS803s3sODg7WJgwR8Nl9?si=b23ba776323e47db
From Campaign to Ecosystem Podcast Episode

Building a Roadmap to Your Best Customer: Customer Marketing Q&A

Posted on by Coegi

Marketers are tasked with the difficult exercise of creating meaningful consumer touchpoints that authentically connect an audience to your brand. To build a successful customer marketing strategy, you need to know who your best customers are and how to reach them. Being grounded with this knowledge also helps set your path to scale and discover your next best customers. However, it’s not always clear how to best define and cultivate these audiences to build sustained impact.  

To shed light on the topic, we sat down with Coegi’s CEO, Sean Cotton, and Director of Innovation, Savannah Westbrock, on The Loop Marketing Podcast. In this episode, they outline how to identify and reach your best customers and build long-lasting relationships. 

Continue reading to learn how to: 

  • Create and refine your ideal audience segments 
  • Collect and scale first-party data for cookieless targeting 
  • Test and measure the effectiveness of your audience strategy 
  • Tap into human nature to build long-term, loyal customers 

The following is an edited transcript of the podcast. Click here to listen to the full episode on your favorite streaming platform.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3b5hQAVpXL4SDMdNv6ObFV?si=f37e1c31141e4c9d
Spotify: The Roadmap to Your Best Customers

Q: To start us off, where should brands begin when building an audience targeting strategy?

Sean: It’s certainly a balancing act. You want to scale your marketing and reach as many potential customers as possible, but you don’t want to waste marketing dollars either. A great place to start is with the audience we already know – the most deterministic, valuable customers we have line of sight with. Engage them first, then model off of them. 

Then, expand your research with a focus on the human element. There is limited first-party or deterministic audience data. So we have to get to know our audience beyond those data points. What are their interest behaviors, attributes, and even psychographics? Start building upon your original data set with these insights. This can include social listening, focus group data, or other things of that nature. 

Q: In the midst of the cookieless future, what are some ways to build a futureproof audience strategy?  

Savannah: We’re in a really interesting transitional time. I’ve been referring to the period we kind of grew up in here at Coegi as the ‘programmatic Wild West’. We had so much data at our fingertips that we could skim through pre-built audiences and find a third-party data set we were really confident in. As we shift toward consumer privacy being more of a focus, we need to return to marketing basics. Social listening, as Sean said, is a huge one – especially with social media looking vastly different today than it did 10 years ago. 

Also, simply put yourself in your audience’s shoes. If something comes up in your research – blogs they read, shows they watch, subreddits they subscribe to – spend some time in those spaces. I think it will spark some interesting ideas of different touch points you can add to your overall strategy.  

Sean: I would also add that we are still maintaining a data-driven approach. Prior to the programmatic era, media decisions were often based on assumptions. Data-driven advertising helps us use quantitative data to inform who our audience really is. Now, we may be looking at a variety of other qualitative sources, but we want our assumptions to be backed by data. 

I think a good example was some campaigns we did with BODYARMOR for a number of years. Obviously, athletes are their target audience in the sports drink category. But, research found that moms were actually a primary purchaser in bulk at large retail stores. So that became an entirely new audience with a different messaging strategy. 

Q: How can brands best capitalize on first-party data to identify and reach potential new customers?

Savannah: First-party data collection was one of our first recommendations when Google made their announcement to deprecate third-party cookies. But there have been roadblocks along the way. Many brands are realizing that the way they set up their point of sale systems or their website was not ideal for aggregating all of their data. Especially if you have loyal consumers who use your products and are willing to give you their personal information, you want to gather all of that first-party data in one central location. 

So, whether it’s a CRM system or an ACP system, make sure your data is in an area where you can evaluate it. Then, let that high quality audience determine how you experiment as you broaden your strategies.  

Q: How can you apply audience data learnings across channels to bring the most value possible? 

Sean: Because we experience so many media touchpoints day-to-day, we want to take a broad, holistic view when we have valuable first-party data to gain audience insights. It could be the websites they visit, the influencers they follow, their location patterns, and even heat maps to the retail chains they frequently visit. By holistically researching how these customers spend time and where they devote their attention, we can get a full view of how to engage them throughout the day.  

Savannah: And that also helps us understand how our audience is responding to our messaging throughout the campaign lifetime. For example, Coegi media planners are beginning to implement a performance scoring model as a part of our measurement strategies. 

Let’s use the simple example of someone in-market for a car purchase. If they’re visiting our brand’s website and looking at different models, they might still be in the discovery phase. If we know they visited the lot too and spoke to salespeople, that’s a much more invested person who’s more likely to take the next step. So it helps us retroactively look at each touchpoint and the actions that grow out of them to understand the true effects of marketing.  

Q: How do you measure the effectiveness of an omnichannel audience strategy and build a test and learn approach to refine the process? 

Savannah: First, we empower the full team to come together: our in-platform specialists, strategists, research team, and even clients. Have a proactive conversation about what each step of the consumer journey really means and how each step needs to be measured against our media. 

Having this conversation upfront with all the correct people not only informs your setup strategy, it will also aid your optimization strategy. It can help you put together reports with really valuable insights. And overall, it leads to more successful start-to-finish campaigns that are replicable.  

Sean: This approach also powers our measurement strategy and learning agenda. As we are laying out the strategy, we make certain hypotheses. Then, throughout the campaign, we’re proving those suppositions either correct or incorrect and making pivots. The test and learn approach allows us to iterate on an ongoing basis to drive performance.  

Savannah: And there’s an added value of being honest and transparent – having those real conversations with teams and clients upfront. Often, our instinct is to want to always be the expert in every piece of our campaign. This gives us an opportunity to say, this is our expectation, these are our benchmarks, but let’s plan for what to do if this doesn’t work.  

Q: How do you balance human intuition with AI modeling to identify your next best customers and refine your marketing strategy? 

Sean: We have to understand our audience and be respectful to the sensitivities of their data. It really comes down to putting guardrails around AI machine learning – simple things such as frequency caps and sequential rotations of your creative messages to tell a story. 

Is cost-per-click or click-through-rate really driving growth for your brand? Or are you simply capitalizing on consumers that were going to purchase anyway? It’s a combination of understanding the human element, putting guardrails in place for machine learning to respect our customers, and then implementing a rigorous measurement strategy.  

