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www.addynamics.com Ad Dynamics Perspective TM Shopper Insight Series: Points of Advertising Influence A Guide to Effective Omni-Channel Advertising Engagement Shopper Insight Series Ad Dynamics is Market Track LLC’s Canadian division, providing expertise in advertising, promotions and pricing intelligence in Canada and the U.S. Market Track LLC and Ad Dynamics conduct primary research through shopper surveys in Canada and the U.S. that showcase trends in retail from the shopper’s viewpoint. While the data in this report is based on data from one of our U.S. surveys, there is applicability from a macro trend perspective in Canadian markets. In a study of 1,000 individuals primarily responsible for making purchases for their household, we explore the differences in the use and impact of different advertising media on the purchase process of consumers from different demographic backgrounds. The panel is comprised of equal distribution across gender and age groups. We portray the survey results within Market Track’s Advertising Influence Model, overlaying advertising and promotional data to help advertisers understand how to best engage their target consumers. ere is a challenge: think of the last time—even for just one minute—you could not access the internet. How about your email? Social media? It is more than likely you had to think long and hard about the last time you could not connect for any significant amount of time. This is the consumer world we live in today. According to Cisco’s VNI Service Adoption Forecast, the average US household now has 10 devices connected to the internet. Today’s consumer is always connected and has access to an abundance of information to help them get through their day. For the purpose of this Perspective, we look at information influencing their decisions to purchase a particular brand, product, or service. Many advertisers are still struggling with adjusting their engagement strategies to reach today’s shoppers. The key to transitioning to appeal to today’s consumer is embracing their new habits and behaviors, and evolving legacy advertising practices. According to the results of both this and previous Shopper Insight Series Surveys, consumers are still largely interacting with traditional advertising media like TV and print circulars. Much of the change in these interactions has less to do with WHICH advertising media they are consuming, but more WHEN, HOW, and WHERE these interactions take place. In this issue of Market Track Perspectives, we will share the results from our most recent Shopper Insight Series Survey, conducted in April 2015. We surveyed 1,000 shoppers primarily responsible for making purchase decisions for their household, asking them an array of questions on their interactions with omni-channel advertising media. We first identify advertising media usage, and when in their purchase cycles shoppers make use of various media. We then explore the shopper’s perception of how effective different advertising media are in prompting them to take different actions, from considering a product for purchase, to switching stores or brands. Broadcast media will be highlighted as an important omni-channel engagement area of opportunity for advertisers, and finally we close with our own mock purchase cycle, tracking a hypothetical shopper’s path to purchase, H

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Page 1: Market Insights | Market Track

www.addynamics.com

Ad Dynamics PerspectiveTM

Shopper Insight Series: Points of Advertising Influence A Guide to Effective Omni-Channel Advertising Engagement

Shopper Insight SeriesAd Dynamics is Market Track LLC’s Canadian division, providing expertise in advertising, promotions and pricing intelligence in Canada and the U.S. Market Track LLC and Ad Dynamics conduct primary research through shopper surveys in Canada and the U.S. that showcase trends in retail from the shopper’s viewpoint. While the data in this report is based on data from one of our U.S. surveys, there is applicability from a macro trend perspective in Canadian markets. In a study of 1,000 individuals primarily responsible for making purchases for their household, we explore the differences in the use and impact of different advertising media on the purchase process of consumers from different demographic backgrounds. The panel is comprised of equal distribution across gender and age groups.

We portray the survey results within Market Track’s Advertising Influence Model, overlaying advertising and promotional data to help advertisers understand how to best engage their target consumers.

ere is a challenge: think of the last time—even for just one minute—you could not access the internet. How about your email? Social media? It is more than likely you had to think long and hard about the last time you could not connect for any significant amount of time. This is the consumer world we live in today. According to Cisco’s VNI Service Adoption Forecast, the average US household now has 10 devices connected to the internet. Today’s consumer is always connected and has access to an abundance of information to help them get through their day. For the purpose of this Perspective, we

look at information influencing their decisions to purchase a particular brand, product, or service. Many advertisers are still struggling with adjusting their engagement strategies to reach today’s shoppers. The key to

transitioning to appeal to today’s consumer is embracing their new habits and behaviors, and evolving legacy advertising practices. According to the results of both this and previous Shopper Insight Series Surveys, consumers are still largely interacting with traditional advertising media like TV and print circulars. Much of the change in these interactions has less to do with WHICH advertising media they are consuming, but more WHEN, HOW, and WHERE these interactions take place.

