Research Connects Online, Offline Marketing
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, May 11, 2012
How does online marketing translate to in-store purchases? Well, for CPG brands, new research shows that online targeting results in an 18% in-store sales lift versus non-targeted shoppers.
The 3-month study from market researcher SymphonyIRI and Legolas Media involved 50 million rich media and banner impressions on premium Web sites from three unnamed brands.
“Participating brands and their agencies were able to see the impact and correlation that online ads were having on their offline sales,” said Srishti Gupta, EVP of New Media Solutions at SymphonyIRI.
Testing multiple ad campaign strategies, SymphonyIRI and Legolas found targeting based on a consumer’s prior purchase history to be the most effective ad strategy. Consumers who were regular users of a brand resulted in more than a 48% in-store sales lift, with a 23% lift for buyers of competitive brands. Other strategies tested included hyperlocal, demographic, and psychographic targeting.
For the study, campaigns were planned, bought and delivered via the Legolas Media “futures” marketplace. The campaigns were measured through SymphonyIRI’s Consumer Network panel, which includes data on shopping behavior from more than 86,000 consumers. Campaign effectiveness was determined in terms of actual spend per household and actual value per sale versus the general population, and was then compared with thesame period a year earlier to determine impact on sales lift.
SymphonyIRI and Legolas are hardly the only firms trying to collect marketers’ online and offline efforts. A long list of researchers and Web titans -- including Adobe, Coremetrics, Clickable, Google, Experian, GroupM, Nielsen, and ClearSaleing -- are on similar missions.
Google just recently introduced Active GRP and Active View features into DoubleClick for Advertisers, so brands can use offline measurement standards for online campaigns. Just last month, meanwhile, Adometry launched a platform that seeks to identify the offline media driving online conversions -- and vice versa.
Once I adopted online marketing for my business, my offline, in-store profit soared. Members of my community were finally able to discover the benefits of my small business compared to larger corporations. I was only able to make this transition online though with the help of OfficeAutopilot software. The software allowed me to track my customers online and set up follow up emails which are sent in response to any of their actions. I was able to track which customers visited my site by adding promos that were only featured on my website. By using OfficeAutopilot software, I was able to boost my sales and increase my brand awareness.