The key to RMN’s success is how interactions with brands can enhance the shopper experience. Digital media experts at Kroger and The Home Depot have spent years developing media networks keeping this key point in mind. If a branded ad interrupts the customer’s journey, it doesn’t help the brand, the retailer or, most importantly, the customer.

Helping when customers research products

Where can brands get involved in the customer journey? At The Home Depot, a supplier approached the retailer about retargeting customers on social media. Soon, the company created opportunities for other suppliers to deliver ads that drove customers to the retailer’s product pages.

This was back in 2018. In 2019, The Home Depot’s Retail Media+ (known as RM+) was launched. Brands now have opportunities to show ads on company owned properties, including homedepot.com, the retailer’s app, in-store and email, as well as offsite media channels like social and video.

“We didn’t want it to disrupt the customer experience,” said Melanie Babcock, vice president, Retail Media+ and monetization for The Home Depot. “Our customer spends a lot of time researching on our site before making a decision. They’re thinking about if they have the right tools, skills, time and capabilities for a project. You have a light to install, should you do it on your own? The consideration time is much less for traditional retailers.”

Because of this longer, more involved customer journey, the retailer decided  decided to let suppliers have the lion’s share of the RMN ad inventory. That means that most of the ads served to customers during their journey are endemic products, ones that can be bought at Home Depot.

“Onsight and in-store are very connected,” said Babcock. “We see that in our customers’ behaviors, and we wanted to be additive to that by keeping the customer in mind and not just monetizing the website. We’re bringing the supplier into the customer journey.”

Personalized precision with customers

Supermarket chain Kroger is another major retailer with a robust RMN, called Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM). KPM is managed under a wholly-owned subsidiary, 84.51˚.

“The common denominator is data science,” said Brian Spencer, KPM’s marketing director. “We have a legion of data scientists available under 84.51˚. There’s shelf assortment and other areas of personalization in our stores. That same talent base is what fuels the personalization behind Kroger Precision Marketing as well.”

Prior to starting its retail media business, Kroger built digital experiences for customers to search products, create grocery lists and receive digital coupons. These tools made it possible for KPM to introduce brands in a relevant way.

Unbranded search terms are 90% of the top 500 searches in Kroger digital touchpoints, Spencer said. That means many customers are looking for products without a specific brand in mind. Directing those customers to a specific brand or product is a logical next step in their journeys.

And, because digital customers are multi-taskers, they aren’t only looking for products available at a Kroger store. For instance, you could be planning a Super Bowl party and need to buy snacks. But what if you also are considering a new TV? Cases like that, but also many others, are where non-endemic brands fit in.

“As we explore non-endemic opportunities, top of mind is that this is activated in a way that isn’t intrusive or obnoxious to our consumers,” said Spencer. “If it’s something that makes sense for our shoppers, we’ll take a look.”

Expanding to offsite journeys

“Retail media data is very advantageous to all kinds of brands, particularly in the grocery category,” said Spencer. Grocery shoppers make purchases several times a month, and often multiple times per week. And these purchases cut across many categories. 

“That kind of information is obviously necessary for consumer packaged goods, but outside of CPG there’s greater interest because some of these non-endemic brands are looking for relevant ways to reach audiences,” he said. “Automotive brands or fast food brands, they may think of our data set as another way to activate across the open web.”

Offsite RMN opportunities are the fastest-growing area for KPM. Kroger has been a partner with streaming service platform Roku for three years. And this week, Disney Advertising announced a partnership with KPM for some Disney media properties, beginning with Hulu.

Dig deeper: CTV added to Kroger’s retail media network business

“Brands, but more typically agencies, are able to go in and activate programmatic display and CTV through a DSP of their choice, and set their own safety standards and activate through a self-service portal — and see sales results and optimize against in-store and online sales,” said Spencer.

“Retail media is more and more being considered as just media,” he added. “It’s more and more part of the total touchpoint consideration set that agencies are looking at. The traditional lines between shopper marketing and brand marketing are becoming more blurred.”

The Home Depot is also looking at how to expand RM+ offsite into CTV. It’s also piloting in-store video screens at 50 locations, currently, to see how shoppers’ digital journeys can be enhanced when they get to the store.