In this issue of Market Track Perspectives, we will share the results from our most recent Shopper Insight Series Survey, conducted in April 2015. We surveyed 1,000 shoppers primarily responsible for making purchase decisions for their household, asking them an array of questions on their interactions with omni-channel advertising media. We first identify advertising media usage, and when in their purchase cycles shoppers make use of various media. We then explore the shopper’s perception of how effective different advertising media are in prompting them to take different actions, from considering a product for purchase, to switching stores or brands. Broadcast media will be highlighted as an important omni-channel engagement area of opportunity for advertisers, and finally we close with our own mock purchase cycle, tracking a hypothetical shopper’s path to purchase,

H

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2 Ad Dynamics PerspectiveTM

Key questions:

• Does my advertising media mix align with the media my target consumer uses?

• Am I taking advantage of all consumer interaction points with different advertising media?

and highlighting the points of advertising influence from awareness through purchase.

Which advertising media are consumers using, and when? Throughout Market Track’s Shopper Insight Series, a recurring theme has been the importance of understanding shopper behaviors in planning omni-channel advertising calendars. When, where, and to what extent shoppers spend time interacting with various advertising media maps out the opportunities available for advertisers to engage them with some form of influence. It is the advertiser’s job to take advantage of these opportunities. Opportunity Areas: The results showcased in Figure 1 highlight opportunities for advertising engagement across media types—with email, social media and broadcast showing heavy usage.

In spite of the various alternative options available to consumers while a TV commercial is airing—from pre-recording the program and fast-forwarding through commercials, to changing the channel—53% stay tuned in for the commercial breaks. It does not hurt if a commercial contains a promotional offer either. Over

60% of shoppers are more likely to watch a TV commercial if it offers a promotion on a brand, product, or service.

Consumption of social media may be more widespread among shoppers than advertisers realize as well. Though we will learn later in this piece that social media does not play a primary role in shopper purchase cycles today, nearly 60% of shoppers have “Liked” or “Followed” a new retailer social media site in the past year, and just under 40% have clicked on an advertisement in their Facebook or Twitter feeds. From a transactional standpoint, social media continues to evolve, but its influence is gaining ground among most demographic groups as shown in Figure 1.

For more established media types like websites and email, Figure 1 reinforces the fact that both are still widely used among consumers. Nearly seven in every ten consumers shop online at least once per week, while nine in ten shop at least once per month. 77% are subscribed to at least three retailer or brand email distributions, and 74% have subscribed to at least one new distribution in the past year.

Call to Action: Throughout this piece, we will challenge readers to take an honest look at their own advertising strategy and assess not only whether they have a good understanding of the behaviors of their target consumers, but also how well they are taking advantage of the opportunities their shoppers provide them. For instance, with a majority of consumers shopping online at least once per week, are manufacturers

38% of shoppers will click on an advertisement in their Twitter or Facebook Feed

77% Subscribe to three or more

retailer or brand e-mail distributions

58% Have “liked” or “followed” a

new retailer social media page in the last year

68% Shop online at least

once per week

53% Watch TV commercials, rather

than fast-forwarding or changing the channel

Source: 2015 Market Track Shopper Insight Series Survey

Figure 1: Consumers use of advertising media highlights opportunity

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3The Power of Market Intelligence

including website promotions in their budget conversations with retailers? The likelihood of your product promotion impacting a shopper’s online shopping trip is extremely high if positioned on Amazon’s homepage, for example. Find and take advantage of these opportunities where it makes sense within your overall advertising strategy. Timing is everything—optimizing by media typeFigure 2 shows a timeline for advertising influence based on survey responses to the question of when throughout their purchase cycles do shoppers use the different advertising media available to them. We found that media usage varies greatly depending on the stage within a purchase cycle, and that variation should impact how advertisers engage shoppers across media to maximize impact. Opportunity Areas: Figure 2 showcases that use of media “in the moment” is still coming of age. Although digital, mobile, and broadcast advertisements are available to shoppers in their car on the way to the store, or as they are combing aisles, usage remains relatively low. This increases the importance of engaging shoppers before the trip in order to impact their purchase decisions, but does not diminish the importance of taking the opportunity to engage shoppers through compelling offers on the go.

