CANNES – Retailers that sell advertising make themselves more valuable to marketers by gathering as much information as they can about their customers. These data can be harnessed to improve audience targeting for a variety of brands.
“We are very data-driven. If we don’t use data, it doesn’t count,” Amie Owen, global chief growth officer at Interpublic Group’s Kinesso Commerce, said in this interview with Beet.TV contributor Jon Watts at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
“We want to understand people…understanding media consumptions, behaviors, purchase cycles, what they’ve purchased in the past, and then understanding how and where they are with media,” Owen said. “We use a lot of data that underpins what we do from the media landscape, and it dictates where we’re buying, what platforms we’re on and how we reach them.”
A growing number of retailers have set up their media networks in the past few years, and are going through a steep learning curve in understanding how to be effective partners with their advertisers. Owen has been in the commerce space more than 20 years, and has seen its development first-hand. She’s also seen differences in how retailers gather consumer data.
“Different retailers have different types of data. They have different types of trips that people make,” Owen said. “If there is a convenience store, people are there for a specific reason. People are buying on Amazon for a specific reason, they’re going to the grocery store for a specific reason. It’s all the same type of data, but you’re using it in different ways.”
The Covid-19 pandemic led a massive shift in consumer behavior as safety-conscious shoppers relied more heavily on e-commerce and delivery services. The health crisis has subsided, but the changes in people’s behavior have persisted, including the ways they spend time with media.
“When it comes to Covid, people have learned how to shop in different ways, and they’re still doing that, but their media consumptions have also changed,” Owen said. “You’re seeing the rise of CTV because people are really still into streaming. You saw podcasts really come to play. And so I think it’s just a matter of keeping a pulse on what people are doing and interrupting them in their journey, versus us just trying to create another touchpoint for them to buy.”
You’re watching coverage of Beet.TV’s Global Leadership Summit: Retail & Commerce Media, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2024, presented by CMX, Criteo, LiveRamp & Snap. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
