Brand Innovators recap: The powerful proposition of data, creative and media

To meet customers at the right place and right time – and in the way they want to be met – brands must develop strategies fueled by the right mix of insights, messaging, media and channels. As the number of outlets continues to grow, so does the challenge of assembling the right combination of these elements for the optimal customer journey and understanding.

Kroger Precision Marketing Vice President Anthony Siler recently explored how brands should be approaching the landscape this year as part of a panel discussion at the Brand Innovators Marketing Leadership Summit held at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Siler joined other panelists for a session titled “Looking Ahead: Planning for 2024 Across Media, Data, and Creative.” During the discussion, Siler shared his insights and vision on how he sees the synergies between these entities evolving this year to help brands better understand customers and drive purchases.

The power of partnerships Partnerships are one of the key themes appearing in the conversation today. Siler explained that Kroger Precision Marketing captures 96% of all sales on the loyalty card, and that’s the foundation from which its audiences are built, as well as in-store and online measurement. He explained that because KPM has relationships with Pinterest, Meta, Roku and others, it’s constantly looking for ways to use those audiences and deploy them across multiple touchpoints to make sure the right message is getting in front of the right audience.

“It's a constant evolution and constant evaluation of partnerships,” he said. “At the end of the day, our goal is to make that media as accountable as possible, and doing so through partnerships is absolutely paramount.”

Understanding customer touchpoints Customers and their purchase behaviors are dynamic. One week they may purchase online for pickup and/or delivery, and a week later they may go in-store. Siler said understanding the customer is a matter of leaning into that touchpoint.

He explained how KPM’s longitudinal view of the customer – which evaluates each household within the database across 3,000 variables – provides customer trends and insights about the trips they’re taking and brings those signals to the conversation to help brands understand how those insights can inform their media strategy to get the most impact from spend.

Bridging online and in-store The customer path to purchase is no longer linear – and it’s happening both in-store and online. Bringing those modalities together for a seamless customer journey is imperative, and requires understanding both what’s going on from a merchant standpoint as well as customer thinking.

Siler noted that KPM holds years’ worth of understanding of how consumers are transacting, and with what type of products, and in what type of channel. “We want to create a frictionless environment,” he said. “We want to drive purchases wherever the customer finds the most value and benefit. That’s creating an opportunity to create lists on the site and take those lists into stores, and leveraging those other types of media in order to deliver that message. It’s a holistic full-funnel type of approach and we think those trends are only going to continue.”

Data driving creative Siler also highlighted the purity and efficiency of Kroger first-party data. He explained that, on average, brands using KPM audience data can have the same impact with 51% fewer impressions than third-party audience sources. “Our data’s not modeled, it’s not look-likes, it’s 100% pure,” he said.

That distinction enables the data to inform messaging that’s highly personalized, he said, to create a more dynamic type of video, ad or other asset that will resonate with the consumer even more. “When you combine the type of data purity and creative message as well as the channel, that’s a really powerful proposition because you’re not only delivering a valuable message and building a relationship with that customer, you’re reducing waste. You’re reducing those impressions that aren’t going to drive the deal,” Siler said.

He also noted that personalization is a two-way street. “It’s not just about what households are going to have the highest propensity to buy, but what about those households that are never going to buy?” he asked. “Why not remove those entirely from the equation?”

Emphasizing alignment Moving forward, Siler said KPM is amplifying the conversation around making sure objectives are clear and consistent across many different stakeholders, whether they’re a client like a CPG, an agency, or another partnership.

“We understand how media ultimately drives business outcomes,” he said. “We keep that in mind as we’re thinking about things like incrementality, return on ad spend, and new households — and how that delivers the overall objective.”

To watch the full Brand Innovators session, click here.