Q: How do you avoid alienating customers with ad oversaturation and build a roadmap to long-lasting customer relationships that grow over time?

Savannah: Well, I love what Sean said about making sure your audience is seen as a human. One of the easiest ways to do that is to think, “what annoys me?” For example, when I get the same connected TV ad 400 times. What turns my view of a brand off and what can we avoid in our strategy? As you’re putting together tactics, think of the things that personally rub you the wrong way and be sure to avoid them.  

Sean: I think it’s also important to regularly refresh our customer database so we don’t forget about lapsed customers. We’re going to approach them differently than our most loyal customers. Understanding the nature of our first-party audience is another way to communicate with them effectively.  

Live Listener Q&A

Q: How do you build a customized user journey without feeling invasive or creepy? 

Savannah: Creepiness is obviously subjective, but for me, where I have felt that line was crossed is when I am getting a super personalized message from a brand I’m unfamiliar with. This speaks back to maintaining and nurturing your CRM list. 

I may have bought a product from this company years ago and they slipped my mind. So when I get that really hyper-targeted search banner ad or those t-shirts on Facebook with my name on them for some reason – those things are typically when the red flag goes up. They feel more invasive than a personalized email from a company who I’ve purchased from several times. 

Q: For a brand in the startup phase, how do you begin to build an audience strategy? 

Sean: I think a good place to start is simply your website analytics. If you’re a startup, you’re likely going to do some sort of press release. You’re going to try to get your name out there, and you may be doing some things to engage customers face-to-face. Take each of these opportunities to gather as much data as possible. 

From an online standpoint, there’s always your website analytics. You can drill down to the city level or even the DMA level to find where qualified traffic is coming from. If you have multiple pages, which are visitors most engaged with? What time of day are they coming to your site?

There’s a number of signals there that can be a starting point for audience learning. If you are able to engage face-to-face with a few people, you’ll gain insights about what the consumer response may be at a larger scale. So record and leverage that critical feedback. 

Savannah: There’s also an opportunity in the early days to think about creative ways to incentivize your initial customers. A common tactic is offering a discount if people sign up for your newsletter. 

Q: What are some creative ways for brands to jumpstart their first-party data collection when starting from scratch? 

Savannah: This is where partnerships can really come into play. Second-party data is a great place to start. If you don’t have a robust CRM list of your own, look for other businesses with high-quality data and do your due diligence to evaluate it. 

You can also look at things like retail media partnerships. If you’ve done on-the-ground research of where your consumers shop and what they’re interested in – you could go to Target’s Roundel, for example. Maybe you know your audience is in-market for parenting items. Look at those retailer audiences and see if there’s a unique way to reach them there.  

Sean: You can also tap into your creative executions in some cases. For instance, on Meta, someone who watches a video all the way through can be put into a remarketing bucket. Then you can perform lookalike modeling off of that group. You can do the same thing with programmatic video and there are other types of creative formats that allow you to gather first-party data. 

Q: What is your number one tip for audience segmentation and relationship building?

Savannah: Simply don’t forget that your audience is made up of people. Each member of your audience has a unique relationship and journey with your brand. Any opportunity you have to segment your audience and deliver different messaging at different stages of their journey is a great way to strategically build meaningful relationships. 

From there, it can inform the channels you execute on. It can inform your creative messaging. Overall, it lays a really solid foundation from people who are new to your brand to the loyal customers you’re working to build.  

Read Savannah’s Cookieless Targeting 101 article here. For more tips on consumer research, listen to our podcast episode, Research Done Right. 

Advanced Marketing Measurement and Modeling 101

Posted on by Elise Stieferman

A strong marketing measurement strategy is the cornerstone of media planning, answering the complex question: how is advertising supporting business success? 

A unified measurement framework guides brands toward achieving full-funnel goals. Sometimes, this is as simple as defining media KPIs and optimization points – think conversions, cost per action, reach and frequency, cost per unique reach, and so on.

But, oftentimes, media metrics alone cannot answer brands’ most critical questions. In these instances, advanced measurement studies and modeling strategies are critical tools to inform smart decision-making. 

Upgrading Marketing Data Insights With Advanced Measurement

Advanced measurement strategies don’t just track business success—they explain it. They answer the why before the what or how, providing a source of truth across multiple business disciplines and streamlining communication between stakeholders. 

What is advanced marketing measurement?

Advanced measurement refers to methods used to answer advertising questions that are difficult to address by standard media metrics alone. They’re important for understanding campaign performance in a more meaningful way than cost and reach. 

Examples of such questions include:

  • Did my brand have an increase in unaided brand awareness?
  • Did my retail locations gain incremental visits as a result of my marketing campaign?
  • Has my brand’s market share increased as a result of the media running?

In these situations, reporting back on simple media metrics won’t offer the depth of business intel you need. As Coegi’s Vice President of Marketing and Innovation, Ryan Green, quotes in Marketing Profs:

“Advanced measurement strategies mute the irrelevant metrics and form connective tissue between the rest so that marketers have a deeper understanding of how various campaign factors can help (or hurt) sales.” 

Some metrics simply matter more than others. When you shift toward performance metrics directly relating to your business goals, you’ll gain a clearer line of sight into what is and is not working.

5 Advanced Measurement and Modeling Tactics You Need to Know

Once you identify a need for advanced measurement, it’s time to determine which approach(es) will help fill that knowledge gap. Here are five of the most common advanced measurement methods we use at Coegi: 

#1 Brand Lift Study

What are brand lift studies?

Brand lift studies provide mid- or post-campaign consumer readouts to measure brand impact. Set up prior to campaign launch, these studies are ideal for awareness or consideration campaigns looking to track incremental improvements in more elusive KPIs such as brand awareness, ad recall, brand favorability and purchase intent. 

Brand lift studies are typically conducted through control vs. exposed consumer surveys that ask questions such as: 

  • Have you seen an advertisement for {{insert brand here}} in the last 30 days? 
  • What’s your perception of {{insert brand here}}? 
  • Would you consider purchasing {{insert brand here}} next time you visit the supermarket?