“We’re the last mile in advertising, which is always the most expensive part of the journey,” said Babcock. “There’s huge value to our supplier to connect to that customer and also to know more about that customer.”

The post How Home Depot and Kroger use RMN to improve shoppers’ ad experience appeared first on MarTech.

Ryan Phelan has 25 years experience in email marketing and has written 83 articles for MarTech on that and other topics. He’s the co-founder of RPEOrigin.com, a digital marketing services company with an agnostic approach, and is the chairman emeritus of the Email Experience Council Advisory Board.

Q: How did you get into marketing?

A: I have a funny employment history! I went to college and studied to be a Catholic priest and decided, halfway through the program, that I didn’t want to be a priest. And so then I thought, well, I’m a pretty good DJ. So I worked at a nightclub for six years, being a DJ and running the club. And then I discovered DJing didn’t make any money, and that was during the dot-com boom. 

I got my first internet job with Giftpoint.com, which did gift certificates online. I worked in the affiliate world and I worked in email. And over the years I did a lot with affiliate marketing, and then decided that email is where I wanted to go. It was more fun, more exciting, more new. And that’s where I started my email career, back in 1998. It’s been a heck of a ride! I got a degree in psychology. Most marketers I know don’t have a degree in marketing, they have a degree in something else.

Q: From the DJs I know, it sounds like there’s a psychological component to hosting a party.

A: There is. There are two things I took away from being a nightclub DJ that I still use today that I think are great for marketers. I learned how to read a room. You’re up in the DJ booth putting on music and thinking: What is the crowd going to react to? What is the next song? And you get very attuned to what people are doing and the micro-movements around the room, who’s going up for drinks and so on. You read the entire room and that helps predict the energy level and where you go next. That customer-centric focus is really what I started back in ‘95, entertaining 600 people a night in a nightclub. Taking that into email, I think it’s really about putting the customer first and reading the room.

Q: In email marketing, there’s no single room where everybody is mingling together. Is that why it has to be data-centric?

A: The “room” in email is your reporting, your conversion rate, your online behavior, heat maps, all that kind of stuff. But it’s still this centric approach of reading the room and trying to figure out that everybody is different. 

When I was DJing we had a format, and it was a country nightclub. We developed, really, a science on how to play music in a nightclub. It started with a couple two-steps, a triple-step, which is a little faster-paced, and then another faster song, until you reach this crescendo. And different types of people come onto the dance floor based on what you’re playing. Then you crash it down to another two-step, bring it up again, play another slow song, and then start the whole thing over again. What that does is create a stream on and off the dance floor that is much like segmentation done in marketing. 

In today’s world, most marketers are doing one-to-many messages. They’re not doing any segmentation, it’s the same message to everybody. That’s like me playing the same music over and over again while I’m DJing. But what I’m doing, and what marketers should be doing, is using propensity, using demographic and geographic data, looking at persona-based models, and what you can do to differentiate your message to different archetypes and groups that you identify in the data.

Q: Why do you think email is still such an important marketing channel after all these years?

A: I think there are two upsides for email currently. Number one, we still have a large majority of marketers that still aren’t doing the advanced stuff — segmentation or “reading the room.” There are still companies that are struggling with that. COVID was a great example of how companies finally realized they were underweight in their technology in order to execute email, either in their staff or tech stack. Email came in and saved the day again during COVID. 

The second thing is that with the availability of data, email has the opportunity to continue to grow in sophistication. From identification, to third-party data, to touching outside of email into social media or text or web — email continues to power those full-spectrum experiences. And so the same future I saw for email 25 years ago, I still see today. But it’s predicated on the fact that first we have to get more companies to buy in on the sophistication that email can achieve with data.

Read our Spotlight on contributor Stacey Ackerman here.

The post Ryan Phelan: Spotlight on the expert appeared first on MarTech.

“As the industry demands measurement that is trusted, independent and founded on real viewing from real people, we continue to support the MRC guidelines that set the standard for quality, audited measurement,” Karthik Rao, CEO, Audience Measurement at Nielsen, said in a statement. “It’s our daily mission to maintain our methodologies at the highest standard so that our clients can trade with confidence well into the future.”