The four media types most widely used among shoppers before they plan their trip are TV commercials, retailer and brand websites, print circulars, and emails from retailers and

brands. Around half of shoppers make use of each of these media types before they plan their trip. As shoppers transition to planning their trip, the print circular receives more usage than any other advertising media, while roughly one quarter of shoppers use retailer and brand websites and emails.

Once shoppers embark on their trip, usage across media types evens out, albeit at low rates across the board. Interestingly, where mobile media—including texts, apps and mobile versions of retail or brand websites—ranked among the least used advertising media before and during the shopper planning process, it ranked among the most used media for shoppers, ranking third for shoppers on their way to go shopping at 12%, and while shopping in-store mobile media ranked third at 13%. The higher relative usage of mobile media while shoppers are on the go suggests a need for a more targeted approach to mobile on the part of advertisers—one that identifies when shoppers are inside or close to a store location. Call to Action: When shoppers are using different advertising media should govern how advertisers engage shoppers through different media. Figure 2 clearly shows that shoppers use TV commercials, websites, print circulars, and emails before leaving for the store. This offers an opportunity for advertisers to use these four media types to heighten shopper awareness, demonstrate their advantages over competitive options, and ultimately influence the shopper’s decision to go with their brand, product, or service when they leave for the store.

Key questions:

• Does my omni-channel messaging align with WHEN consumers use different media types?

• Am I targeting my messaging in new advertising media to the right consumer segments?

Percentage of shoppers that use various media types at each stage of in-store purchase process

Source: 2015 Market Track Shopper Insight Series Survey

Figure 2: Media usage prevalent prior to shopping trip, more targeted while shopping

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4 Ad Dynamics PerspectiveTM

Mobile messaging, as a counterexample, should be delivered when shoppers are on their trip, with the knowledge that the shopper has likely already done research on their upcoming purchase and has an idea of exactly what they want to purchase. Advertising a last minute promotional offer, coupon, or other incentive could be an effective use of mobile media to change the course of a shopper’s purchase cycle much closer to the actual purchase.

How effective are different advertising media at prompting certain consumer behaviors? In the opening section we discussed the opportunities that shoppers present advertisers to engage them with omni-channel messaging throughout their purchase cycle based on usage alone. What are they using, and when are they using it—very basic

opportunity identification. In this section, we will dive deeper into the influence each media type has on the shopper, and what behaviors each drives—from forming an opinion, to prompting them to purchase a brand, product, or service. Opportunity Areas: From the moment a shopper becomes aware of a brand, product or service, until the purchase is made, there is opportunity for advertisers to impact both their perception and behaviors. We asked shoppers to consider that process and identify how effective (1 being most effective through 7 being least effective) various advertising media are at creating a positive image for a company, influencing their opinion of a brand, demonstrating a product’s advantages, and getting them to buy a product.

The media usage we saw in the first section is evident in shopper’s grading of the effectiveness of each media type in figure 3. Websites, TV commercials, print circulars, and emails were graded by shoppers as the four most effective advertising media for impacting their awareness of, perception of, preference for, and purchase of a particular brand, product, or service. That said, effectiveness grades varied from area to area.

Key questions:

• Am I using omni-channel advertising as effectively as I could be?

• Do I know how effectively different advertising media prompt consumer action?

The four media types most used by shoppers are TV commercials, retailer/brand websites, print circulars and emails from retailers and brands

How Effective is Each Advertising Media below at...

Source: 2015 Market Track Shopper Insight Series Survey

Figure 3: Advertising Influence Model (AIM) Grades: Survey respondents were asked to rank each media type from (1) most effective to (7) least effective for prompting the behaviors/opinions

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5The Power of Market Intelligence

TV commercials graded higher than websites in demonstrating a products’ advantages over its competition (or, impacting a shopper’s preference for that product)—the only area in which websites were not rated as the most effective advertising media type. Online video also saw its highest effectiveness grade in this area. Shoppers find streaming video (TV and online video) to be an effective way to demonstrate a product’s advantages, which adds a layer of utility to these media types in addition to the traditional thinking that TV commercials are most useful for creating awareness.