Depending on the media mix, you can deploy single-channel measurement studies. You’ve likely been served a one question survey before a YouTube video or in your Facebook feed – that is an example of a single-channel brand lift study. Or, you can run cross-channel measurement studies in a demand-side platform environment using display, video, audio, native, and connected TV methods.

These insights are able to be segmented by parameters such as audience, geography, creative, and channel to isolate the top performing elements.

Why use brand lift studies?

Brand lift studies help bridge communication gaps and showcase how various advertising channels work together to meet the primary goal. They can be useful for brands in any industry, especially those lacking broad awareness in cluttered categories.

#2 Foot Traffic Lift Study

What are foot traffic lift studies?

Foot traffic lift studies measure brick and mortar visitation. They connect the dots between awareness and conversion by measuring the lift of in-store foot traffic due to ad exposure. These studies are typically conducted using mobile location data from in-app user opt-in as well as one-to-one impression pixels. Industries that most commonly benefit from foot traffic studies are retail, auto, travel, QSR and CPG.

Why use foot traffic lift studies?

They serve as a valuable sales proxy for brands with brick and mortar locations or whose products are most commonly purchased at physical retail stores. Understanding visitation lift also helps understand consumer consideration, especially for large-scale items like automobiles that often have a longer purchase cycle. 

For industries and businesses without branded physical store fronts, creative assets should include retailer logos to direct consumers to distributors that are most convenient to consumers’ locations. 

#3 Sales Lift Study

What are sales lift studies?

Sales lift studies are used to measure SKU-level data and tie it back to advertising. They match in-store transactions to digital campaigns including digital, video, native, audio, social, and CTV ads. Oftentimes, these studies use first-party shopper data from retail loyalty programs to tie advertising exposure to in-store purchase behavior. Common sources for this information are retail media networks, IRi, and Catalina.

Why use sales lift studies?

These study results show the increase of in-store purchases due to omnichannel advertising efforts. Sales lift is ideal for CPG brands when incremental product sales and understanding of bottomline company growth is the most critical indicator of success. Attribution of sales is increasingly complicated as products are available in multiple online and offline marketplaces, and advertising is similarly fragmented. 

Sales lift helps zoom in on the most important metric, sales volume, without getting lost in the weeds. To see how Coegi used sales lift to prove ROI for a cookie brand, view our case study here. 

#4 – Media Mix Modeling

What is media mix modeling?

Media mix modeling (MMM) is an analysis method that helps define optimal media channel budget allocation using historical performance data. Through multi-linear regression models, this method assigns value to each marketing touchpoint, so marketers can determine how each variable impacted key outcomes. It requires at least two years of sales data and media metrics to make accurate predictions and performance optimizations.

“Marketers like specifics, as they help with targeting and attribution, but MMM’s purpose is to help marketers understand how various marketing activities drive the business metrics of a product or service.” – Hugo Loriat 

Why use media mix modeling?

Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the whole story either. It is crucial to fully understand the context of the data you’re analyzing. What factors may have contributed to performance fluctuations? Creative? Messaging? Audience strategy? Seasonality? 

Media mix models help incorporate all of these variables to determine what story the data is telling. By blending multiple factors, rather than just a singular KPI, you can see a bird’s-eye view of how all the pieces are working together to impact long-term strategy and performance. 

Learn more on how to use MMM to boost your bottom line in this video: 

#5 – Performance Scoring Model

What is a performance scoring model?

A performance scoring model is a unified marketing measurement model that uses multiple, weighted data sources based on level of significance to define your media’s impact on business goals. It incorporates both media and non-media data to enable smart business decisions and more accurate predictions. 

In the end, you come out with a performance score that summarizes how your brand is doing in relation to business goals. Here’s a simplified graphic example of what a performance scoring model can look like: 

performance scoring model
Performance Scoring Model

Why use a performance scoring model?

No single marketing metric or strategy can equate to business success. Brands need a custom, yet flexible, solution to accurately track and measure marketing results on an ongoing basis. The performance scoring model is a great option for those looking for that flexibility and customization. It is an all-encompassing business dashboard you can use to unify data analytics, clearly qualify marketing’s impact and inform smart decision-making. 

Potential Barriers to Entry with Advanced Marketing Measurement

It’s important to weigh the pros and cons before implementing any of these tactics. Consider and discuss these three primary challenges before selecting your advanced measurement plan: 

#1 – Cost

  • For lift studies, each measurement partner has a unique pricing structure. At times, these can be cost prohibitive for brands just getting started. Consider the available budget and expected outcomes beforehand. 
  • For advanced modeling, you will likely need to outsource a digital agency, such as Coegi, or a data technology partner to implement these analyses – unless you have an in-house expert with statistics training. 

#2 – Data Availability

  • For lift studies, some providers require impression volume or retail location minimums to ensure feasibility and statistical significance. It’s also important to identify which channels you want to analyze. Walled gardens (ie. Amazon, Meta) will require different solutions than other programmatic platforms that allow for cross-channel measurement.
  • For MMM, you need to already have two or more years of quality marketing and sales data to input. Similarly, the performance scoring model is more flexible, but will be most effective if you have strong consumer data to input from the start. 

#3 – Time

  • Lift studies tend to take several weeks to launch and gather statistically significant data. It’s important to plan early and set expectations. 

Launching Your Brand’s Advanced Marketing Measurement Plan

Once you’ve identified a need for advanced measurement or modeling, it is important to ensure the tactics you chose align with the desired business outcomes. 

To help you get started, we took our entire approach to marketing measurement and boiled it down to five simple steps. View our 5 Step Guide to Successful Marketing Measurement here. 

Partner With Coegi for Expert Marketing Measurement Strategies

Advanced measurement and modeling will become increasingly important for quantifying marketing success, especially in the cookieless future. But this can be a daunting task for any marketer.

If you are unsure what measurement strategy is best for your brand goals, contact Coegi for a discovery call to get started. 

How to Build a Content Amplification Strategy Using Publisher and Influencer Partnerships

Posted on by Lisa Merlotti

Custom content marketing is key to achieving long-term brand success. But, content creation can be expensive and time-consuming. A content amplification strategy allows brands to do more with less, maximizing the return on investment. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to create an impactful content amplification strategy that expands reach and extends content shelf life.