Why we care. The suspension was a good thing for marketers in many ways. For nearly all of the broadcast era, Nielsen had what was essentially a monopoly on measuring ratings. For much of that time, both TV networks and advertisers complained about the accuracy of the data. Improving the quality of those numbers means brands are less likely to be paying for audience they aren’t getting.

Also, it has opened the door to competitors. NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all announced they are working with other data providers, including Comscore Inc. and startups such as VideoAmp, iSpot.tv and EDO. More competition means better service.

Dig deeper: Nielsen announces first module for cross-screen audience measurement platform

What happened. The MRC suspended Nielsen’s accreditation in September 2021 for two reasons. First, an investigation by the council found the company undercounted TV viewers during the pandemic because technicians were not able to get into panelists’ homes to fix devices. Second, Nielsen reported a software error had caused it to undercount out-of-home viewership for nearly six months.

Bad timing. The suspension came amidst an ongoing drop in TV viewership which made Nielsen’s ratings less valuable. Since 2011 major network broadcast ratings have dropped more than 80%, according to SpoilerTV. Further, the cord-cutting trend continues apace. The share of Americans who say they watch television via cable or satellite has plunged from 76% in 2015 to 56% in 2021, according to a Pew survey.

The post Nielsen’s national TV ratings gets accreditation back after 19-month suspension appeared first on MarTech.

Why we care. D2C brands are only a click away from their competitors making it easy for online shoppers to compare prices and products. To connect with customers, brands must identify and address the very different motivations that drive sales. Messages that land with one cohort will be wasted on other groups.

Seeking lower prices. The majority of online beauty shoppers are looking for bargains, the study found. This applied to younger consumers as well as older generations.

Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z and millennial digital shoppers said that they preferred to wait in order to pay a lower price on beauty products. And they accepted the risk that items would become unavailable.

Power shoppers. The study also identified a segment of “power shoppers” — those who spent at least $2,500 on beauty products annually.

Among “power shoppers,” 40% are bargain hunters. They spend more overall, but they resist paying full price on individual items.

Super fans. Against these trends, there is a cohort of “super fans” who are, indeed, willing to pay full price for exclusive or rare items.

Twenty-one percent of shoppers said they’d pay full price if they were one of the first customers to purchase the product. And 25% said they would pay full price if it was a limited-edition product.

These shoppers are receptive to brand events that emphasize the scarcity of a product. However, price-conscious customers would likely be discouraged by such an event.

Dig deeper: What is ecommerce and which trends are shaping its future?

The post D2C beauty shoppers are split between low prices and scarcity appeared first on MarTech.

Researching identity resolution vendors

Once you determine an enterprise identity resolution platform makes sense for your business, spend time researching individual vendors and their capabilities by doing the following: 

• Create and prioritize a list of identity resolution use cases, from essential to not necessary. 
• Use that list as a basis for your research — many of the vendors profiled in this report also provide blogs, ebooks and interactive tools that can help. 
• Make a list of the vendors meeting your criteria, reach out to them and set a deadline for replies. 
• Decide whether or not you need to engage in a formal RFI/RFP process.

Identity resolution is not only critical to marketing success but is essential for compliance with consumer privacy laws such as CCPA and GDPR. Explore the platforms essential to identity resolution in the latest edition of this MarTech Intelligence Report.

Click here to download!

RFI/RFP process

The RFI/RFP process is an individual preference, however be sure to give the same criteria to each vendor to facilitate comparison. The most effective RFPs only request relevant information and provide ample information about your brand and its identity resolution needs. It should reflect high-level strategic goals and KPIs. For example, mention your company’s most important KPIs and how you will evaluate the success of your efforts. Include details about timelines and the platforms in your existing martech stack. 

When written properly, an RFP will facilitate the sales process and ensure everyone involved comes to a shared understanding of the purpose, requirements, scope and structure of the intended purchase. From the RFP responses, you should be able to narrow your list down to three or four platforms to demo.

Demo the platforms

Schedule demos as close together as possible for the best comparisons. Make sure all potential users are on the demo call and pay attention to the following: 

• How easy is it to use? 
• Does the vendor understand our business and marketing needs? 
• Are they showing us our “must-have” features?

