Reaching Holiday Shoppers
October 29, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
The global financial crisis is still very real for many consumers which means like last year, this holiday period, a vast amount of consumers will be tracking down deals online. With consumer determined to limit their holiday spending some will print coupons online and take them to the store or supermarket, while others will buy online. Because the Gourmet Ads network features an audience of grocery buyers and household decision makers it’s essential to ensure that we are part of your holiday advertising media mix.
There is no doubt that year after year, the holiday season is the busiest time for online retailers, so if you’re not advertising during this period then you’re definitely missing out on sales. In order to reach holiday shopper we’d recommend running targeted campaigns near key holiday dates.
Apart from simply booking advertising campaigns, it’s essential to have key messages in your advertising creative which engage with consumers driving them to your online store. Some online retailers will use coupons like percentage based i.e 10% off the product or total order. While other online retailers during the holiday season will offer a credit or rebate towards their next purchase with them.
In terms of key delivery based messages to help convert customers, make sure you use phrases like “Free Shipping”, “Flat Rate Shipping” and “Overnight Shipping” which are familiar with consumers who order online. There is a great deal of evidence in the market place that suggests that free shipping can significantly help conversion rates online.
Finally, we’d suggest booking a variety of advertising units such as regular display, interstitials, expandable ad units, video and rich media. You might also be interested in Holiday Advertising blogs we’ve written in the past. Each have a different take on the event and these are focused to Q4 Holidays, see;
If you haven’t already booked your Holiday Advertising, then don’t delay as the Gourmet Ads network often books out during key holiday dates throughout the year. Download your copy of the Gourmet Ads Media Kit which includes information on other key event days throughout the year that you should be booking.
Super Bowl Advertising
October 27, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
When you think of Super Bowl Advertising, you’ll probably immediately think of the advertising during the game, you know the ones that cost millions of dollars per 30 seconds. But the kind of super bowl advertising we’re talking about is the advertising to driver consumers to buy your food and beverage products prior the end of season game.
Each January the Super Bowl draws an enormous audience of viewers from right around the country, most at super bowl parties. So in order trigger Super Bowl party planning ideas with consumers undertaking a targeted Super Bowl Advertising campaign can provide great results. Because the Gourmet Ads network features an audience of grocery buyers and household decision makers it’s essential to ensure that we are part of your Super Bowl Advertising media mix.
So what companies can benefit from Super Bowl Advertising online? Well any companies that are associated with their products being served at Super Bowl Parties. With mostly a range finger food styled dishes being served at Super Bowl parties any ingredient or pre-made products which make dips, guacamole, chili, bbq ribs, nachos, spicy hot wings, sliders, hamburgers, hot dogs and quesadillas. Don’t forget chips, crisps, pop corn, crackers, cheese as well as beverages such as sodas, wines and beer which traditionally buy the million dollar TV advertising.
With the super bowl being played on the first Sunday in February, ideally your Super Bowl Advertising should commence in the last week of January which means you’ll have a two week campaign flight to drive consumer intent and engagement. Campaign ideas include using regular display advertising, expandable creative, interstitials, video and rich media. Campaign ideas which perform well include competitions and the ability to download Super Bowl coupons for product purchases.
It’s never too early to book your Super Bowl Advertising as this period tends to book up quickly as you can imagine. To book your two week Super Bowl Advertising campaign with Gourmet Ads, download our media kit or contact us with your campaign requirements.
Grocery Store Loyalty Programs
October 24, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Nearly every grocery store around the globe these days has its own loyalty program. Some like Costco even charge an annual membership to be part of their loyalty program, others are free. For grocery stores the ability to offer loyalty programs offer the ability to track consumer’s shopping habits and household characteristics. This is then linked to broader “market segments” based on age, race, income level, family size and neighborhood. The real benefit of grocery store loyalty programs is the ability to determine how profitable each market segment is to the store, and to treat customers in those segments accordingly.
