In January, lodging chain Motel 6 began beta testing a new display-ad product from IgnitionOne. Called Spot, the tool offers predictive analysis of real-time bidded media placements.
While IgnitionOne was primarily known for its remarketing abilities related to search, its general abilities had enough appeal to Motel 6 to put it to work on its wider performance-based display campaigns.
The results over the past few months have been positive, according to Lance Miceli, chief marketing officer at G6 Hospitality, parent company of the Motel 6 chain. Spot has produced display conversions at a 30% reduced cost of acquisition, while driving click-based conversions up 160% over the same period the year before.
“This technology helps me best allocate dollars within context to drive desired conversion and business,” Miceli said. “Their predictive optimization capabilities deliver what all marketers want: how does one harness big data, how do you find where the important information is, how do you optimize on spending in order to maximize results?”
There are no plans to marry IgnitionOne’s search tools to the display management on behalf of Motel 6, though Miceli said that he’s found Spot to be complementary to its outside search efforts. Likewise, there’s no mobile component to Spot, but Miceli said that’s not an issue at this point.
“There will be greater tools available in mobile, I’m sure,” Miceli said. “What excites me about Spot is if we think of the value of recency, and behavioral-driven processes, this is what I need. It’s different from other products I’m using it to improve mobile ad results. This piece of technology enhances the performance on the PC, which is still a substantial portion of our business. And we need to make sure we balance that with each tool moving forward.”
IgnitionOne recently released the Spot display forecasting product from beta. It aims to increase conversions by predicting and optimizing bids based on selected budget levels. It also claims to predict the number of impressions, clicks, conversions and CPMs on display campaigns.
Mobile display is a different animal than PC-based display, IgnitionOne CEO Will Marligoff added. For now, he said Spot wants to focus on the PC Web and also be known as a demand-side platform in addition to its search abilities.
“We’ve been talking about cross-channel opportunities, as opposed to cross-device. When I think of this kind of user-centric targeting, which is where the world is moving, mobile remains a challenge. We don’t have cookies, we don’t have ways of knowing who that user is and applying some of the data science we have.”
IgnitionOne was acquired by Japanese ad agency Dentsu through its existing parent, Innovation Interactive, which included IgnitionOne, Netmining and 360i. After completing a management-led buyout July, IgnitionOne and Netmining became part of the IgnitionOne Group
The value in getting out from under Dentsu was the ability to branch out into other areas, but also have the freedom to strike deals with other agencies.
“Spinning off from Dentsu gave us opportunities that we haven’t had before,” Margiloff said. “We hadn’t been able to sell to other agencies in the US before because of our affiliation with Dentsu.”
