By exactly how much do online brand campaigns drive sales of these products in brick and mortar stores? The online advertising industry has tried to answer that question, but much to their client base's dismay, have not really succeeded.
Now two new applications have just come to market that purport to bridge that gap.
VideoEgg and comScore
VideoEgg has partnered with comScore and its AdEffx ad effectiveness measurement platform, to introduce VideoEgg ROI. It is an online advertising measurement service for consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers that evaluates the effectiveness of their VideoEgg online rich media campaigns - by drawing a direct connection between online ad exposure and its impact on retail purchases.
Using VideoEgg ROI, CPG brands should be able to spot uplifts - or downticks - in retail sales by delving into consumer responses to ad units. (via Mashable) Data around online ad engagement is matched against data from comScore third-party panel data to make the promised correlations.
"Ideally, clients will even be able to use the platform to identify the catalyst for spikes in sales," according to Mashable, which dubs the approach as having "merit" but whether or not it will actually work remains to be seen.
CPGConnect
This month also saw the release of [x+1]'s CPGconnect, a digital optimization platform powered by Information Resources Inc., that also promises to link online advertising to offline purchases to determine the ROI.
The point is to target consumers most likely to respond to an online advertisement based on their actual purchase behavior instead of merely demographics.
For each campaign, CPGconnect analyzes the prior 52 weeks of purchase history from IRI Consumer Network panelists. Then audience segments are created for online ad targeting by duplicating the key characteristics of in-store purchasers in categories like "heavy loyals," "switchers" and "price sensitive."
[x+1] then purchases and executes the campaign's digital media - which is not restricted to one online ad platform or web site. The campaign's efficacy is measured by comparing the purchasing activity within the segment to a control group.