Also in figure 3, print circulars were graded less effective than TV commercials in each area except getting shoppers to purchase a product. This is more in line with legacy thinking that shoppers turn to circulars closer to their purchase date to identify who has the lowest price, who is offering a discount, etc. According to our survey, 74% of shoppers use the print circular either on the same day of their shopping trip, or one to two days prior. Call to Action: How are you leveraging each media type in your advertising program? Is your usage aligned with the effectiveness grades shoppers identified for each media type? When planning an omni-channel advertising campaign, advertisers need to ensure the messaging delivered in each vehicle is effective in driving sales. Avoid using messaging in areas where a media type is least effective, unless it targets a specific audience or has a secondary goal. For instance, social media sites ranked most effective for creating a positive image for a company, and least effective for causing shoppers to purchase a product. This is most likely due to social media

opening up a dialogue between consumers and brands, allowing a platform for reaction and discussion.

How does advertising influence vary by age group? We put the microscope on the purchase stage of the buying cycle in figure 4 to better understand which media are most influential in the critical 0-7 days prior to purchase—advertisers’ last chance to impact the shopper’s final decision. In this figure, we segmented survey responses by age group, as it is well-documented that younger shoppers have been quicker to adopt new media. The figure provides an effectiveness heat map by age group for each media type. Opportunity Areas: Consistent with our findings up to this point, websites, TV commercials, print circulars, and emails are consumed across all age groups. A good way to think about these four advertising media is labeling them the “price of admission” media types. Usage is so widespread among shoppers, regardless of demographic, that the opportunity cost of not advertising in all four is too great to forego. Shoppers seek promotional deals regularly in these four media types, so retailers need to provide a consistent pattern of promotional incentives to win shopper preference and purchase.

Key questions:

• Which segment of consumers is my target demographic?

• Does my media mix match the usage of my target demographic?

Figure 4: Where shoppers look for promotional deals

Source: 2015 Market Track Shopper Insight Series Survey

74% of shoppers use the print circular either on the same day of their shopping trip, or one to two days prior

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6 Ad Dynamics PerspectiveTM

The heat map in figure 4 also provides a look into more segmented opportunity areas, or areas where advertisers may not be at a huge disadvantage by not participating, but stand to gain if they do participate. Social media is one area that shows a huge disparity in usage between younger and older shoppers. 44% of shoppers ages 21-29 look for promotional deals in social media, compared to only 10% of those 60 and over. Similar gaps exist in mobile, online display, and online video, each of which are newer media types that have seen greater adoption among younger demographics than among shoppers in their 50s and 60s. Call to Action: Advertisers must ensure their omni-channel promotional engagement includes the media types used by all shoppers across all demographics. Promotional deals should be delivered to consumers via websites, TV commercials (we will discuss the presence of product promotions in TV on page 8), print circulars, and emails weekly, for the simple fact that they will be at risk of losing consumers to competitors by not participating.

For social media and mobile, there is opportunity to be more targeted in your messaging. The categories, brands, products, and services promoted should cater to a younger

demographics that consume new media at a much higher rate. Understanding the power of which areas to maximize exposure in these areas can set up brand familiarity and preference with new shoppers.

Minimizing the risk of store and brand switchingThe primary goal of advertising is to influence consumer perception and behavior in a manner favorable to the advertiser’s brand, product, or service. This is especially important when a consumer is ready to make their purchase. How do we influence a consumer to choose our brand, product, or service over a competitor, and how can we make sure that decision is repeated? Figure 5 illustrates what advertisers fear most: that it is normal behavior for shoppers to switch stores and brands given one simple incentive— a lower competitive price.

Opportunity/Risk Areas: In figure 5, we identified the three categories for which shoppers are most and least likely to switch stores and brands if given a lower cost alternative.The most striking numbers in figure 5 are those categories that shoppers indicated that even if a lower price were available, that they are least likely to switch brands. Alcoholic drinks was identified as

Key questions:

• Is my category more prone to brand/store switching than the average category?

• Am I engaging consumers with omni-channel advertising that combats brand/store switching?

Source: 2015 Market Track Shopper Insight Series Survey

Figure 5: Brand/Store switching the norm regardless of category

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7The Power of Market Intelligence

the category in which shoppers are MOST brand loyal, yet 58% of shoppers would switch brands if presented with a lower price. Among the highest risk categories for brand switching include Home/Garden (79% would switch brands), Small Appliances (77%), and Furniture (76%). For store switching, Small Appliances was again identified as a high risk category, with 81% of shoppers switching stores for a lower price. Kitchen Products and Apparel/Footwear round out the three highest risk categories for store switching at 81% each. Across all categories, shoppers show more brand loyalty than they do store loyalty. For the average category, 69% of shoppers will switch brands if presented with a lower priced alternative, compared the 77% of shoppers who would switch stores.

