This synopsis post has been translated from an article published in Italian on Dailyonline. It provides coverage of the third edition of the Fashion & Technology Summit organized by LUISAVIAROMA in collaboration with IAB Italy and Netcomm and held in Florence last week.
LUISAVIAROMA pays close attention to new trends in digital, and its strategic partnerships have allowed the brand to establish itself as one of the go-to platforms for fashion addicts. A technology that has made a difference to the company’s strategies is programmatic, which allowed LUISAVIAROMA to optimize its segmentation processes, finding clusters of customers that were up to then unknown. One of their recent partnerships is with MediaMath, a company that helps brands use the data obtained to improve the online and offline customer experience and reach the desired audience. Dave Reed, Managing Director EMEA, MediaMath, spoke at the event, clarifying how programmatic technology can be beneficial to anyone involved in online retail.
The challenges of attribution
Trying to understand why a user purchases, why sales are less than what is expected, the number of touchpoints you have with customers and so on is extremely complex. We have about 350 occasions and moments a day to talk to our target customers, from mobile to desktop, during events, in-store, by email and more. “The challenge is to understand how the customer behaves in each of these touchpoints,” Reed said. Digital strategies cannot be based only on brand exposure—we must do more, improving the digital storytelling and learning to manage the ongoing conversation into results. “It is becoming more difficult but also more exciting to work in the digital world because it allows us to face new challenges and to talk to people who we otherwise could not reach,” Reed added.
Attribution is without a doubt the word of 2017. All the partners are trying to grab credit for a conversion, but often this leads to a glut of ads that does not add to the quality of performance. Indeed, more often it has the opposite effect: namely to ward off the consumer confused and bored by too much input. For example, research has shown that reducing the number of ads but enlarging the format to have more impact can get better attention levels. “We must focus on quality, not quantity,” Reed said. If we consider the average online consumption—12 hours a day both actively or passively—we understand that the opportunity to hit consumers is countless, but often wasted. Many companies are fossilized on older methods based on standard campaigns, seasonality, on specific events. Today you have to think in terms of “always on”—it must be assumed that the customer is always there and can be seen and interacted with across all channels.
Impact of programmatic marketing
MediaMath’s platform assesses a number of variables across data and media so marketers have the intelligence to choose the most relevant message for each individual user and get very strategic in the targeting level. To improve the user experience, then, we must put ourselves in the user’s shoes. In a world where potentially you may send advertising 400 times per second, you must take into account the so-called attention economy. Nobody wants to see thousands of irrelevant ads. Rather, users want you to provide them with a service or product they were already seeking or might be interested in.
Customer view
Programmatic lends the advantage of having a unified view of the customer. “One of the most interesting things in the digital world is the ability to use third-party data. Brands can tie a host of data points about a customer together, creating a profile and inserting it into customer groups with the same kinds of interests, personalizing them for storytelling and to drive their decision-making in a natural way.”
Cross-cutting strategies
“Everyone must understand that the user is now always online and across multiple devices. MediaMath ensures that campaigns establish a connection with the customer by measuring engagement through various touchpoints. The digital world connects even to offline. You could even define the offline as the new online. Retailers are very interested in how to use data such as geolocation as there is no longer a clear distinction between the physical store and online. What will be more important is to cultivate the experience. We are already experiencing a kind of virtual reality simply with our smartphone in hand. They are two neighbors and converging worlds,” Reed continues.