Why You Need a Content Amplification Strategy

Content amplification can build an authoritative voice for brands in any industry, from CPG to finance to B2B. For more complex industries, it is an opportunity to establish thought leadership and position a brand as a trustworthy educational resource. 

Alternatively, content can be all about entertaining the consumer – driving brand affinity and engagement. Whether you’re amplifying successful content, refreshing pre-existing content or partnering with a trusted third party to leverage their resources and authority – it all comes down to finding the ideal intersection between brand goals and consumer value 

Building a Holistic Content Marketing Plan

To begin crafting a strategic content marketing plan that satisfies both the brand and its consumers, follow these four steps. 

#1 – Establish strategic alignment on content goals and production strategy

Begin by putting together a comprehensive brief with the client that addresses: 

  • The brand’s core business and marketing objectives 
  • The brand’s content creation plans for the year to support these goals 

Once you understand the upcoming content pipeline, find ways to incorporate major initiatives, such as custom research studies, company highlight videos, or downloadable white papers, into the paid content marketing strategy. 

#2 – Analyze the existing content library

Next, look at the brand’s current content arsenal. What assets can be easily refreshed and repurposed? This decreases net new creative production needs, while making the most of high-value assets. To identify the best content pieces without bias, start by analyzing pre-existing organic metrics. 

  • What content formats are driving the highest reach and engagement on social media? 
  • What long-form content pieces are generating the most downloads, backlinks, or shares on your website? 

After understanding what great pieces already exist, you can refresh, amplify, and distribute them to more people within their audience groups. 

#3 – Partner with publishers for net new content opportunities

After understanding what content is currently at your disposal, identify gaps to fill by tapping into strategic publisher partnerships. 

  • Where is there competitive white space for the brand to own their message? 
  • Which channels are the brand’s competitors underutilizing? 
  • Where is the target audience most active and reachable? 

Leverage publishers to help create the most engaging and interactive assets possible. Some creative content formats we have explored include immersive articles, Instagram ‘meme’ Reels, podcast segments, animated videos, recipe blogs, co-branded national polls, and e-newsletter sponsorships – just to name a few. 

#4 – Ensure content provides authentic value

Identify the key messages, whether content families or thematic pillars, to find a valuable brand story. Also consider what content formats best communicate different types of information, as well as different target audience segments. For instance, a research survey with heavy statistical data may be best suited for an infographic, whereas a webinar may be better suited for a sizzle reel video.  

Remember these four guiding principles to create authentic marketing content:

As you are creating a custom content plan, you should also be formulating your content amplification strategy. Approaching these in tandem will help you determine what types of assets are needed for both owned and amplified channels and streamline creative production. 

Identifying Optimal Publisher Partnerships

To level up content production and audience reach, connect with reputable publishers to create and amplify custom marketing content. Our teams work closely to streamline communication and access the best added-value opportunities for clients by leveraging relationships with editorial partners.

These publishers could be vertical-specific sites, high-authority news organizations, or relevant internet content and entertainment communities. It’s beneficial to align with their editorial calendars to get greater engagement and stronger placements, while also considering factors like seasonality for the brand. 

In the publisher vetting and RFI process, we look at four key areas to determine the best partnerships:

  1. Audience: Does our audience have a high index and contextual relevance with this publisher’s content? 
  2. Content Quality: Are the publisher’s creative chops high quality, engaging, and suitable for repurposing across multiple channels? 
  3. Message Alignment: Does this publication’s mission and historical content align with the brand’s key messages and themes? 
  4. Distribution: Will this publisher provide adequate reach? Are there paid promotion and distribution opportunities across high-touch and owned channels? 

Typically, it’s best practice to diversify across a few different publishers to ensure you have adequate reach across your target audience. However, there are some instances where it makes sense to go all-in with one publisher if it strongly aligns with brand goals, or if your budget is limited. 

Repurposing Custom Content Across Channels

Content marketing is typically a pay-to-play space, at least in the initial stages of your brand partnership. Nearly every publisher has minimum spend requirements. Strategically repurposing content across channels (without simply copy and pasting) is critical to maximize that investment. 

For example, a publisher can help transform an in-depth white paper with proprietary content into an infographic or animated stat video. By making complex content more digestible, you can reach users earlier in the consumer journey, while still translating the key value proposition. 

After commissioning custom content, there are two highly effective ways to repurpose it: using derivative assets and tapping into influencer marketing. Let’s dive into each of these in more detail.

Using Derivative Assets to Extend Value and Reach

What are derivative assets? Derivative assets are micro content, such as ad units derived from the main “anchor content” and used to drive to the main “anchor content”. Examples of derivative assets include: 

  • Creating a native display unit that links to an organic blog post or sponsored article
  • Boosting an organic social media post on a brand’s page 
  • Using paid search engine marketing to promote a white paper 
  • Building organic and paid social media drivers that link to a branded e-book
  • Producing a sizzle reel from a long-form webinar

Derivative assets extend your anchor pieces, tailoring them to different audiences, placements, and stages in the consumer journey. This approach creates a more comprehensive content strategy and supports creative efficiency.  A good best practice is to sponsor pre-existing organic content, allowing you to test the content before dedicating advertising dollars. This way, you already know which content is likely to drive the greatest paid media results.

Amplifying Content with Influencer Marketing Partnerships

Influencer marketing is gaining more and more attention in the realm of content amplification. However, you HAVE to ensure the content is authentic to the creator’s individual brand and unique followership. An influencer simply pushing out your brand’s ad is not always going to feel organic.  

Publishers often have in-house influencer talent which brands can tap to gain additional reach outside of the publication’s readership. Take PopSugar for example. They have networks of highly-vetted influencers in the food, lifestyle, beauty, and fashion spaces which brands can leverage. Coegi also has an in-house influencer marketing team to help brands identify and partner with creators to create and promote branded content. 

Read our 5 Essential Influencer Marketing Tips article for more.

Key Takeaways for a Successful Content Amplification Strategy

Custom content and sponsored publisher placements have a myriad of positive effects – visibility, credibility, reach, engagement, and more. To reap these benefits, remember to focus on creating and amplifying content that provides true value to the consumer. 