Call to Action: Approach your advertising plan with the mindset that the consumer who purchased your product on their last trip to the store may buy your competitor’s product on their next trip. Loyalty for both brands and stores is fragile. To win new shoppers, and keep those you have today, a consistent approach to competitive promotional strategy is required. There is opportunity in how feeble shopper loyalty is, however. Just as your current shoppers are at risk of switching, so are your competitors. Effective promotional engagement gives advertisers the opportunity to win new shoppers every time they shop.

Where do opportunities for cross-media engagement exist? Up to this point, we have shared media type usage among different shopper demographics, and how effective they are at driving different shopper behaviors. We have looked at these media types in silos, however, in today’s retail environment especially, consumer interaction with information does not occur in silos. There is more opportunity for in-the-moment, omni-channel engagement given the habits of our always-connected society. In figure 6, we identify opportunities for advertisers to use multiple advertising media in tandem to create an integrated interaction with consumers. Opportunity Areas: In figure 6, shopper survey respondents shared what other devices they are typically using while watching TV. Nearly half use their laptops while watching TV, while 40% use their smartphones. Just over one quarter are watching TV while using their tablets. TV viewing is evolving, and it is common to see people gathered to watch a TV show, all interacting with a personal device at the same time. We wanted to learn more about what consumers are doing with their laptops, smartphones, and tablets while watching TV. In figure 6, we found each of the top four activities on their smartphones doubles as an opportunity for advertisers to reach that consumer. 71% of consumers

Key questions:

• Am I supporting my broadcast advertising with digital advertisements?

• Am I leveraging omni-channel messaging to win consumer consideration and preference?

Source: 2015 Market Track Shopper Insight Series Survey

Figure 6: Broadcast provides the ultimate omni-channel engagement opportunity

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8 Ad Dynamics PerspectiveTM

Key questions:

• Is my competition using TV advertising to drive product purchase?

are checking email on their smartphones. 68% are texting, or chatting with someone online. 57% are logged in to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another social media site, while 52% of shoppers are surfing the web. Of the 43% of consumers using their smartphones while watching TV, the majority are navigating to four advertising media in email, mobile, social, and websites. It is the ultimate omni-channel experience, and advertisers did not have to drive the consumer to that experience. They brought themselves there. Call to Action: Figure 6 provides an example of the types of opportunities today’s consumers provide advertisers. They are more “plugged in” than ever before, have more access points to media, and are using those access points more regularly. To win today’s consumer, advertisers need to take advantage of these opportunities.

If you have paid for a national TV spot to run during a specific two-week period, do you have supporting omni-channel advertisements in email, mobile, social media, and online scheduled for the same period? Both TV and social

media saw their highest effectiveness grade in creating a positive image for a company (see figure 3), therefore advertisers can use social media to advertise a complimentary message delivered in their TV spot. E-mail and websites graded effectively in demonstrating a product’s advantages, as well as getting consumers to purchase a product, so a TV spot could be supported with promotional messaging in these two media—both

of which consumers are checking on their smartphones while watching TV.

Figure 7: TV driving purchase during Holiday Shopping Season 2014

Source: Market Track’s Broadcast Panel

Mass Merchants spiked their use of product promotions in TV commercials during holiday 2014

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9The Power of Market Intelligence

Transitions to more diverse messaging in TVNot only has the TV watching experience changed for consumers over the past ten years, but the way advertisers are engaging shoppers through TV commercials has also shifted. More advertisers are offering promotions and price points on specific products in their TV spots—a move away from the traditional brand awareness messages characteristic of TV advertising. This shift shows that advertisers are conscious of the fact that a consumer’s path to purchase is no longer linear, and that every advertising media they are exposed to can influence their behaviors regardless of where they are in their purchase cycle. Opportunity Areas: Over the past year, 65% of shoppers have made a purchase as a direct result of seeing a promotion in a TV commercial, as shown in figure 7. TV commercials prompting this type of purchase behavior is part of the reason why advertisers have shifted their messaging in broadcast advertising.

