This is the second of a four-part series on hypertargeting in marketing.
We live in an era with an ever-expanding assortment of platforms to choose from and engage with. Whether you want to read, listen to music, watch your favorite shows or play games, there’s a platform for that; in many cases, advertising pros can leverage these platforms to target consumers.
With so many platforms to choose from and limited budgets, how do advertisers decide which platform to use and get the biggest bang for their advertising buck?
The answer is hypertargeting. As we explored in our first post, hypertargeting helps advertisers reduce media waste and zero in on only the most meaningful consumer profiles. In this post, we’ll walk through an actual example of a targeted advertising campaign for our client, KinderCare, on the popular online radio-streaming platform Pandora. We’ll also be sure to explain how user preferences and basic demographics available through Pandora can make or break a campaign.
For KinderCare, we wanted to target people in specific and relevant parts of the country, where KinderCare centers had capacity for more students. The goal was to drive traffic to introductory open-house events that would be taking place, providing a perfect introduction to the brand and what it offers.
When it came to choosing a platform for the advertisement, we had Pandora in mind because it would allow us to run an advertisement that targets by demographics and geographies. With over 76 million active listeners and great options for segmenting its user base, Pandora rules supreme over the online radio category.
Based on our client’s target demographic, we used Pandora to target women, 25-40 (often the primary decision makers regarding childcare), in the specific zip codes where centers had open house events.
Pandora listeners access the platform via PCs, mobile phones, tablets and other devices. These are all devices that we could potentially include in our ad buy to reach KinderCare’s target demographic. We settled on two versions of an audio spot, each followed immediately by a clickable banner for both the mobile and desktop environments.
One of the audio spots focused on overall brand awareness, while the second specifically announced the upcoming open houses. Listeners could click the accompanying banner to arrive at a landing page, where they could learn more about their local KinderCare’s upcoming open house.
Hypertargeting is helpful for other types of businesses too. Say you’re launching a new product in the food and beverage space; you could easily push an advertisement to only people in Portland, New York City or Los Angeles, who could actually get to a store and buy your product. You could further refine your segments by certain interests and demographics that most resemble your consumer profile. Are you a dark chocolate brand whose product pairs well with red wine? Consider targeting people who like and buy red wine! The options are limitless.
In the above example, we walked through targeting by demographics and geography. Get ready for our third post, which will take you through how other types of preferences, personality and psychographics, play into creating a strategic advertising campaign.