• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, September 11, 2012

How to sell razors has been one of the challenges advertisers have faced for the last fifty years. As real-time video ad-buying platform TubeMogul just released new measurement tools to help marketers analyze the brand lift in online video, the company shared a sneak peek with me of one of its first case studies looking into which razor brands are popular in different areas of the country. 

Dubbed BrandSights, the TubeMogul measurement tool allows marketers to build brand surveys on brand lift, intent to purchase, brand awareness and other factors into digital video ad buys from the get-go and target them by audience, geography or Web site, for instance.

The razor study is one example of the type of insight a brand might glean from such a survey. For a currently running campaign, TubeMogul has been polling American online video viewers across the country for the last few months to determine which razors are most popular in different areas. The result? Gillette leads nationwide, with 62% of respondents citing that brand as their preferred brand of razor, followed by Schick at 22% and Bic at 16%. The Northeast mirrored the nationwide results closely. But preferences shifted considerably in the middle of the country, TubeMogul learned. Gillette was still tops in the Midwest, but at only 49%, while Bic rose to 34%, with Schick landing at 17%.

What does a marketer do with this information? Brands could decide whether to allocate more or less resources to different regions, and could target more precisely by geography and demographics, TubeMogul said.

The company serves up the survey questions in retargeted displays ads after users have seen video ads, and to control groups of users who haven’t seen the video ads.