Online Marketers Capitalize on Consumer Moments

Written by: Michaella Radich

In the age of online apps and social media, consumers have very little patience for any sort of long-winded advertisement. Companies that target customers via the web are capitalizing on these micro windows of opportunity, by tailoring ads to what consumers are doing on their phones at particular times and in particular locations.

Google has been advising marketers since early 2015 to concentrate their efforts on the moments when users pick up their phone to find a nearby restaurant, find the answer to a question, or research a certain product. Google’s Lisa Gevelber, a Marketing Vice President, said, “The advertising game is no longer about reach and frequency. Now more than ever, intent is more important than identity and demographics, and immediacy is more important than brand loyalty.”

Timing has become much more important than format for appealing to consumers. This means, that companies must maintain a continuous online presence, through apps, social media, and various search engines. While timing has always been an important part of advertising, the difference in 2016, is the reliance consumers have on their mobile phones, which has intern led to the rise of online-shopping and app use.

The mobile phone’s obvious advantages to marketers — Global Position System navigation, the ability to track swipes and taps, and accelorometers – are met by users’ discrete, nearly constant internet activity, which provides ample opportunity for interaction with online advertising.

Brian Solis, a market researcher and analyst, advises that apps should not only grab consumers’ attention, but be useful. More importantly, the apps should be useful in the exact moment the customer comes across the advertisement.

Red Roof Inn, for example, zeroed in on travelers stranded in airports by linking information from FlightAware, an aviation software company, to Google’s search ad system at carefully calculated moments. In one instance, when Chicago’s O’Hare Airport experienced mass flight cancellations, Google’s system automatically placed Red Roof Inn at the top of 75 percent of the searches for hotels near O’Hare Airport. Red Roof Inn experienced a 60 percent increase in room bookings from those searches.

Other companies, like Dunkin Donuts and the ride service Lyft, are catching on to these “moment” strategies in marketing. But, companies will need to continue developing their moment marketing skills, by conducting ethnographic studies of customers and matching customer data to the right situation, in order to increase their brand and take fully advantage of internet marketing. [Click Here]