Digital marketing strategies are often saturated with data but starved for precision.
There’s no shortage of information to work with on things like whom to target based on demographics or past purchases, but marketing is evolving, and real-world signals and predictive artificial intelligence-driven approaches are redefining how we market.
In fact, brands are moving beyond the “who,” leveraging signals to discover what really matters — why consumers shop or what motivates them, as well as where and when to best connect with them to be of value and drive deeper, more meaningful relationships.
More than 10 years ago, Forrester Research proclaimed the arrival of the Mobile Mind Shift as transforming the rules of customer engagement — and it has. The expectation of consumers to get what they want and need in their immediate context and at their precise moment of need is a reality today. However, that’s further fueled by the arrival of AI and advanced predictive and analytic capabilities. Today’s marketers can drive deeper connections and more powerful experiences through a greater understanding of the consumer and what they value most and are motivated most by.
This is the sort of analysis that real-time marketing and measurement platform InMarket has set out to achieve with its Moments and Lift Conversion Index attribution solutions. Taken together, these capabilities use a combination of unique, actionable insights, predictive artificial intelligence, and real-time geo-contextual capabilities that connect customers with relevant ad experiences in key moments of consideration as they’re likely to make a purchase.
The key, says Michael Della Penna, InMarket’s chief strategy officer, is the ability to send hyper-relevant ads, promotions, and notifications in the moments that matter most — when a customer is planning a shopping haul, shopping in-store, or in the process of making a purchase.
“We can combine top-of-the-funnel strategies with real-time activation, where we’re able to light up a device as someone is walking into a store to let them know there’s a promotion in aisle L for X, Y, and Z products,” says Della Penna, pointing to a recent 8.9 times increase in engagement rates that InMarket was able to drive for a CPG (consumer packaged goods) client. “We can also alter that message to the individual throughout the purchase process based on what motivates them most — why they shop. So a healthy, wealthy consumer walking into Whole Foods receives a health benefit message versus a frugal family planner who receives a promotional message for the same product.”
Bob Evans Farms saw a “highly successful” incremental sales lift and return on ad spend using this approach, says Della Penna.
“Our award-winning campaign with Bob Evans Farms promoting its Mashed Cauliflower is just another example of the remarkable impact when combining top-of-the-funnel and bottom-of-the-funnel to inspire purchases. The ability to reach customers in the moments that matter most — as they’re actively making purchase decisions — is pivotal to standing out and being that brand they choose while in-store.”
Understanding the Why, When, and Where
At its core, explains Della Penna, InMarket’s Moments platform is engineered to help brands craft customer experiences that resonate based on interest and demand. It employs a mix of real-time data, geo-contextual technology, and a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior informed by predictive AI to send consumers ads that connect at a deeper level and drive market-leading engagement rates for products they actually want.
“We’re changing the dynamic of marketing from trying to understand not only who the target customer is, but also why people shop and when and where to best reach them, why they’re in the market for a product or service,” says Della Penna.
“That allows us to change the conversation with a brand to be both forward-looking as it relates to their marketing, and also flexible, because you’re responding to the numerous signals that you’re getting from a consumer, whether it’s what they put in their shopping cart or whether it’s where they are with their phone or what they just bought seconds or hours before.”
The Moments platform is segmented into various solutions — InHome, InPath, InStore, and InHand — each designed to engage consumers at different stages of the purchase journey.
InHome and InPath cover more top-of-the-funnel approaches, identifying when customers are more likely to shop at a store or online, then reaching out as they consider the purchase. This enables valuable targeted advertising in the days or hours preceding a shopping trip or purchase, and it eliminates wasted media spend on ads and promotions that would appear during periods of low receptivity for target customers, like the days immediately after they’ve visited a store.
InStore and InHand work at the bottom of the funnel, reaching customers as they shop at a location, and even enabling advertisers to reach consumers literally as they hold their products in the aisle.
According to InMarket’s website, these approaches outperform traditional mobile advertising benchmarks. The company boasts six times higher click-through rates compared to Google’s mobile media benchmark.
InMarket’s ‘Breakthrough Moments’
InMarket recently unveiled its top-performing Breakthrough Moments from the past year, featuring campaigns that demonstrated the effectiveness of strategically timed engagement in driving viewability and engagement rates, with some campaigns reaching as high as a 9.55% click-through rate, about 15.9 times the industry standard.
Key highlights from the report include Michelob ULTRA’s partnership with a regional convenience store, which featured a meal deal resulting in a 7.32% click-through rate, significantly outperforming the industry average. Wendy’s capitalized on consumer demand for value with its “2 for $6” meal deal, achieving a 4.75% click-through rate. In consumer packaged goods, Kraft Heinz & NotCo’s NotMayo campaign spotlighted the growing trend toward plant-based products, boasting a 9.55% click-through rate, the highest among the campaigns mentioned.
For Della Penna, InMarket’s success on these campaigns is ultimately a testament to the Moments platform as a value differentiator for the company, a service that allows it to create campaigns that couldn’t be realized through more traditional targeted advertising.
“Moments has been a really, really huge success for us, not only in its capabilities to serve an ad and wake up a device, but also in enabling us to get really creative to help our clients break through the clutter with engaging and interactive brand experiences.”
