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Getting a sufficient budget to deliver your content marketing strategy can be a vicious cycle. But you can break it if you stop making these six mistakes in reporting to your executive team. Continue reading
The post Stop These Reporting Mistakes and Win Budget Support for Content Marketing appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.
The COVID-19 pandemic has democratized e-commerce for all types of consumers, and over 18 million CPG buyers (and counting) in the U.S. have flooded the online space since March. Online shoppers have been mirroring their purchasing within the channel to their constantly shifting, pandemic-related needs and are becoming further entrenched in their shopping behaviors.
But not all online engagement leads to an online purchase. For many, online channels are a key means to compare prices, research new products and find physical stores, giving way to a full-blown explosion of true omnichannel shopping. In fact, new Nielsen Connect data shows that FMCG omnichannel shopping has increased by 50% this year, with nearly half leading to e-commerce purchases.
When examining consumers’ levels of engagement across channels, 56% of online shoppers put careful consideration into each purchase at the point of sale in September 2020, compared with 51% of brick-and-mortar shoppers. Online shoppers became more invested than their brick-and-mortar counterparts in searching for the best product to fit new needs and, as a result, increased planning efforts for online grocery purchases into the new normal. When examining planning levels for in-store food purchases, rates of purchase planning dipped below pre-COVID levels by September 2020. And as brick-and-mortar shoppers eased up on planning efforts, impulse purchasing for food and non-food products increased slightly across offline channels.
In this article, I talk about the power of creating experiences. You will find creative examples and best practices for impactful content experiences.
The post Content Experiences Are the New Content Marketing appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Once upon a time, a child’s toy comes to life inside a retail store. Elsewhere in the world, a man combines 11 herbs and spices while romancing an heiress. Catch those stories and one more from Google this week. Continue reading
The post This Week in Content Marketing: Lessons from Home Depot, KFC, and Google appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.
Recent innovations in TV are providing more valuable options to the ad buying process and promise to improve the consumer experience. Advertisers now have many choices when it comes to advertising. From new streaming platforms to rapid innovation in advanced TV, advertisers now have more ways of getting in front of audiences in an addressable way and networks have the ability to unlock more premium inventory.
As the TV space becomes more complex, it’s important to demystify the different types of ad buys. The optimal TV mix is what fits your agenda, and a multitude of TV mix choices can actually provide new ways to maximize your assets and provide the greatest flexibility. Just as other industries have evolved over time, TV is going through a rebirth, shifting from traditional TV to incorporate many of the benefits of (and avoid the drawbacks of) digital media driven by the innovations in ad tech.
TV ad buying today spans a medley of the new and tried-and-true, falling into three main categories: traditional TV, digital video and addressable TV. Each has its own set of values on either side of the buying equation. The good news is that you can weigh each according to your specific needs and combine approaches to fit your goals.
Traditional TV orders are what linear programming has been transacted on since TV’s inception. Agencies typically buy most of the TV advertising on behalf of advertisers, defining who they want to target based on age and gender surrogates. In the past, nearly 60%-80% of national ad spots were sold at the spring upfronts; inventory is also purchased in scatter during the TV season, as well as locally. But in recent years, the age-old system of TV buying is in flux.
National TV ads are sold manually through broadcast, cable and syndicate networks, while local TV ads are sold through the local broadcast and cable operators. Traditional TV orders are transacted on a standard currency basis using GRPs (gross rating points) and impressions. It’s a common misconception that GRPs are no longer relevant in an addressable or digital video world, when in fact they are key to understanding reach and frequency and are used to negotiate price. Impressions are used in traditional TV for both delivery and billing. As long as advertisers care about reach and frequency as well as exposures, then GRPs and impressions will be a part of the TV ad buy for many decades ahead. That is why both impressions and GRPs are being used more and more by advertisers when measuring and comparing campaign performance across traditional, digital video and addressable alike.
The upside of the traditional TV buy for buyers is that they can reach wide audiences with one order in a very trusted, transparent and safe environment. On the downside, audiences are determined based on age and gender proxies, which means that many of the impressions are going to viewers who are not in an advertiser’s refined target. Traditional TV orders are also largely manually placed and sealed with a handshake rather than heaps of paperwork. This is a long-standing practice that has earned its place driven by trust.
