For large CPG brands like Conagra that typically generate the most awareness through mass reach, hyperpersonalized video creative hasn’t always been their top consideration.
But that is changing.
“We’re seeing more personalized creative and ad versioning from CPG brands [that] might not own any data from the consumer up until the actual purchase point, because there’s a retailer in between,” said Beth-Ann Eason, president of video ad server Innovid, one of Conagra’s partners.
Digital video allows these brands to “capture more intent and interest data throughout the media activation, while building a direct profile of the end consumer,” she said.
But despite these benefits, combining precision targeting and hyperpersonalized comes with a cost trade-off.
“While it sounds great to have customized creative, it’s hard to have so many video creatives and not have your non-working costs go through the roof,” said Christy Kazlo, director of marketing technology for Conagra Brands.
In addition to the time and effort required to test disparate creative, the brand needs to determine if it’s getting enough incremental lift to affect sales in the first place.
While it intuitively makes sense for verticals such as consumer electronics and automotive to invest in personalized video, products that require less “consideration,” such as consumer packaged goods, haven’t always taken the leap.
But even brands that market everyday household items – like Conagra’s Pam cooking spray, in this instance – are starting to use precision targeting and creative to help move the needle on brand awareness and performance.
Conagra Brands, working with its agencies Spark Foundry and DDB, is using Innovid and a data management platform, the Salesforce DMP, to personalize video creative across screens.
Conagra’s objective for Pam was to test whether doing personalized creative paid off by driving engagement among different consumer subsegments.
Although the brand knew intuitively who the Pam consumer was, it wanted to dig deeper.
“We acknowledged that consumers buy products for different reasons,” Kazlo said. “We knew that some consumers use Pam to cut calories and fat as a replacement for butter while others buy Pam for the nonstick element to make sure their food looks as beautiful as it tastes.”
Conagra went on to identify subsegments within those segments, like frequent exercisers or home entertainers.
Once it outlined those audiences in its DMP, Conagra used Innovid to tailor interactive recipes and designs based on different viewer attributes, such as consumers who are “health or fitness conscious” or those who do a lot of home entertaining.
It also personalized the videos based on the device type (desktop, mobile and tablet) and the day of the campaign flight.
When Conagra ran true lift tests measuring the performance of customized creative compared with generalized creative, it saw 32% higher lift in video completion rates with an additional 22 seconds viewed based on 15-second video ads.
Although the results were positive, Conagra isn’t looking at Pam’s campaign performance in a vacuum.
The goal is to create personalized profiles of buyers that extend across its portfolio of brands, so Conagra is able to measure its total reach while managing proper message frequency across individual brands, Kazlo said.
