LAS VEGAS—Enterprise marketers that have watched direct-to-consumer brands infringe on their market share need to push the reset button, according to Comscore’s Sarah Hofstetter. “And I don’t mean start moving all your advertising to direct marketing on Facebook although that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Hofstetter says in this interview with Beet.TV at CES 2019. “But it is about the whole idea of thinking from scratch.
Instead of “iterating on media plans year over year,” companies should take a fresh look and contemplate how they would build a new brand today and before deciding how to go to market,.
“And I think that is one of the best learnings that a marketer can get today from those direct to consumer brands,” says Hofstetter, who joined Comscore as President in October of 2018 from the 360i agency.
Citing the “migration to the big screen,” she notes the “migration to the big screen” and the need to consider the various ways that consumers are receiving content.
Direct-to-consumer marketers would take the approach of an “if I were inventing that brand today point of view. How can I get the same kind of targeting and measurability from TV that I was getting from digital. And I think they’re doing a fantastic job.”
While first-party data is more important than ever for engaging with customers, Hofstetter says it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.
“It’s really fun to work with companies that have richer data sets, but they’re not necessarily nearly as necessary depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Yes, they have tremendous rich data sets, and that’s great for targeting.
“But I would say the vast amount of data that’s available today actually can be used to help target no matter what you have. I think there are a lot of big companies today that are short on first-party data, and it doesn’t necessarily put them at a disadvantage if they think about it the right way.”
While she attends CES in part to help elevate the Comscore brand, the annual event lets people think more out of the box.
“When you’re here, you get to take out the craziness of the day to day. You have an opportunity to really take a fresh look at your business and think ‘I probably need a more modern approach to how I’m looking at my data from a planning, executing and measurement perspective,’ and the receptivity has been wonderful.”
This video is part of Beet.TV coverage of CES 2019. The series is sponsored by NBCUniversal. For more coverage, please visit this page.