Questions for vendors

Here are some questions to ask vendors that touch on important considerations in your identity resolution search:

Data onboarding and privacy 

• Does the platform support first-party data onboarding? 
• Can we incorporate any of our private customer IDs into the platform? 
• Do you use probabilistic, deterministic or a hybrid approach to matching? 
• How do you validate the accuracy of your deterministic matches? 
• What match rate can we expect, given our vertical market and database size? 
• How do you comply with privacy regulations and consumer choice? 

Identity graph 

• Do you own or license your referential identity data? 
• What are your identity data sources? 
• How do you validate the quality of your identity graph? 
• How much of your data is addressable? 
• How is your identity graph linked to offline PII? 
• Do your identity capabilities apply to non-U.S. markets? 

Martech and adtech integration 

• How does the platform integrate with martech platforms (i.e., CRMs, DSPs, CDPs)? 
• Does the platform feature any built-in data activation capabilities (i.e., personalized email or ad campaign execution)? 
• Do you have APIs available for data import/export? 
• What reporting do you provide that will document the ROI from our identity efforts? 

Customer support 

The post 24 questions to ask identity resolution vendors during a demo appeared first on MarTech.

Recent years have seen gaming become an attractive advertising opportunity for brands. As more people are playing video games, there’s a huge potential for advertisers to reach new audiences. To gain further insight, DISQO CX surveyed 28,244 nationally representative consumers.

Their findings suggest that gaming is mainstream, with over one-third of the US population likely to have regular metaverse interactions within the next 5-10 years. Of those surveyed, 76% had noticed advertisements from brands. Consumers favored in-game experiences, bonus content, and embedded functionality, as these formats enhance the gaming experience for both gamers and advertising partners.

Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download How Brands Can Get in the Game. You’ll learn how to use the gaming medium to level-up your marketing, gain a better understanding of in-game audiences, and which ad formats are most popular with consumers.

The post Level up your marketing with in-game advertising appeared first on MarTech.

“I think we’re entering a very disruptive phase for creativity for designers, illustrators, video producers and writers,” said Paul Roetzer, CEO of Marketing AI Institute, at the recent MarTech Conference. “I think AI came for knowledge work and creative work way faster than we were prepared for as an industry, and I think that 2023 is going to be a very hard year for a lot of people to grasp what is really possible now and what that means to organizations and writers and content teams.” 

Why we care. Advances in generative AI will likely affect content creation across the marketing profession, at brands and agencies alike. This means smaller organizations can in-house tasks they might have previously depended on agencies to execute. However, new generative AI technology will also be helpful to agencies, making content production more efficient and allowing them to better serve their clients.

Creative work at agencies. “In-house and on the agency side, marketers are already leveraging AI to help them do what they’re good at,” said Stephen Marcinuk, co-founder and head of operations for Intelligent Relations, a low-cost tool that uses AI to help companies craft news pitches and carry out other public relations functions.

“For creative content — ads, blocks of text on a website, sales emails, things of that nature — AI is good at getting from zero to something 80-to-90 percent there,” said Marcinuk. “A real pain point for creative marketers is to stare at a blank piece of paper.”

Generative AI chatbots can produce a number of creative options in short order that humans can then choose from, edit and finalize. For instance, it could provide five different versions of copy for a specific ad, or a number of potential headlines for a blog post.

Upskilling. “Some people say AI will just help get rid of the tedium and so creatives can do interesting work,” said Marcinuk. “I think that’s naïve, personally. Some real jobs will be lost in the next two-to-three years. There will need to be upskilling across the marketing industry to learn how to use this technology and do jobs better.”

At agencies, this means having more marketers focused on strategic thinking and client relations management, as well as brand positioning, testing and analytics.

Augmented intelligence. Adding AI to graphics and other creative tools, as Adobe has done with its new Firefly offering, helps people complete work with tools they weren’t trained to use.

“The tool itself has the intelligence to help you,” said Marcinuk. “That’s what you’re seeing with Firefly and different ad tools. You don’t know how to write great ad copy? Well, what do you want to say? It will help you say it in the right way.”

Generative AI models connect users with outside data sets that can bring a higher level of competence to writing and other creative tasks. This way, agencies can pitch new clients quicker without having to research an entirely new industry.

