Innovation on the Path to Purchase
Posted on Thu, Sep 08, 2011
Retailers have realized the power their retail sites have as media vehicles and are looking for new ways to get the most out of their retail site investment. We recently sat down with Tim Bryan, SVP/GM of Triad Retail Media, one of our partner companies, to discuss how Triad is helping retailers reach consumers along the evolving path to purchase, while creating new revenue opportunities for them.
1. Triad's motto is “Turning Shoppers into Buyers.” How does Triad engage shoppers on the path to purchase?
Today’s consumers do not follow a linear path when it comes to researching products and services and making purchasing decisions. Whether it’s going to a major retailer’s website or engaging with peers on social networks like Facebook, consumers have more options when it comes to clicking their way to a purchasing decision. The ways we help brands and retailers engage with consumers along these touchpoints is to create highly impactful and integrated campaigns that cascade across various mediums. For instance, with Purina, Triad was able to create an impactful video campaign titled “Real Pet Stories” hosted on Walmart’s site as part of the Purina Pet Park. The video series ran for several months, chronicling the emotional and intricate pet adoption process. This is a great example of how we work with customers to create memorable, impactful, and meaningful digital advertising campaigns that not only engage online shoppers, but deliver a targeted and consistent brand story that helps drive ROI.
We’ve also done a lot of work with our customers on mobile campaigns. For instance, we created a mobile weight-loss tool for Slim-Fast that launched around the New Year. The app allowed Slim-Fast dieters to plan their meals, track their weight-loss progress, and find the nearest Sam’s Club location to purchase Slim-Fast snacks, shakes and meal bars while they are on the go. The point here is that it’s not only critical to understand which medium is most effective for reaching consumers with your product or service, but how to engage with them in a way that keeps them coming back.
2. What are the 3 most important things for retailers to know about Triad?
Our business is very lucrative, and it’s still growing! We expect to sell $120 million of online display ads this year and expect that the overall online display advertising market on retailer sites to hit $500 million within a few years. We are in the middle of some of the fastest-growing movements for CPG companies and other leading categories: digital and shopper marketing.
We represent some of the world’s most impressive retailers: Walmart, CVS, Sam’s Club, and eBay are just a few. We understand how to drive traffic to retailers’ sites and create new revenue streams through highly targeted and integrated digital media campaigns.
In the seven years of doing this, Triad has never once had any retail client see a decline in conversion rates. We offer better content, video, offers, etc., drive more visits, better SEO rankings, and more time spent per visit.
3. Triad partnered with Searchandise almost two years ago. What benefits does the Triad/Searchandise partnership bring retailers and consumers?
Our partnership gives retailers an end-to-end and custom digital monetization portfolio, which includes search, display, mobile, custom brand experiences, and more. For consumers, we make sure that the most relevant brand, with the most relevant message, is served to them in an advertising experience that is complementary and in step with the retailer’s brand and overall site experience.
4. What is the most significant shift that is driving the need for solutions like Triad’s?
Retailers are looking for more effective ways to engage with customers, while creating new revenue opportunities. Our approach has been effective at helping them do just that. In fact, GfK Interscope just did a study of 300 CPG executives and found that 80 percent of respondents said that shopper marketing initiatives are integral to their growth efforts moving forward.
5. What do you read to keep up with the market?
I just read Winning The Zero Moment of Truth, by Jim Lecinski, which is a great book about online decision-making and the challenge for marketers to reach consumers at that moment when they are deciding what to buy. The most important message in this book is that digital retail influences in-store shopping because consumers are going online to research before they go into the store. I also read Ad Age, I Want Media, AllThingsD, and other blogs and newsletters on retail, ecommerce, media, and technology.
If you want to learn more about Retail Media and how Triad and Searchandise work together to help retailers create incremental revenue streams and offer merchants new advertising opportunities, attend the panel, "It's Not Your Father's Media Company-The Shifting Definition of Media" at next week's FutureM event.
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Tim Bryan, Senior Vice President/General Manager Triad Retail Media
Tim Bryan has been with Triad Retail Media since June 2010. He provides direction and leadership to the Retail Reach Team, which includes clients such as 1-800Flowers, Barnes & Noble, CVS, Dell, Rite Aid, Shutterfly, SmartSource, SparkNotes, and Toys R Us. Tim is instrumental in managing the relationships retailers and publishers have with sales, marketing, strategy, and operations teams.
Prior to joining Triad, Tim was the Vice President, Advertising Sales for Time.com and Life.com at Time, Inc. He has also worked with A&E Television Networks, The New York Times Company, and NYTimes.com. Tim graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. in English, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.