Save and use this quick checklist to audit the quality of your content marketing assets:

  • Supports core business goals 
  • Translates key brand message through storytelling 
  • Offers authentic consumer value
  • Aligns with publisher editorial calendar or your brand’s seasonality 
  • Is able to be reused in multiple formats and across a variety of channels 

Ready to leverage Coegi’s expert media team to create your brand’s content amplification strategy?

Contact us today for a discovery call.

CTV Targeting Best Practices: 4 Tips for Higher Performing Advertising Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

How can your brand achieve extensive advertising reach without putting valuable marketing dollars at jeopardy? Create a smart CTV targeting strategy. 

TV advertising is a high impact advertising channel for building awareness and increasing share of voice by reaching your target audience in a non-skippable environment. However, the landscape is shifting. 47% of the U.S. TV viewers are already cordless and, by 2025, there will be over 235 million connected TV viewers. Is your brand reaching them? 

In this article, I’ll lay out how you can leverage the targeting and addressability benefits of connected TV in your large-screen video advertising plan. By the end, you will be able to apply four key learnings to your CTV targeting strategy to improve both your marketing ROI and your audience’s experience with your brand:

  • Pair cable and streaming for optimal reach and frequency
  • Diversify streaming platforms based on your CTV campaign goals
  • Leverage the addressability of CTV audience targeting
  • Lean into the power of contextual CTV targeting and premium placements

4 CTV Targeting Tips

#1 – Pair Cable and Streaming for Optimal Reach and Frequency

Before we dive too deep into specific CTV targeting strategies, let’s get one thing straight. We aren’t saying you should ignore linear (cable) television to go all in on digital. Linear TV is still one of the fastest ways to effectively reach mass audiences. However, the best way to achieve comprehensive consumer reach at an appropriate frequency is having the right mix of CTV, OTT, and linear. 

Traditionally, marketers would pour the majority of their big-screen budget into linear TV, and save a small fraction for CTV. There was a misperception that CTV had limited efficiency and reach. It was also more difficult to control ad frequency and compare measurement between linear and streaming. That has since changed. Today, these channels are beginning to speak the same language in terms of measurement, allowing for cross-platform comparisons and omnichannel reporting. 

Treating CTV as simply an incremental tactic is not only outdated, but inefficient. Connected TV ads can offer much greater control in regards to reach and frequency versus linear buys. To maximize results, pair linear and CTV/OTT in your media plan to create an omnichannel video strategy. Then, use cross-channel integration platforms to avoid siloes or ad fatigue, as well as understand impact. 

Hear why there should be a more equitable distribution between traditional and streaming television from our President, Sean Cotton, in this short video clip:

#2 – Diversify Streaming Platforms Based on Your CTV Campaign Goals

CTV targeting success comes down to knowing your marketing objectives and aligning that with placements that make sense based on where your audience consumes television content. You may be understandably concerned by the fragmentation of connected TV. There are so many streaming services and devices that it feels challenging to unify the experience. 

When evaluating targeting decisions, you have to evaluate what you value most: 

  • The streaming platforms on which your brand appears (Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, etc.)
  • Reaching audiences on a 1:1 basis

If you really want to advertise on a select few premium streaming platforms, you should be open to targeting a broader audience. Layering multiple audience segments on top of strict inventory limitations causes difficulties with achieving scale. But, you can leverage research to justify this strategy knowing that your audience spends time on platforms like HBOMax or Hulu, and take comfort knowing your ads are running on quality inventory. 

If your priority is reaching a highly specific audience, cast a wider inventory net. Look beyond the Hulus and walled gardens like Amazon Prime and YouTube TV, and instead lean into an omnichannel CTV buying strategy. While this will require more due diligence to ensure brand safety among lesser known CTV services, it creates an opportunity to take a more holistic approach to the opportunity across your consumer base.

#3 – Leverage the Addressability of CTV Audience Targeting

The golden rule of marketing – do everything in your power to avoid wasting media dollars. At least that’s our philosophy at Coegi. Needless to say, the typical “spray and pray” approach often used to reach broad audiences with linear TV makes us cringe a little. By using data-driven CTV partners, you can still reach broad audiences without overspending. 

There are a lot of data providers that can be activated to reach users on a 1:1 basis. This audience-first approach reaches high-value, addressable segments without overspending on mass media buys. Plus, you improve the user experience by serving relevant content in an engaging, large screen format.

You can also gain greater addressability through automated content recognition – an effective technology to simultaneously improve your audience targeting, ad personalization, and measurement in a privacy preserving way.. Automated content recognition (ACR) technology captures and identifies audio and visual on-screen content. It can capture any content being viewed on a smart TV screen: linear, streaming, video-on-demand, commercials, video games, etc. This data is fingerprinted and can be tied back to IP addresses, creating unique user IDs for specific devices 

The primary ACR targeting methods include:  

  • Target based on ad exposure (competitive conquesting)
  • Content affinity (live tentpole events, shows watched, games played)
  • Viewership behavior (cord-cutters, sports fans, etc.)

ACR data empowers you to better understand and reach your unique audience, as well as personalize messaging. 

#4 – Lean into the Power of Contextual CTV Targeting Strategies and Premium Placements

Audience targeting offers many benefits in the ability to drill down to specific behaviors, purchase history, and more. However, to maximize CTV targeting success, it’s important to balance audience-based and contextual targeting strategies. 

Why? Households share devices, so you cannot always be sure the person you are trying to reach is the one in front of the screen. Additionally, third-party cookie deprecation will impact overall addressability. Contextual CTV targeting does not rely on third-party cookie data, making it a more future-proof solution. It is also a valuable tool to achieve scale by targeting specific networks and content genres using audience affinity data. 

If you want to put a true stake in the ground, secure premium CTV placements through programmatic or direct publisher buys. Think live sporting events, award shows, or an ad spot on the latest Netflix series taking the world by storm. 

These premium placements are more expensive, with CPMs often ranging between $40-50. But, it’s critical to understand the value of running your brand’s message alongside highly recognizable content. If your audience is made up of huge sports fans, the impact of running a thirty-second ad spot during the NBA Finals could be invaluable to your long-term brand performance. Premium CTV placements both elevate trustworthiness for newer brands and energize existing brands. 