Key to the growth of grocery store loyalty programs is to continue signups of new members, especially if, like Costco there is a membership fee to be paid or if your grocery store offers a credit card as well as a loyalty card. So it’s essential for grocery stores to continually be running campaigns to drive memberships. Advertising campaign ideas for Grocery Store Loyalty Programs include;
- Highlight benefits of your Loyalty Program
- Promote Loyalty Program only coupons
- Bonus points for Loyalty Program cards only
- Loyalty Program only discounts
- Ability to signup online and start earning points
- Interest free period for loyal program associated credit cards
For grocery store marketing managers and their advertising agencies, advertising for new members must be run in targeted environments. The Gourmet Ads network reaches millions of grocery buyers each month making us the logical choice for your media plans.
Here’s some information about the Gourmet Ads audience;
- They are the primary household grocery buyer
- They make more than 3 trips to the grocery store each month
- They spend anywhere from $200 to over $500 a month on groceries
- They search for food products online such as gourmet and organic
If you’re looking at running an advertising campaign to drive memberships in your Grocery Store Loyalty Program, please download a copy of our media kit. Alternatively use the contact us page to fill in your requirements and our team can help develop a media plan for your consideration.
Display Ads Trigger Search
October 22, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Last week one of our clients running a food advertising campaign commented to me that they were seeing a significant jump in the website reports indicating that people were searching the messaging used in the creative of their latest online advertising campaign. The client was obviously pleasantly shocked that this was happening and subsequently asked us to provide a written response their next management meeting that;
- Provide insight to why occurs
- How they can leverage off this immediately and gain more traffic to their landing page /website
- Suggest ideas for their next campaign and how it can be trafficked.
What has happened to our clients is simply nothing but brand advertising. The creative for this campaign has been successful in capturing our audience’s attention, then burning the messaging into their mind for future recall.
When preparing the report for our client (which I must point out doesn’t use an advertising agency) I did some searches on the net and found this article titled “50 Percent of Internet Users Perform Searches in Response to Online Ads”. The article is based on research which found that Internet users initially respond to online display advertising as follows;
- 31 percent respond by directly clicking on an ad;
- 27 percent respond by searching for the product, brand or company by conducting a search on a search engine;
- 21 percent respond by typing the company Web address into their browsers and directly navigating to the Web site; and
- 9 percent respond by investigating the product, brand or company through social media venues.
What I liked about the article was the suggestions that marketers can do to take action. With action points in mind, this is what we suggested for our client;
- For every advertising campaign create a page or blog which could be titled the same as the messaging in the advertising creative. Be sure to include the various creative on the page together with text about the creative, what the campaign is about. Make sure you provide clear and easy to find links to the landing page which is the same or mirrored for the display campaign.
- With nearly 25% of internet users who respond to online display advertising do so by typing the company or brand name, make sure your company and brand ranks number in all the popular search engines. For people that won’t search for the messaging, this is the 2nd best way of leveraging off your display advertising.
- If you undertake search engine marketing, then ensure that the messaging used in the display campaign is also run in your search campaigns. Once again maximizing the opportunity for engagement.
- Setup social media profiles on all the popular platforms. This is once again a great place to mention the advertising messaging, driving consumers back to your site.
- Use online reputation management to identify when your company name or brand has been mentioned on a website or in social media. Consumers may even mention your ad campaign in social media. This is a great opportunity to engage with your consumer.
If you’re interesting in running a wide reaching brand campaign with Gourmet Ads, then download a copy of our media kit or contact us with details for your next campaign and we’ll provide a media plan that drives traffic.
Cyber Monday Advertising
October 20, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Cyber Monday is the Monday following Black Friday (see Black Friday Advertising), the day which kicks off holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Traditionally Black Friday was associated with regular bricks and mortar stores, while Cyber Monday was associated with online stores as the name suggests. The idea was that consumers would go online on the Monday and order the products they were after, but couldn’t find at the weekend Black Friday sales. Nowadays both Black Friday and Cyber Mondays are huge for both online and offline sales.
Given the huge numbers of consumers at their computer with credit card in hand, any online retailer or ecommerce store can benefit from Cyber Monday Advertising. The most successful Cyber Monday Advertising campaigns are those that reach target consumers, engage with them and create a relationship well before they make a purchase. Often it is price driven or discount offered based advertising, so if that’s the case then your creative needs to include these in the messaging.