Figure 7 also shows the count of product promotions in TV commercials for the top three mass merchant retailers over the second half of 2014, trended month to month. When the calendar hit October, November and December in 2014, all three retailers increased the number of product promotions they were running in their TV spots in an effort to drive traffic to their stores and websites during their most critical selling season of the year. From September to November 2014, Walmart more than tripled the number of product promotions they ran in TV commercials (all occurrences), increasing from 4,144 to 12,800. In that same span, Kmart increased their product promotions from 3,669 to 11,108, and Target from 650 to 5,979. Driving purchase through broadcast advertising was a centerpiece to advertising strategy in the mass retail channel during holiday 2014. Call to Action: Advertisers should not restrict their use of specific media types to traditional strategies. Ten years ago, product promotions in TV advertising were scarce. Today, they are advertised with regularity. Do not hesitate to push a brand

Key questions:

• Do my omni-channel advertisements guide consumers through their purchase cycle, from the moment they are aware of your product, through their purchase of your product?

Figure 8: Mock Purchase Cycle, Samsung Tablet

Source: Market Track‘s Digital & Broadcast Panels

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Key questions:

• In which advertising media does my competition have presence?

• Am I engaging consumers regularly across all available advertising media?

awareness message on your website, on social media, or through a promotional offer in TV—consumers are using each of these media throughout their purchase process. Case Study: Mock Consumer Purchase Cycle Figure 8 is an example of Market Track’s Advertising Influence Model, in which we monitor how well an advertiser engaged a consumer throughout their purchase cycle, taking usage into account for each media type, along with the effectiveness of each media type at prompting different consumer behaviors, from awareness to purchase. To tie many of the concepts in this piece together, in figure 8, we illustrate a real life omni-channel advertising case study on brand Samsung.

We then aligned the omni-channel advertising to a mock shopper purchase cycle, exhibiting at what points in the purchase cycle the mock shopper was impacted by advertising and promotional messages. Case Study: Our mock purchase cycle kicked off on February 22, 2015 with a TV commercial for the Samsung

Galaxy Tab S. The commercial ran both locally and nationally, catching the attention of our shopper, who did not own a tablet at the time. The commercial did not offer a promotion on the product, but rather demonstrated the variety of ways in which consumers can use the Galaxy S. This piqued the shopper’s interest, and left her wanting to learn more.

As the commercial ended, she pulled out her smartphone and checked Twitter to see if she could find any comments from other consumers on the Galaxy S. She had recently followed @BestBuy_Deals, and after combing some of her friends’ feeds, she thought that may be a good place to navigate to next. Coincidentally, the first tweet she saw featured a $50 off promotion on the Samsung Galaxy S. With the item on discount, she found herself contemplating making a purchase.

Over the next week, she surfed the web and read reviews on the product, researched product details and features, and as the calendar turned to March, she was ready to buy. On March 1st, her Samsung mobile app pushed a promotion to her, again with the $50 off deal. Encouraged the product was still on discount, she took out her laptop and navigated to BestBuy.com to see if the promotion was still good there (she had made past purchases from BestBuy.com, and felt comfortable ordering from them online). With a quick reference to the digital

Source: Market Track’s Broadcast, Digital, and Print PanelsFigure 8a: Samsung Omni-Channel Ad Presence

Over the past year, 65% of shoppers have made a purchase as a direct result of seeing a promotion in a TV commercial

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© 2015 Ad Dynamics. All rights reserved.

circular posted for the week, she found the Galaxy S was still on promotion, and she made her purchase that day. Review: Also included in figure 8 is Samsung’s AIM profile from the first quarter in 2015, which shows heavy participation in advertising programs from print circulars, to online and viral videos. Samsung won this shopper’s purchase through consistent, omni-channel advertising throughout her purchase cycle. They understand that different shoppers are impacted at different points in their purchase cycle by a variety of advertising media, and their profile reflects that omni-channel strategy.

How are your promotions driving shoppers through their purchase cycles? Are you mixing messages of awareness with incentives to purchase? Shopper behaviors require this consistent engagement, and their attention is limited throughout. Ensure your advertising programs coach shoppers through their purchase process, and leave them with no doubt that they should pick your store, brand, product, or service when it comes time to buy.

Learn More

For more insight into the entire promotional landscape or an analysis of your digital and print strategies, call Ad Dynamics at 1.800.235.3781 or e-mail [email protected].

About Ad DynamicsAd Dynamics is Market Track, LLC’s Canadian division. Market Track LLC is a market intelligence firm dedicated to increasing our customers’ returns on their promotional investments and providing real-time visibility into e-commerce pricing. We support our 850+ retail, manufacturer and agency clients through monitoring and analyzing over 200 U.S. and Canadian markets for every channel of trade, 1 billion buy pages from 3,000 global merchants, and 1,700 media channels—enabling dynamic decision making by turning data into actionable insights.

