Introduction to Campaign Assignment and Objectives
An advertiser had just missed a 7 am flight — one that he woke up at 4:30 to make it to the airport, in fact — and was not in a very happy mood.
Another advertiser who had shared the same fate steamed past me in a flurry of after shave and four-letter utterances describing the ticket agent’s resemblance to an unattractive, female canine pet.
As the advertiser gathered his belongings, he looked up and noticed a pool of potential users who could be relevant to his target audience. Upon further inspection, he noticed one individual that would later be defined as the target audience of the campaign.
This realization spawned the assignment: drive a lead form sign up conversion by the target audience.
The objective of this assignment was to acquire contact information necessary to contact the target at a later date with the offer to meet for an alcoholic beverage.
This story details the planning, buying and optimization of this campaign.
Planning
After conducting first-party market research** (**source: MJK, Inc.), the advertiser determined that his target audience was comprised entirely of the following:
- Female
- Age 25 – 34
- Avid shopper, as demonstrated by her sparkling gold Tom’s slip-on-shoes and trendy knee-length skirt
- Affinity for air travel
Continued first-person research uncovered an insight that would eventually become the key strategic centerpiece for this campaign: hyper relevant geo-targeted messaging.
“So, looks like you missed this flight too?” I asked.
“Yeah … ” (shrug and sign combination) “I’m flying on a family friends buddy pass and didn’t get on the flight,” she finished.
Vendor Selection
Due to the fact that the advertiser knew very little about this target audience, he recommended the use of a DR-focused learning platform to assist in creating a profile of this target audience in the attempt to drive a conversion.
Executing the buy under the umbrella of a learning platform would help the advertiser develop a 3rd party validated profile of the target audience that would include demographic, psychographic and behavioral information.
Secure the inventory
“You look a little bit lost,” the advertiser began. “If you’re still trying to get to Minneapolis, you can follow me to the next gate and we’ll check on the flight status of the 8 am?”
The target smiled and picked up her bag, signaling written agreement on the initial terms of the promotional offer.
“That sounds great to me,” she confirmed.
As I was away from my fax machine, I made an Evernote task reminder to send along the written terms of the agreement in order to confirm the campaign:
- Flight: 9/2/11 – Forever
- Cost: $5 CPD (cost per drink) with no annual cap
- Targeting: hyper relevant keyword targeting delivered via verbal communication known as a “conversation”
- Geographic considerations: Zip code targeted to 98100
Trafficking
Upon confirmation of the buy details and securing the inventory, it was time to traffic the assets.
In line with IAB advertising standards, assets were trafficked to the proper location (empty table near the Seattle’s Best Coffee) five minutes in advance of campaign launch.
Campaign Launch
“Hi, I’m Samantha,” the target smiled as she introduced herself after asset trafficking concluded.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Mike,” the advertiser responded.
As basic questions were asked, the advertiser began dropping cookies on the target audiences responses to build out the profile:
- Where are you from?
- Do you like cookies? If yes, do you prefer chocolate chip or 3rd party verified?
- Have you purchased a camera in the last 6 months? if so, what brand?
First campaign measurement takes place
As the advertiser continued to cookie the conversation responses of the target audience, he began to notice a few trends:
- Target audiences was single
- Lived in the Seattle DMA
- Earth-shattering smile
The “conversation” began to die down, which brought the advertiser to his first optimization opportunity.
Optimization
The first optimization that took place was a change in environment: The placement of the advertisers message was not complimentary to the conversion path that he was trying to lead the target through.
“I know it’s only 8 am, but you realized we just missed the 8 am flight. Want to grab a bloody mary?” he asked.
As the advertiser measured the targets response, he noticed a behavioral attitude and cookied it immediately: a smile.
“Sure, that sounds great,” the target responded.
Second optimization
After the placement of the advertisers message was moved to a booth in the Backdoor Bar & Grill the advertiser executed a second optimization to help liven the mood.
“A whiskey coke for myself and a bloody mary for the lady [i.e. the target]”, he politely told the waitress.
Third optimization
As “conversation” performance improved, the advertiser uncovered an additional insight that would continue to deliver an increase in campaign performance.
“So, I have a sweet little jack russell terrier mix …” the target began to explain.
The advertiser immediately delivered a hyper-relevant contextual creative execution in the form of an iPhone picture of his own puppy.
“Awwwwwww he’s soooo cute!” the target exclaimed.
Yes he is, the advertiser thought. Yes. He. Is.
Mid campaign performance recap
Per the terms and conditions of the assignment, the advertiser needed to provide himself with a mid campaign recap of the events of the campaign planning, buying & performance of said campaign. They included:
Key insight was geographic targeting that connected advertiser to target audience
Tactics to deliver advertiser message included:
- Premium placement (Backdoor Bar & Grill)
- Uber contextual and relevant creative execution (picture of cute puppy dog)
- Behavioral segmenting that proved target audience was enjoying advertiser experience (strengthen by presence of tomato juice and vodka)
Target audience engaged: deliver hard call to action
As first-party ad serving data proved, the target audience was engaged with the advertiser’s message.
- Engagement rate of 86.5%, or more than 8,000 times above the i’m-stuck-in-an-airport-with-a-stranger vertical’s industry average
- Eye to eye contact was delivered at nearly 90% of all “conversation”
- Since campaign launch, laughter had increased by more than 200%, coming in at a rate of 7 laughs per minute
The advertiser decided that now was the perfect time to deliver a hard call to action.
With that in mind, he decided against employing a soft “learn more” message and instead utilized a first-party market research insight he discovered and executed during the third campaign optimization.
“Listen, my puppy loves to play with other dogs. Do you think it’d be okay if we got our dogs together sometime?” the advertiser asked.
As the advertiser asked this question, he handed his cell phone to the target audience with a “new contact” window open.
“Sure,” the target smiled and said. “Although he’s kind of an asshole when he first meets other dogs. Maybe we could just grab a cocktail instead?”
As the target said this, she put in her phone number and handed the phone back to the advertiser.
“Sounds great to me,” the advertiser said.
Campaign recap
The advertiser discovered the perfect tactical execution to lead to conversion: Bloody Mary fueled “conversation” revolving around puppies combined with geo-targeted messaging to the target audience.
Moving forward, the advertiser recommends engaging the target audience in an additional round of drinks to better understand future campaign goals and deliver strategic messaging campaigns to accomplish these objectives.