Because the Gourmet Ads network features an audience of grocery buyers and household decision makers it’s essential to ensure that we are part of your Cyber Monday Advertising media mix. Some of the ways to make your Cyber Monday Advertising stand out from competitors on the Gourmet Ads network include;
- Roadblock Advertising – every impression for Cyber Monday will be yours across the network. We can offer you 100% of the network for 2 days.
- Interstitial Advertising – Undertake an interstitial campaign capped at 1/24 on Cyber Monday. Interstitials offer a high engagement rate and can include video and rich media.
- Beyond the Banner – create a free standing rich media ad which grabs consumer’s attention and encourages click through.
- Display campaign – Key to success is to include a variety of creative including expandable units on rollover to increase the engagement rate.
If you haven’t already booked your Cyber Monday Advertising, then don’t delay as the Gourmet Ads network often books out during the entire Thanksgiving period. Download your copy of the Gourmet Ads Media Kit which includes information on other key event days throughout the year that you should be booking.
Wine Sales on a Monday
October 19, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
We’re often asked by advertisers and advertising agencies to offer practical ideas on how they can use time and day targeting to maximise the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. Well today we discovered a great example using real data.
Corkscrew is a website that allows you to track wines and check the pricing of them on the web, mobile web, iPhone, email and SMS. In a recent blog from team at Corkscrew called Sober on Mondays, the team looked at the data of when their users were using the site and as indicated below and commented “Only 5% of wine consumption happens on a Monday, while the weekends account for 56%. As suspected, Saturday is the big drinking day, with 22% of drinks.”
So taking this example, how can you tailor your advertising campaign to only reach wine consumers when it matters. By planning media towards the end of the week and after lunch will definitely contribute to a more effective media buy.
Black Friday Advertising
October 17, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Black Friday is one of the most popular days on the shopping calendar as Black Friday flags the start to the Christmas shopping season. As such it’s important to make an impact with your Black Friday Advertising. For those that don’t know, Black Friday is the term used for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States and it’s typically one of the largest revenue days for retailers.
In past years Black Friday coupons have played a role in driving consumers to buy in store, but it’s important to remember that many consumers will prefer to click on advertising driving them to buy online. So it’s essential to not only do offline media, but ensure you invest in online Black Friday Advertising to drive sales online. Even if you only do in store sales, its important to run a campaign which reaches consumers, engages with them and creates a relationship well before they reach the store.
Because the Gourmet Ads network features an audience of grocery buyers and household decision makers it’s essential to ensure that we are part of your Black Friday Advertising media mix. Some of the ways to make your Black Friday Advertising stand out from competitors on the Gourmet Ads network include;
- Roadblock Advertising – every impression for Thanksgiving and Black Friday will be yours across the network. We can offer you 100% of the network for 2 days.
- Interstitial Advertising – Undertake an interstitial campaign capped at 1/24 on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Offers a high engagement rate and can include video and rich media.
- Beyond the Banner – create a free standing rich media ad which grabs consumer’s attention and encourages click through.
- Display campaign – Key to success is to include a variety of creative including expandable units on rollover to increase the engagement rate. This campaign could be run a week before Black Friday or launch on the morning of Thanksgiving.
If you haven’t already booked your Black Friday Advertising, then don’t delay as the Gourmet Ads network often books out during the Thanksgiving period. Download your copy of the Gourmet Ads Media Kit which includes information on other key event days throughout the year that you should be booking.
New Media Kit
October 15, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Today we’ve published an updated version of our North American Media Kit.
The new edition discusses the opportunities we offer as well as information on our growing audience and network of sites which makeup the Gourmet Ads Network. Also included is a break down of key events throughout the year and how we can help make an impact for your brand.
We focus on reaching the household grocery buyer across a collection of selected food & wine sites from around America and the globe. Our network delivers your campaign to grocery buyers driving sales and consumer acquisition for your brand.
If you’re looking at advertising with us or just media planning a campaign, then it’s essential.