The AI can also improve language proficiency for non-native speakers. Therefore, it can be a leveler for non-native English speakers who want to break into English-language advertising, Marcinuk said.

In-housing. As generative AI tools evolve, smaller organizations might be able to manage tasks they’d traditionally outsource to agencies.

The Intelligent Relations platform does this by using AI models that generate appropriate news pitches while also finding news organizations and reporters likely to be interested in the pitch. And it offers these tools as a subscription, starting at $95 per month.

Managing your AI. Organizations of all sizes will be forced to take another look at their budget and staffing. While AI capabilities improve, it will be important for marketers at all levels to manage their AI tool much like employees.

“It will still be important to have humans in the loop for approval [of content],” said Marcinuk. “It’s the same as managing a person — communicate the standard and help employees hit the standard. Same with ChatGPT. You’ll have to say ‘no that’s not good enough, make it less verbose.’ You’ll still have to manage your AI for the foreseeable future.”

Dig deeper: New AI-powered product releases

The post Why ChatGPT may be a blessing and a curse for agencies appeared first on MarTech.

Why we care. Can marketers or consumers trust CARU’s seal of approval? If we take Walmart at its word — and so far there is no reason not to — CARU reviewed and approved Universe of Play. The retail giant likely thought this would protect them not just from the FTC, but from charges like those made by the consumer groups. 

Those complaints were significant and should arguably have been foreseen. Now both marketers and consumers must wonder if CARU is providing meaningful oversight or just a fig leaf?

What it was. Universe of Play was one of two Walmart marketing efforts launched in Roblox, a metaverse platform, last September. It featured interactive games where users could win virtual coins to buy virtual merchandise. 

The company said the marketing was aimed at consumers between the ages of 17 and 24. However, the key brand tie-ins for Universe of Play were Jurassic World, Paw Patrol and Razor Scooters, which appeal to a significantly younger audience.

Dig Deeper: Walmart launches Roblox metaverse experience 

The complaints. In January, the ad watchdog truthinadvertising.org and several other consumer groups, sent a letter to CARU saying Universe of Play targeted young children and was marketing products without providing proper disclosures that site and its content are actually ads. 

The groups also said Walmart’s use of CARU’s COPPA Safe Harbor Program seal conveyed the message the game was compliant with the organization’s guidelines.

CARU is one of a dozen industry self-regulation programs run by the nonprofit BBB National Programs. In 2001, CARU’s advertising program was the first to be certified by the FTC as a Safe Harbor under the U.S.’s children’s online privacy law, COPPA. Participants who adhere to CARU’s guidelines are considered to be in compliance with the law and protected from any FTC enforcement action.

An unsafe harbor. The consumer groups’ letter also asked CARU to audit Walmart’s Roblox games. The retailer issued a statement saying this had already been done: “In December 2022, Walmart was approved to join CARU’s COPPA Safe Harbor Program after demonstrating that Universe of Play, a new immersive Roblox experience, complies with the stringent requirements of COPPA and CARU’s Guidelines.”

Some time after that Walmart removed the game from the site. Walmart hasn’t responded to a request for comment. CARU has refused to answer questions.

The post Walmart pulls Universe of Play off Roblox platform after consumer groups’ complaint appeared first on MarTech.

Gatorade is currently running ads for its new energy drink Fast Twitch. Kraft Heinz tested ads for multiple brands, including Velveeta. Both campaigns used basketball themes to connect with March Madness fans.

Why we care. Cooler Screens’ technology shows video images of in-stock products to shoppers when they’re deciding what to grab and buy. This makes the screens eye-catching and relevant for serving ads. On the back end, the technology uses “identity-blind” sensors for traffic and behavior data that demonstrates campaign performance.

At a time when many retailers are launching their own retail media networks (RMNs), Cooler Screens cuts across a number of retailers with this new all-at-once offering, giving big brands opportunity to scale, and to do so with a video experience that is more useful and interactive than standard in-store video screens.

Dig deeper: Why we care about retail media networks

In-store network. Cooler Screens’ 10,000 screens across retailers serve ads to nearly 100 million viewers per month.

Using data from the screens, brands can measure sales lift, brand equity and real-time shopper actions — like opening the refrigerator door — to optimize the campaigns.

