The title of this post is a bit of a paraphrase of something Mike Sands said to me not long ago. Mike is the CEO of Signal, a leader in real-time people-based marketing. And his company recently released the findings of a study done in partnership with Econsultancy that highlights the rise of addressable media amongst buyers and marketers.
I’ll get to more of my conversation with Mike in a bit but for right now let’s look at some of the findings from the study, entitled “People-Based Advertising: Evaluating the impact and future of addressable media” — which may give credence to Sands’ belief that indeed CMOs are deeply dissatisfied with traditional advertising.
Right out of the chute was the fact that the majority of advertisers and media buyers have embraced people-based advertising with nearly seven in 10 advertisers reporting that they have used Facebook Custom Audiences while a significant majority plan to increase people-based advertising buys even further in 2016.
Some more key findings include:
- 92% of media buyers said that they and their clients are increasing people-based media buys.
- Nearly 1 in 2 media buyers plan to grow their people-based buys quickly.
- 67% of advertisers plan to increase their spending on people-based campaigns.
- 83% of media buyers report superior performance across their clients using people-based targeting, compared to traditional digital media buys.
- 63% of advertisers report higher click-through rates with people-based ads.
- 60% report higher conversion rates.
Removing The Guesswork From Digital Media
That’s how Sands describes people-based advertising adding that it’s all about hitting the right audience with the right ad. “When advertisers achieve the power of knowing who they are targeting, they can reduce wasted ad spend , show relevant messages to consumers, and ultimately improve return on ad investments,” he said. “As brands and media buyers realize these benefits, it’s not surprising that they want to do more people-based marketing to reach customers with relevant experiences wherever they are.”
Big movers and shakers are clearly on board when it comes to this form of advertising. Brian Lesser, North American CEO of GroupM — the world’s largest media investment group, told Adweek back in April that he believes “all media will be digital, (and) all digital will be addressable.” Then there’s Time Inc. which earlier this year announced they will utilizing people-based advertising.
To me, this all comes down to relevancy. Anything marketers can do to improve relevancy is a good thing. The demands and expectations of consumers — and I mean ALL consumers AKA you B2B marketers out there, your customers are consumers too — are increasing literally as we speak.
Marketers can not rely on batch-and-blast techniques then hope and pray they work. There is simply too much technology that exists to allow for non-relevancy to continue.
The Sands of Time
Sorry, I’m a big punster so forgive my pun. Below is the full transcript of my chat with Mike Sands on the findings of the report which was based on an online survey of 350 senior North American marketers and media buyers with moderate to high online ad budgets.
Steve Olenski: What were the biggest surprises to come out of the report?
Mike Sands: Any marketer knows that shifting budgets speak volumes. The fact that 92% of media buyers have clients moving budgets to people-based advertising proves that it’s not just a trend, but a strategic discipline that’s changing the industry and producing tangible results. For example, our research found that 83% of media buyers report superior performance using people-based targeting, compared to standard media buys. Additionally, 60% of advertisers report improved click-through and conversion rates with addressable media.