Learn more about how to optimize your CTV budget with quality inventory from Coegi’s Director of Programmatic Operations, Hannah Schatz, in this clip: 

The ways in which viewers consume TV are changing, but the overall love of programming remains. Knowing your brand and how your target audiences index against specific content is essential in the future of CTV targeting strategies. Implementing these data-driven targeting tactics will give you access to higher-quality ad space. 

For more information, view our OTT/CTV Advertising Webinar here or access our TV 2.0 Guide to gain a better understanding of the CTV ecosystem. 

Top Consumer Trends for 2023: What They Mean For Digital Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

Consumer behavior trends are constantly evolving. This is especially true for shopping preferences in 2023 as 90% of consumers are noticing price increases. Consumers are switching brands more than ever before. Brands must be highly adaptive to consumer trends to keep up with these changes and fend off the competition. 

So, brands, it’s time to meet (and reintroduce yourselves to) your consumers. 

Here are our top six key consumer trends for 2023, and the insights you need to capitalize on these trends for your brand: 

  1. Customer-first approach
  2. Brand loyalty risk
  3. Omni-channel shopping
  4. Social commerce proliferation
  5. Connected device adoption
  6. Influencer growth

Apply these 2023 consumer trends to your brand’s marketing

#1 – Taking a Customer-First Approach

Putting customers first is no longer an added value proposition – it’s an expectation. 19% of marketing executives report ‘fostering relationships with customers and increasing brand loyalty’ is their top priority for 2023. To do so, brands need to find unique ways to engage consumers and authentically insert themselves into their story. As a Netscribes article quotes, brands must, “go beyond the commodity to fuel engagement and advocacy by delivering context-specific interactions at the right junctures of the consumer journey.” 

Key takeaway: Brands must build a relationship with consumers in order to break through the clutter. Prioritize first-party data collection to understand your customers and provide a more personalized experience based on their interests and needs.

#2 – Preventing Brand Loyalty Risk

In the face of an economic downturn, consumers display less brand loyalty. Surveys found nearly 60% of US consumers are less brand loyal due to increasing costs of goods. Household names are losing their power as curious and price-conscious consumers shift towards value, price, and convenience. However, loyalty programs can help. 78% of consumers report that strong loyalty programs make them more likely to purchase from a brand or retailer. 

Key takeaway: Create ways to incentivize customer loyalty, either financially or with exclusivity. Remember – it’s more expensive to win over new customers than invest in your existing ones!

#3 – Optimizing Omni-Channel Shopping

Consumers are split between online and brick-and-mortar shopping. 75% of consumers report purchasing and researching products on both in-store and online channels, per McKinsey’s 2022 Consumer Pulse Survey. So, brands must give both channels attention to ensure they work together seamlessly and enhance the consumer experience. Integrations such as click-and-collect shopping help bridge this gap. 

Key takeaway: Blend traditional and digital channels to be present at every key customer touchpoint. Then, ensure the shopping process is seamless from exposure to check out to shorten the path to conversion.

#4 – Taking Advantage of Social Commerce’s Proliferation

Social commerce is on the rise with platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest adding new in-app shopping features and shoppable ad formats. Through these integrations, brands can engage customers in the moment without disrupting their social experience. E-Marketer forecasts over 50% of US users will make a social commerce purchase in 2023. When done well, social commerce promotes quick product discovery, a simplified shopping experience, and less friction in driving purchase.  

For more on social commerce, view our full 2023 Social Media Advertising Trends article here.

Key takeaway: Explore different tools to utilize social commerce, making it as easy as possible for a customer to add your product to their cart. Consider retargeting audiences from paid social media or influencer campaigns with shoppable ads to build trust and drive ROI.

#5 – Understanding Connected Device Adoption

Expect greater adoption of smart technologies in 2023, including connected cars, connected TVs, and smart speakers. More responsive technology advances, such as click-to-buy CTV ads or seamless re-purchasing through smart home devices, will pave the way for IoT-driven commerce. As these technologies continue to develop, test ways to use these devices to enhance your customer experience and drive e-commerce.

Key takeaway: Do the research to understand if your consumers are taking advantage of these advanced technologies. If they are, test interactive ad formats on connected devices and explore other IoT integrations such as voice shopping applications with smart speakers. 

#6 – Lean Into the Growth of Influencer

Influencer is the new word-of-mouth marketing. Authentic and relatable content from social creators drives full-funnel results for brands who do it well. Social media platforms are making it easier for influencers to monetize content and collaborate with brands, further paving the way for the social commerce boom. In 2023, the influencer market is projected to reach $6.16B, with TikTok on pace to gain the largest share of influencer ad spend by 2024. 

Key takeaway: Blend influencer marketing into your paid social media strategy to build authenticity, grow trust, and boost e-commerce. Adopt an omnichannel influencer strategy across multiple platforms and lean into useful, entertaining short-form video content to maximize exposure and engagement. 

Use these 2023 consumer trends to analyze your current CPG marketing strategy. Take your advertising to the next level by leaning into high growth areas and being the first to adapt to changing consumer preferences in 2023. 

For more marketing trends, view our 2023 Digital Marketing Trends and Predictions podcast episode.

HIPAA Compliant Healthcare Marketing and Ad Targeting

Posted on by Coegi

Healthcare Marketing Compliance Guidelines

In healthcare marketing, compliance is of the utmost importance. At Coegi, we work with many healthcare and pharmaceutical clients to continuously navigate this highly regulated industry. Continue reading to learn more about what it means to be a compliant and ethical healthcare marketer with this guide. 

Who sets the regulations for healthcare marketing compliance?

In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without consent. However, when it comes to understanding HIPAA for healthcare advertising, there’s a lot of room for interpretation. This leaves many advertisers unsure if certain marketing capabilities are compliant and ethical. 

This is especially true for pharmaceutical advertisers using health information to target audiences for prescription drugs, medical devices, and other pharmaceutical products through media. To provide an industry standard, there are committees devoted to giving pharma advertisers direction – including  the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), and the National Advertising Initiative (NAI). 

