It’s almost February, and that means we’re fast approaching the big trifecta for advertisers: the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day and Awards season. Looking to spruce up your campaign strategy for these big events? Here are a few tips and tricks that can help.
#SuperBowl50
First up is Super Bowl 50, set to broadcast live on February 7. But that doesn’t mean your campaign starts and ends there. Here’s how advertisers can gear up before, during and after the big game.
- Use interest and demo data on both Facebook and Twitter to target those interested in watching the game.
- Pick private marketplace. You can negotiate deals with publishers to run ads before, during and after the big game on sites that will have higher traffic around the event.
- Heavy up on sports-specific publishers. Outside of PMPs, consider whitelisting or contextually targeting sports content such as football, soccer, basketball, etc.
- Think outside the box when targeting your demographic. Men aren’t the only ones to purchase sports-related merchandise, so you don’t want to miss out on potential customers. For instance, 56 percent of sporting goods searchers on mobile are female, according to Google.
- Think across devices. In addition to television ad buys, portion out your dollars for desktop display, online video and mobile targeting, as consumers are constantly engaged on multiple devices during the game. Heavy up on mobile to grab people watching the game outside their home.
- Don’t forget about social during the game. Pay attention to how viewers are interacting with social media so you can best manage Twitter ad buys and tap into what’s trending through popular hashtags, in real-time.
- Creative is super-important during the Super Bowl. The good thing is you can retarget with the same messaging you delivered on TV in the days immediately after the game.
#ValentinesDay16
While the National Retail Federation hasn’t yet released its 2016 Valentine’s Day Consumer Spending Survey for this year, total gift spending in 2015 was projected at a record high of $18.9 billion. That’s a lot of shopping across categories that go beyond candy and flowers, and the spend is likely to rise this year. Here’s how to capture those cashed-up consumers before Cupid’s arrow strikes.
- Don’t limit your campaign reach by solely focusing on one demographic. In December, Google proposed that “marketers who rely only on demographics to reach consumers risk missing more than 70 percent of potential mobile shoppers.” Demographics and audience targeting, they claimed, don’t always map to what shoppers are looking to buy right now, thus leading to a missed opportunity.
- Onboarding CRM data for past known Valentine’s Day purchasers and re-engaging them can help increase repeat purchases this year. Even if they haven’t visited your site in months or made the purchase in-store, you can still activate your data online for this year’s campaigns. Drive them with proper messaging and incentives to make a repeat purchase.
- Segment your site visitors to target them in different ways. Look for users that have frequented any gifts pages or temporary pages specific to Valentine’s Day.
- Be aggressive with your advertising strategies this season. The best time to ramp up your campaigns is in late January and early February as CPMs don’t tend to rise as steeply as they do for Q4 holidays, so you won’t need to scale back as sharply.
- PMP deals are good this time of year—floor prices are generally lower now than in Q4, so be sure to take advantage. Consider high-impact units, such as billboards and homepage takeovers, to get your brand message across.
- Target users that have set their relationship status to “In a Relationship” or “Married” on Facebook. This can be done via a PMD.
#AcademyAwards2016
The Academy Awards (Oscars) are one of the biggest award shows this year. Knowing that so many consumers will be watching and live-tweeting during the event, here’s how to get more eyeballs on your ads.
- Target those that have expressed interest in the shows or movies up for nomination—you can do this via interest targeting on Facebook, or through hashtag targeting on Twitter.
- Consider targeting fashion, pop culture or lifestyle blogs (that have advertising space) that may write about the Awards during the show or offer a recap after.
- To reach the online award show audience, contextually target sites featuring movies, art, entertainment and music-related content with messaging that speaks specifically to the audience with a relevant promotion for your product or service.