Tag: Advertising Industry

  • Programmatic’s expanding universe = your opportunity

    Programmatic’s expanding universe = your opportunity

    By Christian Jones, SVP, Marketing & Client Development, Hawthorne Advertising As digital marketers continue to look for ways to maximize ROI, programmatic buying – and its expanding ecosystem – remains a frontrunner in driving value. If you’ve thought about shifting more media dollars into the granular and highly-targeted audiences that programmatic has to offer, consider this: Programmatic Is NOT Just Display The past few years have seen a massive expansion of the channels and ad units available through programmatic buying. Connected TV (CTV), online video, steaming audio and digital out of home are just a few of the channels that can be activated programmatically, in addition to display. In particular, CTV and mobile in-app video have been growing and taking share from social spend, part of a greater trend of display advertising pivoting to video. eRetail DSPs Are Exploding The giants of retail and ecommerce have been busy standing up their own DSPs as well. The bounty of targetable shopper data available in eRetail DSPs from Kroger, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Wayfair and Amazon is a treasure trove of data for the development of both broad and niche audiences that you want to reach. Not everyone has access to these DSPs yet, so getting in before your competitors do might give you an unfair advantage! : ) The Adaptability of Programmatic While the death of the third-party cookie has been a topic of conversation (with attendant handwringing) for years, programmatic is well positioned to make the adjustment. Much of the aforementioned eRetail data, in conjunction with solutions like UiD2.0, will provide a path forward for advanced targetability. Additionally, smart brand marketers have made more sophisticated moves to incentivize consumers to opt-in to first party data collection and willingly share zero-party data to build out in-depth customer profiles for greater personalization. Great for Retail – And Many Other Categories In July 2022, retail accounted for 24.7% of US display ad spend, followed by Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) at 14.7%, Financial Services at 12.4%, and Consumer Electronics at 9.9%. While these verticals (predictably) rely on programmatic display, there’s nothing holding any vertical back from success if the right strategy is deployed with your buy. If you’re in the process of planning your next campaign, now is the time to consider allocating more of your media budget towards the rich ecosystem of channels, audiences and ad units that programmatic has birthed. With its ability to target highly specific audiences, achieve provable ROI, and grow engagement, it’s a stellar option for maximizing the impact of your spend.

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  • Taking the Leap – Crossing the (Marketing) Chasm

    Taking the Leap – Crossing the (Marketing) Chasm

    By Anik Joshi, Senior Director, Business Intelligence, Hawthorne Advertising It’s easy to use a top-down marketing strategy for product after product, but often it isn’t the most valuable approach for brands. When introducing new products, the framework of “crossing the chasm,” first introduced by Geoffrey A. Moore in his book of the same name, is a useful approach to keep top of mind. Crossing the chasm means executing a marketing plan that understands the consumer adoption curve – effectively taking a product from the early introduction phase through to mass market adoption. Defining the Chasm Identifying the chasm in the first place can be tricky. The space between the early and mainstream markets is the chasm where product sales can reach a plateau. This plateau is often where innovative products go to die – not because they are bad products, but because the marketing plan did not account for crossing the chasm. Originally applied to technological innovations, the idea of the chasm, and crossing it, can be applied to any product with the goal of shifting consumer behavior. The process has a slow start, but after crossing the chasm, growth is exponential. How to cross this chasm is the million-dollar question. How to Cross the Chasm The first step to crossing the chasm is recognizing that there are two markets with different buying behaviors: the early market and the mainstream market. Innovators comprise the early market, along with early adopters – these audiences are up-to-date on product launches within a given industry and are very savvy. The average consumer comprises the mainstream market, or someone who would see value in a product, but may need to be convinced it’s right for them with additional information from the brand. Early-adopters want the fastest, most innovative products, and are willing to pay a higher premium to receive those benefits. These audiences respond best, usually, to a product-centered approach, emphasizing qualities and highly-technical differentiators. On the other hand, for the mainstream consumer, a market-centered approach should communicate compatibility and situational value. The product should solve a relevant problem and shouldn’t be too complicated to use. Crossing the Chasm IRL One example of Hawthorne’s experience with crossing the chasm occurred while working with a consumer technology company whose main business is data storage devices. This company made disruptive changes to its product, transforming it from a hard drive to a cloud-like device. The product was designed with women as it its target demographic for early market launch. Most computing gear targets the male demographics, so the female focus created a unique opportunity for this technology company to initially leverage a demographic that was not over-saturated. Hawthorne developed a marketing campaign to highlight the features of this product that set it apart from competitors within the same space. Hawthorne initially launched the product with a focus on women and product-centered messaging—garnering strong “early-adopter” sales. However, post-campaign analysis and a qualitative study revealed an unmet market need around data privacy that the product could address in a very unique, differentiated way. Hawthorne successfully shifted to a more market-centered strategy, emphasizing the data privacy benefit and adding media/creative targeting the male market, effectively crossing the chasm by moving the product from early market into the mainstream. Strategies to Cross the Chasm While there are several ways to cross the chasm, the basics involve understanding how the product has served the early market, and how it will serve the mainstream market. Qualities like pricing or branding or product functions/benefits may need to shift to create a more mainstream appeal. It’s unusual that there’s a large, unmet need in the mainstream market – more often than not, brands will need to differentiate themselves from competition through branding and marketing. Brands may need to identify a more niche target buyer than previously explored, or better communicate the product’s key differentiators. For example, a product may not have technical features that competitor products have, but it could offer better privacy settings for users’ data – that’s a unique selling point that should be emphasized to a target audience of privacy-conscious mainstream market consumers. Monitoring potential competitors is another key strategy for crossing the chasm. An awareness of trends in your market helps you develop a plan for your products. Three Key Considerations When Crossing How can you apply the right “crossing the chasm” strategy for your product? There are three considerations to keep in mind: A features vs. benefits comparison. In the case study above, Hawthorne shifted from the product- to market-centered approach by doing research, identifying an unmet need that we could more effectively position to attract a larger, mainstream audience versus early adopters A creative messaging evolution: The mainstream audience will have different expectations than early adopters; as a result, creative needs to evolve, and the Hawthorne team are experts in identifying and executing both subtle and more drastic evolutions. A communications plan assessment. Shifting from a product- to market-based centered approach will usually mean a shift in target audience which leads to a different media mix. Developing an effective marketing strategy using these principles can push your product out of the early market and into the mainstream. If you find yourself facing the chasm, drop us a note and we can help.

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  • 11 leaders share tips for building and maintaining high employee morale

    11 leaders share tips for building and maintaining high employee morale

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  • 12 industry leaders share their favorite personal and business ‘growth hacks’

    12 industry leaders share their favorite personal and business ‘growth hacks’

    Question: What’s a favorite personal and business ‘growth hack’ of one of the 12 industry leaders?Answer: ‘Stay close to people who can be positive influences.’ “Surround yourself with the type of people you either want to do business with or want to learn from. These are the people who can push you and your company to where it needs to be. Sometimes, when you’re around the right talent, that push can take you in an unexpected direction.”– Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising For the full article go to “12 industry leaders share their favorite personal and business ‘growth hacks’” at The Business Journals.

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  • 17 key components of crisis-resistant enterprises (and how to develop them)

    17 key components of crisis-resistant enterprises (and how to develop them)

    Question: What’s one of the 17 key components of crisis-resistant enterprises?Answer: ‘A 90-day plan for meeting financial obligations’. “Preplanning — for at least 90 days out — how to manage your accounts receivable and payable is key. Further, you should always be planning for business activity, as well as any unpredicted elements that could come into effect.”– Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising For the full article go to “17 key components of crisis-resistant enterprises (and how to develop them)” at The Business Journals.

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