SAN JUAN, PR – The popularity of connected devices such as mobile phones and smart TVs has expanded the opportunities for brands to drive direct transactions with consumers. Shoppability is more pervasive, but that doesn’t mean every advertisement should be geared to drive a response.
“Shoppability certainly appears to be everywhere these days. The question as to whether it should be everywhere really comes down to consumer choice,” Daniel Rolli, executive vice president and head of investment at Publicis Groupe’s Zenith, said in this interview with Beet.TV contributor Rob Williams at the Beet Retreat San Juan.
“The last thing that we want to do is force a behavior on consumers that we are trying to sell products to, make them loyalists, make them advocates,” Rolli said. “Really, it’s shoppability on their own terms that we’re most excited about and how we can now work within this channel with some insights behind it.”
Original equipment manufacturers have run campaigns that rely on the “OK to text” functions on a smartphone, rather than asking viewers to scan a quick-response (QR) code on their TV screens, Rolli said. This approach isn’t as intrusive to the viewer and allows the flexibility to shop later.
“That allows the consumer to go and seek out and enjoy the content that they intended to, learn a little bit about your brand and your product, then be able to visit their mobile device later, whether it’s in a cart or whether it’s in a text, and shop at their own discretion,” Rolli said.
Innovating With ‘Sparks’
He said Zenith is “relentlessly future-focused” in driving innovations that are potentially disruptive.
“We also have been focusing on what we’ve been calling ‘sparks,’ little insights where we don’t know exactly what to do with them yet, but we know that we should be digging there just a little bit more to figure out what it could mean for us in terms of media execution,” Rolli said.
Zenith’s research found that consumers were watching movies and TV shows in three-minute snippets on social media. The finding led the media agency and its sister creative agency to develop a romantic comedy for Walmart that was divided into 23 episodes. The movie included hundreds of products for direct purchase from the store chain.
“I’m excited about understanding where some of the consumer insights that we’ve been mulling over, what that means for how we’re evolving our media execution,” Rolli said.
Zenith’s Rolli Wants To Up-End Attention Norms To Popularize Interactive Video
You’re watching Beet.TV’s coverage of Beet Retreat San Juan 2024. This series and event is sponsored by Albertsons Media Collective, Moloco, OpenX and TransUnion. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
