Insight
Italy is the third largest economy in Europe with an internet penetration of more than 60%, making Italy one of the fastest growing Ecommerce markets in Western Europe. Italy’s Ecommerce industry totalled 9.6 billion euros ($10.7bn) in 2012 and in 2016 saw an increase of 19% over 2015.
In 2015, statistics confirmed that 57% of Italian consumers researched online before buying online and 67% researched online before buying offline. Additionally, sources confirmed that the Italian consumer is one of the least concerned with personal privacy issues when buying online.
Online vs. Offline, or providing a seamless omnichannel experience, is the battle of today’s brands. With aggressive growth in Ecommerce, how can businesses compensate for the simultaneous reduction of foot traffic to physical stores?
Consumers today demand the convenience of one-stop shopping. MediaWorld understood this consumer shift and knew it was necessary to revisit legacy media buying behaviours and provide an omnichannel experience. Previous campaigns were built with a ‘store-first’ mentality that did not capitalise on the rapidly growing Ecommerce market share. It was vital that they leverage the online activities to reinforce the offline results, since 90% of consumers were converting in store.
Its entire digital strategy needed to be revised across the board, shifting legacy operation decisions to more ‘real-time people-based’ marketing focused on enhanced targeting, relevant messaging, and efficient delivery to ensure that all activity served a dual purpose of driving Ecommerce sales while driving traffic and sales to brick and mortar locations.
Strategy
PEOPLE FIRST - It was critical for MediaWorld to leverage the demands of the changing consumer, improve digital buying activities to reinforce its offline revenue (since 90% of consumers were converting in store), while also increasing Ecommerce sales.
To do this, iProspect knew the key focus must be on understanding their consumer in order to provide the most relevant messaging. Whether the demand was buying online, immediacy and location of a store, or verifying inventory or delivery, it needed to provide the most relevant message to the individual consumer at exactly the right time. To do that, it needed to understand consumer needs and their behaviours, and align accordingly. By synchronising the MediaWorld DMP with Dentsu Aegis Network proprietary Data Lake, the agency outlined four distinct consumer types: Pure Online, Offline to Online, Online to Offline, and Pure Offline.
By further dividing these types into segments based on clients vs. prospects, device, purchase behaviours, and intent to buy, it identified scores of unique audience clusters. Focusing on these specific audience clusters ensured that it thought ‘people first’ and tailored relevant messaging by directly targeting against purchase intent, device and geolocation. Only then did iProspect roll out a strategy that focused on four inherent objectives:
1. Integrate data to maximise target messages,
2. Dominate the search arena,
3. Improve multi-device experience, and
4. Exploit increasing social media integration.
Execution
SEAMLESS OMNI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCE - Driving traffic to offline stores while simultaneously increasing online awareness required a two-pronged approach.
Thinking ‘digital first,’ the agency immediately digitalised the paper flyer, replacing leaflets with e-flyers circulated to more than eight million Italian consumers in the areas covered by MediaWorld that were accessible through pdf or app.
Then, it launched a search, social, and display activation strategy based on geo-targeting, device and distance, bidding to MediaWorld’s brick and mortar stores.
It mapped MediaWorld store locations through Google business pages, geo-fenced all stores with a particular kilometre radius, and exposed this consumer segment to drive-to-store campaigns. Consumers outside of this radius were exposed only to pure Ecommerce campaigns.
The agency optimised its search, social, and display campaigns to be truly relevant to each of its dozens of consumer segments, and ensured the campaign maintained a ‘people over pixels’ mentality.
IProspect activated all local extensions across Google, including structured snippets, showcasing which available services were available in the consumer’s nearest store. Callouts were included with the aim of improving drive-to-store CTA. Location extensions were optimised with a link to Google Maps to get directions to POS, showing shop details. Rich media was used to produce banners ads that synced with local stores’ real-time stock management, showing consumers that their visit to store would not be wasted. Simultaneously, it kept promoting the Ecommerce destination and broadened the numbers of users by using look-a-like modelling to reach consumers in the market who were potentially interested in purchasing electronic goods.
Results
The campaign was a huge success for MediaWorld. Leading with a ‘people first’ strategy, it was able to execute a data-driven campaign that resulted in substantial increase in both online and offline revenue.
Conversion rate increased by 54%, with CPS down by -25% YOY. The average order value increased by 11% which boosted online sales by 153% and overall online revenue by 180%. In total ROI increased by +54% YOY.
By using Google store visits, the agency was able to analyse the effectiveness of the campaign in the first six months. The campaign directly drove a huge amount of store visits, with a 10% store visit rate (number of visits/number of clicks).
Because it had split the campaign based on device, it was able to see store visit rates by device: Mobile 11%, Desktop 9% and Tablet 6%. Both Mobile and Desktop rates exceeded industry benchmarks (Mobile 8% and Desktop 7%).