Digital video gained significant traction in the early 2000’s and grew up with different values and processes. Digital video ads are dynamically inserted across essentially unlimited digital properties, some of which are premium and viewed as a valued TV set, based on refined audiences. Delivery is flexible and completed in real-time using various serving technologies, and validation of delivery is based on impressions.
Digital video is primarily bought and sold using DSPs and SSPs in an automated fashion. Digital video can be highly accountable, but lacks a single trusted syndicated measurement source allowing for comparison across the sea of available options. Because there is no syndicated measurement today that allows for a full view of the marketplace, there is no real currency.
If the traditional TV order is the handshake, digital video insertion order (IO) is the signature on the dotted line. A digital video IO is more formal than what is typically done on the TV side. Despite its name, the digital video IO does not come with the automation we typically associate with the term “digital.” Instead, it requires manual negotiation and careful consideration of things like ad tax, fraud and viewability due to the number of players in between the content source and the end consumer. Most importantly, the IO acts as the terms and conditions for all parties and ultimately keeps everyone honest.
Even with the above options, the market is looking for better ways to leverage technology and data to deliver more value to programmers, marketers and consumers on large portions of inventory. Marketers have expressed two key messages as a result of COVID-19 conditions on their investments: more accountability and more flexibility.
Addressable TV has been in the beginning stages of evolution for many years and is finally at a tipping point where potentially large portions of premium TV content can apply advancements in technology and measurement to meet the marketplace needs. At this critical point, the ecosystem needs ways to combine the best of traditional TV and digital video to bring to market the best of both worlds.
Before diving into how addressable TV is transacted, it’s important to first clarify what we mean by “addressable TV.” Addressable TV is the ability to define an audience and only have those audiences see the advertisement regardless of the way that content is received. Addressable TV is being deployed in several ways, including using a set-top box to refine cable network programming that is watched with a pay TV subscription, using smart TVs to refine broadcast and cable network programming in any way a smart TV displays this content, whether over the air, via MVPD, or even via streaming and OTT options.
With addressable TV technology being deployed for linear and on-demand viewing options, the sell and buy sides will aggressively seek options to unify all of their options. Sell-side players are looking to optimize yield and track performance in-flight instead of after a campaign is over. This not only makes their inventory more appealing to buyers, but also much easier to manage and maximize yield against a constrained inventory source. Buy-side players are looking to understand where their most desired audiences are consuming content across the array of viewing options and the best way to reach them simply, transparently and in the most economical way to meet their objectives.
Overall, addressable TV offers more accountability, granularity, more targeted audience buying, the potential for more automated inventory management tools and automated yield optimization.
In the end, there is no right answer when it comes to the TV ad buy. It all comes down to a simple math problem: How are you going to make more money? Both the sell side and buy side are trying to move products (commercial inventory and branded products respectively) and both need to determine the right mix of TV. The answer may be different for everyone. All three ad buys options have implications on the total available pool of impressions and yield, so you need to choose what’s right for you.
By embracing the new and changing TV order options, you can build the best version for yourself and ensure you are not missing out on the opportunities of innovation that could truly redefine the way you consider TV in the years ahead.
A well-planned content calendar is a must-have for marketers to make sure their campaigns are optimized and performing well. Here’s what you need to know.
The post How to Manage a Data-Driven Content Marketing Calendar via @JRiddall appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Whether you’re looking for a promotion or new job, or want to pivot your role or industry, create a content marketing strategy to support your personal brand in 2021. Here’s how to do it. Continue reading
The post How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Personal Brand appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.
What is the “messy middle?” Find out what it is and how SEO professionals’ better understanding of this can drive growth in 2021.
The post The Future of SEO Lies in the “Messy Middle” of the Purchase Journey via @gregjarboe appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
China’s rebound from COVID-19 has been unique. It came faster and with more demonstrable economic tailwinds for the economy than other markets. But it has also been a bellwether that has helped point to consumer behaviors elsewhere that have inevitably followed China’s lead. An example is the rebalancing of retail playing out around the world.
Pandemic-led shifts to further online adoption and an increased focus on neighborhood and small-format stores have become an ongoing normal. Though different to other markets, China helps us understand consumer attitudes and responses as they head into 2021 with the prospect of COVID-19 vaccine distributions at scale.
