The Persuadables: New Research Reveals Principles for Driving Higher Return on Ad Spend by Combining Purchase Cycle With People-Based Advertising

Rubinson Partners, Nielsen Catalina Solutions, and Viant show how CPG marketers can use principle of recency to drive higher sales

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Viant

May 09, 2017, 08:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., May 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Joel Rubinson of Rubinson Partners, Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS), and Viant, a Time Inc. people-based advertising technology company, today announced a new study aimed at helping CPG marketers understand how to better target advertising to drive the highest return on ad spend (ROAS). The research provides a clear methodology for identifying audience segments that are most likely to make a purchase as a result of advertising, and for understanding when in the purchase cycle to engage them for maximum sales impact.

The Principle of Recency theory, used widely by media planners, proposes that advertisements are most effective when they are delivered right before a consumer is about to purchase a product. It's also a popular belief that targeting non-brand buyers, or driving trial, is the best strategy for driving the greatest response to advertising. Combining in-store purchase history from NCS with first-party data from Viant, it was possible to test the hypothesis that ROAS is greatest among consumers who are nearly ready to make their next purchase and who are heavy brand buyers, a group labeled "The Persuadables."

According to the digital campaigns studied, advertising delivered to "The Persuadables" drove up to $21 in sales for every dollar spent on advertising. In addition, this segment exhibited unprecedented lift of roughly $17-48 of sales return per ad dollar. The ROAS for this segment was up to 16 times higher than the seven other segments studied, which included a segment for non-brand buyers targeted close to the next purchase. Recency combined with the heaviness of a consumer's spend was the top driver of ad response in the study, which looked at three CPG campaigns that each reached between 25MM-40MM households.

"Brand marketers have access to large amounts of customer data, but they still have challenges connecting the dots to understand the customer journey, from knowing not just who to target, but when to target them," said Jon Schulz, CMO at Viant. "For the first time, this research utilizes CPG shopper data to construct and test a new segmentation framework, designed to help marketers better understand their key audiences. NCS' consumer purchase data, combined with Viant's first-party data, advertising reach, and targeting capabilities, delivered extremely promising results."

"The findings from the report enable marketers to precisely identify the audience segment that will yield the greatest return for their spend," said Joel Rubinson of Rubinson Partners. "By incorporating the persistency of a people-based approach into digital advertising campaigns, marketers can identify their most valuable consumers and accurately predict when they are most likely to purchase a product, essentially defining the Persuadables segment."

"NCS works with the top CPG brands and agencies to create better advertising, based on real, in-store sales metrics," said Leslie Wood, Chief Research Officer at Nielsen Catalina Solutions. "Purchase-based targeting is critical for driving the highest possible ROAS for a campaign. This new framework will help advertisers reach their most valuable audience at the time when it's most likely to influence their purchasing."

To download The Persuadables: How Advertisers Can Use the Principles of Recency and Spend Level to Significantly Improve ROAS, please visit here.

About Nielsen Catalina Solutions

NCS (Nielsen Catalina Solutions) is a purchase-based ad targeting and ROAS measurement firm serving the CPG industry. NCS integrates in-store purchase data from nearly 90 million households with media exposure data from TV, online, mobile, print, radio and CRM to help consumer packaged goods advertisers, agencies and media companies define their most valuable audience, reach them with advertising and measure incremental sales driven by ad campaigns. The joint venture between Nielsen and Catalina has helped over 200 advertisers and 450+ brands optimize ad performance to drive revenue growth and increase return on ad spend. Visit us at http://www.ncsolutions.com to learn more.

About Rubinson Partners

Joel Rubinson is president of Rubinson Partners, Inc., which specializes in marketing and research consulting for a digital age. Currently Joel functions as an industry subject matter expert on multi-touch attribution for the Mobile Marketing Association. Joel also specializes in developing consumer segmentation that produces targetable audiences to drive marketing ROI. Previously, Joel was Chief Research Officer at The Advertising Research Foundation, where he drove the organization's initiatives regarding listening, research transformation, and shopper path to purchase. Joel was also at the NPD Group for many years, leading the creation of modeling approaches for brand equity management, new product forecasting, category management, and designed their online data collection methodologies. Joel holds an MBA in Statistics and Economics from the University of Chicago and a BS from NYU.

About Viant

Viant Technology LLC is a premier people-based advertising technology company, enabling marketers to plan, execute,and measure their digital media investments through a cloud-based platform. Built on a foundation of people instead of cookies, the Viant Advertising Cloud^TM provides marketers with access to over 1.2 billion registered users, one of the largest registered user databases in the world, infusing accuracy, reach, and accountability into cross-device advertising.

Founded in 1999, Viant owns and operates Adelphic and Myspace and is a member of the Xumo joint venture.

In 2016, Viant became a subsidiary of Time Inc., one of the world's leading media companies with over 100 influential brands including People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Time. For more information, please visit www.viantinc.com.

SOURCE Viant