The NAI is one of the leading bodies for defining healthcare marketing compliance regulations. Founded in 2000, the NAI published a set of codes for targeted advertising and online profiling that is supported by the U.S. FTC. The most recent revisions to the code provide media targeting best practices, including a definition for Sensitive Health Information to provide pharmaceutical advertisers with more concrete direction for targeting consumer populations.

How does HIPAA affect healthcare ad targeting?

The first step is understanding if your brand’s core consumer audience falls under the ‘sensitive’ category. This will impact targeting capabilities. According to the NAI, there are two subsets of sensitive information: 

  1. Data about a health condition or treatment derived from a sensitive source 
  2. Data about certain sensitive conditions regardless of the source of the data

The NAI only provides a few sensitive categories. These include drug addiction, STDs, mental health, pregnancy termination, cancer, and all conditions predominantly affecting children that are not treatable with OTC medications. For other health conditions, the NAI provides guidance to help determine whether pharmaceutical targeting segments are considered sensitive. However, this guidance does not offer a clear list of compliant targeting capabilities. 

One of our leading media buying partners, The Trade Desk (an NAI member), also has a healthcare targeting policy. Using its own multi-factor analysis process, it defines whether a condition is high, medium, or low sensitivity to determine allowable targeting capabilities. Coegi recommends using these guides to inform client conversations and recommendations when aligning on the brand’s own definition of sensitivity. 

How do you approach pharmaceutical targeting compliantly?

The goal is to aggregate enough compliant data about an individual to create a complete picture. This allows you to meet their needs accurately while preserving their privacy. Make sure pharmaceutical advertising campaigns are compliant by examining the data sources informing them. Look for two specific criteria:

  1. Consent: Guarantee the audiences reached provide the brand permission to market to them
  2. Deterministic data: Validated user information so marketers know they’re reaching a person who gave consent

Despite the challenges, pharmaceutical brands still have a variety of ways to target patients. We can use first-, second-, and third-party data and machine learning to identify relevant consumers who are likely to be receptive to receiving advertising from your brand.

Best Practices for HIPAA Healthcare Marketing Compliance

  • Ensure FDA and HIPAA compliance of campaigns including messaging and targeting with legal counsel.
  • Use de-identified information from third-party data providers for patient behavioral targeting.
  • Gain opt-in consent from users for sensitive health segment targeting and geo-targeting. 
  • Leverage data partners to reach HCPs on a 1:1 basis at scale. 

Healthcare Consumer Ad Targeting

Once you determine whether your target is in the sensitive or non-sensitive condition category, use the following tactics to reach healthcare and pharmaceutical consumers:

Modeled Targeting

Modeled targeting using de-identified information from third-party data providers is compliant according to the NAI. The NAI’s Guidance for Health Audience Segments quotes, “the use of offline marketing segments that are also modeled, not based on any user-level purchase, behavior, or activity, would also be considered non-sensitive.”

From a blog post by Yeehooi Tee of PulsePoint, not all audience models are created the same. It is critical to analyze data collection methods. There are key factors to understand when evaluating health data segments. These include the source of the seed data, modeling attributes, the seed-to-output ratio, and many others. 

Contextual Targeting

There are no regulations on using contextual targeting for a consumer audience. This is a popular approach for reaching patient and caregiver audiences in a compliant manner. 

Connected TV is a useful medium for contextual healthcare targeting. A TV ad for a specific health condition can feel less invasive, yet still relevant, using contextual targeting. With third-party data partners, personal information is de-identified for HIPAA-compliant CTV targeting.

Geo-Targeting

For both sensitive and non-sensitive conditions, geo-targeting a consumer audience requires the user’s opt-in consent to target by location data (like a clinic location). However, even with opt-in consent, there are still limitations for sensitive topics, such as reproductive health or addiction recovery, when it comes to location-based targeting. 

There are other forms of targeting patient audiences using geographic data. For example, using data partners, pharmaceutical brands can target programmatic buys to specific zip codes that over-index for a condition. Using anonymized provider prescription data, data can be matched to zip codes with the highest lift in specific prescriptions and even mapped to these households via IP addresses. This enables omnichannel online targeting to reach healthcare consumers through display, video, native, and social media channels. 

Condition-Based Targeting

We use third-party data providers to access unique condition-based healthcare segments. This anonymized data is not subject to some of the strict HIPAA guidelines, as it cannot be tied to personally identifiable records. This allows you to reach your relevant audience at scale with minimal media waste. 

Interest Targeting

Interest-based targeting can reach patients as well as caretakers with interest in a specific condition or topic. This expands reach to the key decision-makers in the healthcare process. The content consumers are reading or searching for online typically defines “Interest”. To engage these individuals as they are consuming relevant information, consider contextual targeting methods mentioned above. 

For more of my tips on the best strategies and channels for healthcare patient and provider targeting, view the video below:

Healthcare Provider Ad Targeting

Healthcare providers are relatively easier to target than patient segments due to publicly available information and fewer privacy restrictions. However, there can be challenges with achieving scale and managing higher costs. Regardless, brands can reach HCPs across the wide range of content they consume and the multiple devices they use.

Because you’re targeting by profession rather than a condition, there are fewer restrictions for HCPs. Let’s explore some of the most effective forms of compliant audience targeting for HCPs: 

ID-Based Targeting

ID-based targeting allows pharmaceutical brands to reach HCPs with a compliant audience-first approach. National Provider IDs are personal identifiers for specific healthcare providers, including their practice location and specialty. 

Utilizing this data set via demand-side platforms (DSPs) such as PulsePoint, MedData, CrossIX and HealthLink allows for compliant, one-to-one HCP targeting across multiple channels and devices.  Brands can target HCPs both by specific medical specialty or by an individual NPI number. 

Geo-Targeting

Brands can also use NPI numbers to target relevant practice locations for particular physicians or specialties. By targeting a geo-radius around point-of-care locations with high volumes of particular diagnoses or treatment types, brands can remain compliant with HIPAA and the NAI while also reaching the target audience. Another opportunity for geo-targeting physicians is geo-fencing industry conferences and events where large groups of professionals congregate.  

Contextual Targeting

Contextual targeting tools can look at categories, keywords, and tags on web pages to deliver highly relevant content to HCPs through programmatic channels. At Coegi, we map these to the National Library of Medicine MeSH Taxonomy to ensure the most relevant terminology is applied to our digital media. 