Historically, China has demonstrated a mature omnichannel shopping base, with consumers that are already years ahead of the majority of other markets in online shopping. In third-quarter 2020, online sales in China grew by 27% for the year to date, while physical store sales declined by 4%. The declines at physical stores were largely due to COVID-19-related closures, and there has been some recovery in the remainder of the year. China has four main city tiers, based on inputs such as population size, growth levels, location and infrastructure. Tier 1 cities (including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou) and tier 2 cities (including Chongqing, Tianjin and Dalian) saw the highest closure rates, while tier 3 and 4 cities were less impacted. Online has continued on its growth trajectory.
“Due to Chinese New Year (late January), population outflow and strict pandemic control policies, upper-tier cities experienced heavier impact during the height of the pandemic, and only 50%-60% of stores were still open for business,” said Tina Ding, Chief Commercial Officer, CPG, Nielsen China. “But due to market resilience and robust foundations, by August, around 80% of stores reopened, signaling both a rebound in physical and some fascinating new developments in the e-commerce space.”
In addition to sales growth, online shopping in China saw huge category expansion among shoppers during the onset of COVID-19. While e-commerce growth in China prior to the pandemic was primarily led by personal care categories, consumers began purchasing in categories like dairy, staple foods, beverage and liquor. For example, online growth for dairy has surged from 34% to 55% for the year to date October 2020, versus the same time a year ago and staple foods jumped from 30% to 48% growth for the same period.
An adjacent trend that rapidly accelerated in China during COVID-19 was online to offline (O2O) shopping. Offering the best of both worlds, consumers purchase items online and have their items selected, (often by third parties) and delivered within a short delivery time of one-two hours. During the initial days of the epidemic, consumers valued the convenience and safety of these services, and the O2O growth rate jumped up to 20% from January to March. Between March and June, although COVID-19 was under control and consumers could return to normal, O2O growth continued at a rate of 6%.
“The rapid adoption of online to offline shopping has driven an element of physical store fragmentation seen in China. Given that O2O transactions are executed in physical stores, O2O purchases—a majority of which are made in small format stores, are captured within physical in-store purchases. These O2O sales are contributing to the growth being seen in small format channels.” said Ding. “O2O was already a fast emerging trend in China prior to COVID-19, but it has definitely accelerated its usage. At the same time in 2019, consumers were more likely to shop in person before, but now their loyalty is driven by the outlets and brands that make themselves available for purchase in an O2O environment. In this world, convenience, proximity and safe access are key things that matter to consumers.”
But amid the growth has been upheaval in the physical retail sector. Some stores that were once the biggest contributors to total sales in the industry are now seeing sales declines, while those that may have been previously viewed as “under achievers” are over-performing against previous benchmarks.
The concentration, or number of stores, that account for 80% of FMCG sales, often referred to as “golden stores” changed in China between February and September. More than half (56%) of the stores in this universe of golden stores changed from the same period last year. Thirty-three percent of stores are new golden stores and 23% of stores that used to be golden are no longer. The rotation of golden stores in and out is even greater in small-format channels, with Minimarket (58%) and Convenience (42%) seeing higher changeover than Supermarkets (37%) and Hypermarkets (20%).
Within the 33% of new golden stores, 71% are brand new entrants (that did not operate before COVID-19). 26% of these brand new entrants have jumped straight into top performing stores. The scale of the changes is unprecedented and will have far-reaching implications for retailers and brands. Similar trends have played out in Paris and London.
Retailers and brands that have resisted adapting to COVID-19-shifted spending, perhaps hoping for a return to old habits, now find themselves lagging behind faster-moving competitors that adjusted for the ongoing change.
Those that have embraced the change in shopping preferences and pivoted their offerings to suit new consumer needs are already gaining traction. Areas they have addressed include distribution efficiencies, sales force optimization, innovation planning, assortment and pricing.
For more on how consumer behavior is evolving throughout this global pandemic, visit Nielsen’s content hub for the latest insights.
Visual storytelling brings ideas and personalities to life, while illuminating brand purpose. Here are nine tips from CMI’s Visual Storytelling Summit to help you tell better stories now (and free access to watch all the sessions). Continue reading
The post 9 Video Storytelling Tips to Engage Your Audience appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.