The fragmented worlds of advertising and e-commerce meet at the consumer
From Advertising Week 2013, Matthew Duffy, VP marketing at Jumptap, comments on opportunities at the intersection of e-commerce and advertising.
Consumer-centric marketing was the resounding message from Lisa Utzschneider, VP of global display advertising at Amazon and Alex Tosolini, senior vice president of global e-business at Procter and Gamble. The two spoke to a full house on Tuesday at the TimesCenter, Advertising Week’s transient home base in NYC.
The way people buy things is changing rapidly, according to Amazon’s Utzschneider, who also cited that e-commerce is expected to almost double by 2017. And the way people are influenced to buy things is changing rapidly as well.
Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the rise of tablets, consumers are purchasing across devices. In fact, nearly 80 per cent of shoppers have shopped on a tablet or a smartphone. Though the mediums have evolved, marketers still need to follow the basic rules of understanding the customer.
“When it comes to building a brand”, P&G’s Tosolini said, “you can’t do it without putting the consumer at the centre”.
How was technology evolved the process? Tosolini expressed that “brand building is rooted in deep consumer insights”.
Data targeting technology helps brands find their audience across devices, increases uplift and can even uncover new audiences that previously went unknown. Technology is an important ingredient in the marketing mix and can provide that seamless experience consumers have come to expect on mobile.
Consumers have adopted mobile faster than marketers, and as a marketer, Tosolini said it’s his job to follow consumers where they are, noting that “the path to purchase is changing for all of us”.
What once was linear is now fast and complex. Utzschneider shared an anecdote with the audience about her search for a journal for her daughter, where the two began by researching on a smartphone and finally purchasing on a tablet.
It’s this cross-screen behavior that marketers factor in when creating their advertising strategy. The speakers also testified to the culture of test and learn.
“We need to be humble enough to follow the consumer, learn fast, and make mistakes fast”, Tosolini said. The ‘test then optimize’ philosophy is an essential piece of the process, especially in the ever-evolving mobile arena.
With so much technology blossoming, choosing the right partner to help find your brand’s audience is paramount. Tosolini left the audience with two expert tips when considering a partnership. First, it’s of vital importance to understand how a potential partner’s technology works.
“You can’t leverage a partnership without understanding what the partner has to offer”, he said. Secondly, there must be a way for both partners to prosper. He expressed that parties should be looking for a clear, well-intended “win-win”.
Utzschneider and Tosolini agreed that the challenge right now is leveraging technology to help marketers do their job better and identify the right consumer at the right time. It boils down to a combination of consumer insights, great ideas and technology that leads to the path of purchase and closure.