Reaching the connected consumer
We spend billions of pounds a year trying to target the connected consumer, but instead we end up targeting connected devices – more often than not in an unconnected way, says Martin Galvin, director of trading and platforms for Specific Media. Yet the challenge of reaching the connected consumer is the same as it ever was. If we can make sure that their consumption dictates the plan, rather than vice versa, we should be able to thrive
I always thought the ‘connected consumer’ was the kid at work who sent the 25% off Selfridges voucher round once a year. But I was wrong.
Apparently the connected consumer ‘is always on’, ‘in control’, ‘device agnostic’ and they expect those who receive their patronage to deliver what they want, where, when and how they want it 24/7.
They sound like a complete pain in the arse – the last person you’d want to sit next to at a dinner party, assuming you’d want to go to a dinner party at all (personally, I’m not big on duck a l’orange).
However, assuming we define the connected consumer as a connected device-riddled individual, or group of individuals, it’s fair to say that we as advertisers need them. Not least as they carry around circa four figures worth of kit as standard, and can therefore probably afford to buy what we want to sell them assuming we put a half interesting proposition in front of them.
Sadly, disposable income is where the good news ends, because the way we target commercials at the connected consumer today is fundamentally flawed, and ironically the clue is in the question.
We spend billions of pounds a year trying to target the connected consumer, but instead we end up targeting connected devices – more often than not in an unconnected way.
Historically if we advertised on something Internet connected, we would show an ad on a screen, cookie the device pertaining to the screen, and see if someone reacted to the ad on that same device.
The consumer, however, has more than one device – they’re connected across, on average, more than five separate connected devices per household, and they react differently to different types of commercial message on different types of screen.
So whilst the cookie was fit(ish) for purpose in the days of one PC per household, in the era of the connected consumer it simply can’t give us a true picture of what happens at a consumer-centric level – and this is before you factor in recent soundings from Mozilla and Microsoft, etc, around cookie usage.
So in order to target the connected consumer, you need to be able to join their devices’ dots in order to create a clear narrative across their entire device ecosystem. Sadly, a lot of ad budgets are still determined on the basis of individual screens – how much do we spend on mobile, on TV, on ‘digital’ (weird) and on tablet (free for all)?
The humble PC and laptop rarely command their own lines on a plan, which is quite interesting given the critical role they play in actually buying something online.
Specific Media recently commissioned Decipher to aid our thinking in this area, and the early findings are fascinating – not least some of the insight gleaned around specific device usage at specific times of day right through the classic funnel.
This type of planning makes the mistake of trying to predict the connected consumers’ consumption patterns in advance, and crowbars advertising around what we think people will be doing.
However, it’s now possible to not have to second guess consumption, and instead put messages in front of people irrespective of the consumption pattern of the day, based around what they are actually doing, rather than what we think they will be.
Specific Media’s Householding proposition, amongst others, has had some success in this area. So a big challenge for planners now is how they articulate this consumer journey to a client, in a way that allows the plan to evolve based on actual consumption, rather than predicted device usage by screen.
It’s worth noting that there are some really interesting models on the market now attempting to do just this – indeed a leading Agency at an IAB presentation recently described to those present how they were attempting to ‘kill the spreadsheet’, which many would suggest is long overdue.
All this also rather assumes that we’re doing the basics right – giving people a reason to spend time with your brand.
At the outset we reiterated the demanding nature of the connected consumer – even if they can actually be sold to, they will firmly believe they can’t.
Everything is on their terms (unless free stuff is involved), so for all our talk of getting to grips with the connected consumer, of understanding how commercial messages work on individual screens, of understanding how those messages co-exist across those connected screens, and of how we can use reams of data to refine the CTR to a mere 99.7% wastage instead of 99.8, one basic premise must still permeate everything we do – good ideas will always sell things, rubbish ideas won’t.
We can have all the nuance possible, but if we put a bad ad in front of someone, irrespective of their connectivity, they won’t buy it.
So the challenge of reaching the connected consumer is, at the very base level, the same as it ever was. They’re just people. If we can make sure that their consumption dictates the plan, rather than vice versa, we should be able to thrive.
To get involved in the debate, join industry leaders at next week’s Connected Consumer event. Tickets are still available. More details here.