The Kraft Heinz test campaigns delivered between three and six percentage points in sales lift across their brands.

The post Kraft Heinz and Gatorade tap in-store video screens for March Madness appeared first on MarTech.

“Whether we’re talking about B2B buyers or consumers, customers need you to know who they are, whichever channel or device they’re meeting you on,” said Kim Davis, MarTech’s editorial director. “At the same time, they expect you to respect their privacy. What that means is that as the industry gradually weans itself from cookie-tracking, other ways of understanding customer behavior and the customer journey become paramount.”

Is the industry prepared for this privacy-driven environment? Changes are underway as Google now plans to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome in 2024. Last year, IAB CEO David Cohen called the deprecation of third-party identifiers “the world’s biggest slow-motion train wreck.”

Here are the approaches B2B and B2C marketers can use today as privacy becomes an ever greater priority.

Identity resolution solutions

Identity resolution solutions integrate consumer identifiers across channels and devices in a way that is accurate, scalable and privacy-compliant to create a persistent and addressable individual profile.

“It’s privacy-compliant because the user’s profile is built around an anonymized token, not a name, email address or phone number,” Davis said.

Most identity resolution platforms maintain identity graphs into which they gather data from the full range of channels and devices where the user is active. Identity resolution platforms identify users either deterministically or probabilistically.

“The result should be the ability to segment and target audiences based on interests and behavior,” said Davis. “For most marketing purposes — not all, but most — it’s more valuable to know what the customer is interested in than their name, height, weight, gender and home address. That’s true whether they’re in market for a sophisticated software solution, or just looking for a new pair of sunglasses.”

Dig deeper: What is identity resolution and how are platforms adapting to privacy changes?

Zero-party data

Zero-party data is a kind of first-party data that a user volunteers that relates to their interests, preferences or intent. 

“It could be collected by something as simple as a three-question quiz,” said Davis. “Collection could be gamified.”

For instance, here’s how online temporary tattoo seller Inkbox uses a quiz to gain zero-party data from customers.

“Customers are eager to give up this information and hand it over so that they can get the help they need, get better products and services,” said Tim Parkin, President of Parkin Consulting. “Zero-party data is massive. It’s been here for a while under the radar and we need to expose it now and align our interests with the customer so that we can access this zero-party data.”

Data clean rooms

Data clean rooms (DCRs) use privacy-enhancing technology that allows data owners, including brands and publishers, to share first-party data in a privacy-compliant way. They resolve the data to a profile while keeping that profile anonymized.

This emerging technology requires a certain level of data maturity, so not all organizations can take the leap into DCRs. Those that do typically already have a CDP or DMP in place to manage customer data. Additionally, brands using a DCR might look to a consultancy to assist in the implementation, and that costs more.

Dig deeper: How data clean rooms might help keep the internet open

B2B community building

B2B marketers use communities to give like-minded individuals the platform to communicate with experts in their field. This gives buyers the incentive to volunteer information in order to stay connected.

“B2B marketers have gotten pretty smart at trying to figure out how to have people give their information so that they can voluntarily communicate with individuals and companies that they feel they want to do business with,” said Cyndi Greenglass, President of Livingston Strategies, a B2B marketing consultancy. “Some of the ways that companies have gotten past the [privacy] challenge is by creating their own portals, their own communities and environments where individuals are offering up information so that they can stay connected despite what’s happening in this environment.”

Marketers must serve high-quality content into their portal for the community to thrive. Businesspeople bring high standards to their B2B interactions because they are used to best-of-breed buying experiences when they act as consumers making personal buying decisions.

“Community is more important than it’s ever been,” Greenglass said. “We’ve seen that consumers — whether they are B2B purchasers or individuals — we bring our human behavior into the workplace when we do business every day.”

“I’m a strong believer in customer proximity, that whoever is closest to the customer wins,” said Parkin. “If you’re not talking to your customers, you’re not learning about who they are and what they want, how they think and how they act. Community allows you to do that. It’s your experiment lab where you can see people interact with each other and you can get face-to-face with customers.”

The post Identifying B2B and B2C consumers in a privacy-driven environment: The MarTech Conference keynote appeared first on MarTech.