By Oz Etzioni, Clinch
The summer months are busy — from exciting
adrenaline-pumping adventures to relaxing exotic beach vacations. This means
that consumers are less involved on their social media feeds, spending more
time out and about. So as a marketer, how do you win consumer attention when
there is so little to go around?
In order to beat the heat and beat their numbers, retail marketers
need to clearly define their goals and commit to being heard in the summer
months. Here are some ways they can break through the clutter:
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Relevancy Rules: Consumers can tell if an ad is not
relevant to them almost immediately. Leverage data to personalize, target and
gain interest. Prevent the consumer from scrolling on by personalizing the ad based
on their preferences and interests. Only show the product(s) they are
interested in, the best offer that will entice them, deals based on location
and maybe even the current weather and time of day.
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Channels Mean More Opportunity: Marketers should be able to
deliver ad experiences on any channel, platform and device in which their
target consumers are. Ads — personalized or not — won’t have the desired effect
if consumers are only seeing them on one channel. In the summer, the focus
should be on reaching your consumers on their mobile devices, leveraging social
video (especially Instagram Stories), YouTube and Over-the-Top (OTT). In short,
be where your consumers are.
Don’t Overproduce, Especially
With Instagram Stories: Instagram
Stories blend in with user-generated content. If your spot is overly stylized
and produced, it will stick out in all the wrong ways, seem as if it was an
interruption, and get skipped! Success can no longer be predicted by the money
spent on an ad. Success on mobile is about smart spending on scalable,
cross-channel creative that delivers the right message at the right time, the
right way.
Audio
Matters: Viewers are watching mobile video with the sound on more
than one would think, particularly Instagram stories. Ads should be prepared to
catch consumers by the “eyes” and “ears.” Make sure the audio, whether a voice-over
narrative or just music, relates to the story you’re trying to tell. Don’t use
the audio element to grab attention — that can only backfire on the whole
experience you’re trying to deliver.
Speed And
Scale: Stay relevant to
the moment, location, interests and other “dynamic” parameters that define the
success of media. Companies now all have the ability to create and target ads
that scale cross-device and cross-channel, reducing repetition and enhancing
consumer experience throughout the entire funnel. Be able to do it at scale and
serve it anywhere the target consumers are.
Summer marketing,
while challenging, is an opportunity to develop stronger customer
relationships. Retail marketers will benefit from taking advantage of the warm
weather, sunny attitude and creativity that the season brings.
Oz Etzioni is CEO and
Co-Founder of Clinch.
Etzioni founded Clinch to take advantage of the explosive growth in programmatic
and address the need for data-driven creative personalization . Etzioni
previously helped to form and lead the user experience and innovation
department at MRM, part of McCann World Group in NYC.