Rx and Dx Targeting

Through data partnerships, brands can target NPI numbers of providers who commonly prescribe certain prescription codes. Likewise, brands can target by diagnosis using ICD-10 codes to find their core HCP customers. 

Depending on each client’s goals, Coegi provides a recommended HCP targeting strategy. Even with fewer restrictions, we investigate and understand the source of the data segments associated with NPIs. 

For more on healthcare marketing compliance and best practices, read this Q&A article with more insights from myself and Pulsepoint’s Malcolm Halle or contact Coegi today. 

Pinterest Advertising Tips & Best Practices

Posted on by Coegi

Pinterest is a frequently overlooked social platform for advertising, with many marketers defaulting to Facebook and Instagram. However, it can be an excellent tool for brands looking to reach niche audiences in a discovery mindset. Inspiration is a key driver in marketing effectiveness, and Pinterest is where consumers go to be inspired.

Pinterest users are action-takers who intend to make purchases, plan projects, or develop new skills. This sets Pinterest apart from other social media platforms where users just skim through and like friends’ posts or news headlines. In other words, Pinterest is the ideal site to increase brand awareness and consideration.

If you’ve historically been hesitant to use this platform, read on to learn more about how your brand can capitalize on Pinterest ads.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social curation platform that acts as a digital inspiration board. It lets users create, share, and categorize online content per their interests. Marketers should think of Pinterest as a combination of a powerful visual search engine and online social community, making it the perfect place to promote product discovery among potential customers. 

What are pins?

Users can upload and save images from the internet and add captions, descriptions, and links. These are known as pins. Pins can be saved or uploaded to customizable boards on user’s accounts to have multiple points of inspiration. 

What do people use Pinterest for?

85% of Pinterest users use the platform as their first stop before beginning a new project. So, Pinterest is using this intel to lean heavily into commerce, giving users the opportunity to create shoppable pins and shopping lists. These shoppable pins are look native in the user’s feed, creating a less disruptive advertising experience. Additionally, Pinterest has new AR features that allow users to try out products virtually before purchasing. People use the platform to discover and research products and brands, making it the ideal platform to reach your audience before competitors do.

Types of Pins

There is a diverse range of ad formats you can leverage on Pinterest. Idea pins, how-to pins, downloadables, video pins, idea pins, shopping pins, and collection pins are just a few examples. Some of the newer and more valuable formats that marketers can utilize are idea pins, try on pins, and collection pins.

Idea Pins

These pins are Pinterest’s interpretation of the “story” concept that other platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram have used. Idea pins are short form video content or a series of images. These pins are usually demonstrations or how-tos. 

Pinterest Idea Pin Example

Try-On Pins

Try-on pins use augmented reality technology to allow the user to test out a product before purchasing. From trying out makeup to seeing how a new couch would look in their living room, try on pins allow users to visualize the product in their life before purchasing. 

Pinterest Try-On Pin Example

Collection Pins

These pins consist of several elements – one large main hero asset and three smaller secondary assets. Once clicked, collection take users to a page where they can view the hero asset up close next to the secondary assets. This can help brands showcase multiple complementary items or highlight different product features in one view.

Pinterest Collections Pin Ad Example

Who Uses Pinterest?

The platform has over 400 million monthly active users, who utilize the platform to plan projects, make purchases, and become inspired. Pinterest’s user base is primarily female, with 60% of their global audience consisting of women. Unsurprisingly, women are also the most likely to make purchases on Pinterest.

However, the user base is steadily diversifying, with male and Gen-Z users growing by 40% this year. Additionally, 45% of social media users who bring in an average household income of over $100K are active Pinterest users, meaning Pinterest users are high earners and high spenders.  People in many different life stages, and with many different interests (from new homeowners to hobbyists to gift shoppers), utilize Pinterest. 

How to Advertise on Pinterest

To start advertising on Pinterest, you must first create a Pinterest Business account. This gives you access to analytics, exclusive pin formats, and the ability to create ad campaigns. From there, you will receive a prompt to select a campaign objective. 

Pinterest advertising objectives include: 

  • Brand awareness – Brand awareness helps consumers to discover your brand, products and services
  • Video views – Video views optimize the quality and duration of views, as well as completion rates
  • Web sessions – Web sessions drive visitors to your website and increase awareness and consideration
  • Conversions – Conversions encourage users to take action, such as signing up for a mailing list, or adding items to their cart
  • Catalog Sales – Catalog sales aide in the discovery process, helping users find products and services

These objectives determine your spend and ad formats, so choosing one that most accurately reflects your company’s business goals is important. 

How to Target on Pinterest

Advertisers have several options when it comes to targeting. You can target users who have already interacted with your brand online, find new customers through lookalike modeling, target by keywords, or even create a target audience by uploading a mailing list.

Pinterest also gives users the ability to target by interest with their premade interest targeting options. For example, if you were advertising a modern chair, you could select “contemporary design” or “modern home aesthetic” in order to refine your audience even further.

4 Pinterest Advertising Tips

Here are four best practices to maximizing your advertising efforts on Pinterest:

  1. Keep it Visual: On Pinterest, visuals are everything, so it is important to tailor your creative to the platform. Users are looking for pins that look good on their boards, so make sure your creative is high quality and aesthetically pleasing. 
  2. Mix it Up: The most successful Pinterest marketing campaigns are experimental, so vary the type of pins you use. Like many other platforms, short-form video content typically performs well on Pinterest. Video ads autoplay on mobile devices, which highlights your ad against other pins. Mix in different styles of content to keep your audience engaged. 
  3. Lean into Analytics: Pinterest ads manager allows advertisers to track their campaigns and access valuable analytics. Use these metrics to understand trends and optimize business goals. 
  4. Be Descriptive: Utilize the description for each pin to give the user helpful, inspiring context and let them know why they should save your pin. 

Pinterest ads offer brands a great opportunity to reach reach and persuade niche audiences. If you’re in search of a new platform to breakthrough the noise and engage consumers, don’t over look Pinterest.

For more tips, view our 2023 Social Media Advertising Trends article here.

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