Key Takeaways

• Make sure you are taking advantage of the opportunities consumers provide with their omni-channel shopping behaviors.

• Align your messaging in each advertising media type with WHEN in their purchase process consumers are leveraging each media type.

• Leverage omni-channel advertising media to drive the actions for which consumers deem them most effective.

• The use of media like social, mobile, and online video should be targeted towards consumer segments that refer to them most, and should not come at the expense of advertising in widely-used media types like websites, TV, print, and e-mail.

• With today’s consumer accessing various media types while watching TV, advertisers should take advantage by running TV commercials in tandem with digital advertisements in e-mail, social media, websites, and mobile.

For more information on putting these insights into

action, see Page 12.

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Shopper Insight 1: A majority of consumers watch TV commercials, as opposed to changing the channel, ignoring, or fast forwarding through them. Additionally, 62% are more likely to watch a commercial if it contains a promotional offer on a product.

To align with this behavior: Advertisers need to know when their competitors are advertising in TV to understand whether consumers are getting more exposure to their brand, product, or service versus their competition. Additionally, they must understand to what extent their competition promotes specific products in their TV commercials to both help explain why they saw a lift or dip in sales during that period, and to react with a product promotion of their own, whether advertised on TV or in another advertising media.

Shopper Insight 2: Consumers ranked websites as the most effective advertising media for creating a positive image of a company, influencing their opinion of a brand, demonstrating a products’ advantages, AND

getting them to buy a product. At every stage in their purchase cycle, consumers see websites as their top resource.To align with this behavior: Understand how often your competitors are shifting messaging on their homepages, what consumer actions their website messaging is driving, how many products they are promoting and what types of products, and at what price they are promoting those products is critical to winning and keeping consumers. Without daily visibility into competitive website advertising, companies put themselves at risk of losing the large segment of shoppers that rely on websites as their most effective resource for informing their brand awareness and product purchase.

Shopper Insight 3: About 50% of consumers use their laptop while watching TV, and just over 40% use their smartphone. The majority of these consumers use their devices to check e-mail, look at social media, text, and surf the web.

To align with this behavior: Consumers offer a critical opportunity to engage them through multiple advertising

media while they watch TV. To differentiate omni-channel advertising from competition, advertisers need to know when their competition supports their TV advertising with additional advertisements or promotional deals in e-mail, mobile, social media, and on their websites. If an advertiser is not engaged in one or more of these omni-channel media during the period their TV commercial airs, they risk losing consumers who were impacted by their broadcast message, but found no additional information through digital avenues.

Shopper Insight 4: Close to 50% of consumers ages 21-39 use social media to find promotional deals, yet only 10% of those ages 60 and over do the same.

To align with this behavior: Ensure you leverage new advertising effectively by targeting only those shopper segments that use that media type with regularity. Advertisers need visibility into how their competition advertises and promotes in social, mobile, and other new media to identify who they are targeting, and whether or not they need to differentiate their own messaging to better engage a more targeted demographic group.

Shopper Insight 5: On average, 69% of consumers will switch brands if a competing brand has a lower price, and 77% will switch stores if a lower price is available elsewhere, regardless of the product category they are looking to purchase.

To align with this behavior: Consumers are not brand or store loyal, and it takes little incentive for them to choose to bring their purchase to a competitor. Price is more often than not the deciding factor for consumer switching behaviors. To combat switching, maintain current consumer base, and win new consumers, advertisers must have visibility into competing promotional pricing, both in-store and online. Competitive prices can change multiple times each day--avoid falling victim to a consumer’s choice of another brand or store by maintaining a consistent and strategic knowledge of your competitor’s everyday and promotional pricing.

Implementation: Translating advertising influence to planning and executionOur most recent Shopper Insight Series Survey revealed how, when, and to what extent consumers interact with the various advertising media available to them, and what impact that advertising has on their purchase process. These insights alone will not improve the impact of a retailer or manufacturer’s advertising, nor will they adjust their process for planning and executing successful advertising, promotional, and pricing strategies. In order for these findings to be meaningful, they must be paired with insight into and analysis of the competitive advertising landscape to determine where advertisers are at risk of losing consumer attention, and identify areas of opportunity for better alignment with their preferences. Below is a list of the most critical insights consumers shared with us, and what you need to do to ensure your advertising strategies are most effectively influencing consumer decision-making: