Brand.net, Vizu and Nielsen announced results of a new study that combined “online attitudinal and offline purchase data measurement, allowing brands to optimize media during campaigns to increase offline sales.” Read the release.
Vizu CEO Dan Beltramo discussed the study and the opportunity in display for brand marketers.
AdExchanger.com: The study was done across contextually relevant publisher websites. Is context critical for brand campaigns? For brand campaigns, what about targeting audience across sites that were not contextually relevant, for example?
DB: There are multiple ways to get at an appropriate audience for a brand campaign whether that be contextual targeting, behavioral targeting, re-targeting, etc. This campaign just happened to be conducted on contextually relevant sites which was the right thing per the advertising strategy of the campaign. The category for this product also strongly lent itself to contextually relevant placement because the target audience often approaches this type of content with an open mind looking for ideas.
How do you verify offline behavior impacted by an online campaign?
DB: There are multiple ways to verify offline behavior impacted by online campaigns, most of which involve using a panel of people who have been pre-recruited to allow certain behaviors to be monitored. Sometimes behavior can also be measured by sampling those exposed to a campaign after a period of time. In this case, Brand.net worked with Nielsen’s panel to determine offline shopping behavior following the campaign and with Vizu to measure what aspects of the campaign were most effective during the course of the campaign.
Any performance metrics that you can share which show a formula for effective brand advertising online? Such as reach and frequency?
The most important thing to be doing along these lines is to be using a relevant performance metric like Brand Lift or, if you can afford it, Sales Lift, as opposed to something like Click Through Rates which are not correlated to brand building performance.
I think as soon as there was a formula for effective brand advertising, it would become obsolete due to competitive pressures. That said, the following are a few time tested principles that are supported by the data we see across 100’s of campaigns:
- Don’t expect your advertising to do too many things. Establish a primary objective and keep it in mind at all times.
- Make sure your advertising creative is consistent with your media plan.
- Establish a consistent, relevant measurement program and let the data speak for itself.
Do you see the need for an online GRP to move brand dollars online?
I think the concept of GRPs would be as helpful online as they are offline and might make purchasing media online easier. That said, GRP’s don’t really speak to effectiveness as much as they do to reach; so complete ad campaign analysis will need to incorporate some measure of persuasion as well.
By John Ebbert
