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Choozle Chat: Mastering Political Digital Advertising with Shawn Fox

Choozle — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 10:01:31 +0000

Digital advertising has become an indispensable tool for political campaigns, reaching voters, fundraising, and shaping public opinion. As we navigate the complexities of the 2024 election cycle, understanding the nuances of digital advertising is more crucial than ever. In this edition of Choozle Chat, we explore the strategies and challenges of political digital advertising.

Join Choozle’s VP of Marketing, Annie Wissner, and Political Account Executive, Shawn Fox, as they discuss the power of programmatic advertising, the impact of connected TV, the intricacies of targeted messaging, and much more. Whether you’re a campaign manager, political strategist, or digital marketer, this comprehensive discussion will equip you with the knowledge and tools to drive successful political campaigns in today’s digital landscape.

Annie: How do you view political digital advertising? What is it, and why should people care?

Shawn: The great thing about political digital advertising is the ability to target an audience of established voters, particularly primary voters. You can make your advertising very efficient by sending ads directly to those people where your message will resonate.

Annie: What is programmatic political advertising?

Shawn: Programmatic advertising combines the best of targeting and allows you to use multiple tactics on the same audience. For example, you can first send a message to make people aware of your candidacy via a connected TV ad. Once they see your ad, they may want to investigate and look up your platform. As your campaign continues, the goal is to get voters to interact with your ads, so you can share more about your platform, fundraising efforts, and campaign sign-ups.

By running omnichannel campaigns holistically, rather than in silos, you can see how connected TV informs display, which in turn informs audio, retargeting, and more. This integrated approach ensures your message is reinforced across multiple touchpoints, enhancing brand resonance. Studies show that people are statistically more likely to remember an ad after seeing it on multiple devices. This is super important for candidates who are building their brand and communicating their platform issues.

It helps you not only get in front of the right audience but also engage with them in a way that persuades them to support your candidacy.

Annie: What’s your take on Connected TV (CTV) advertising for political campaigns in 2024?

Shawn: Connected TV is gaining traction in political advertising for a great reason. Since the pandemic, streaming television viewership has skyrocketed, especially among younger demographics you can’t reach with traditional TV. Connected TV enables precise targeting, reaching more households than broadcast or cable. It allows you to run an ad for anyone who has seen a competitor’s campaign ad, and even with all those bells and whistles, it tends to be more cost-effective than traditional TV buys.

You can’t reach younger voters on traditional television; CTV offers guaranteed viewership. With traditional television, you have to rely on a very archaic measurement system to determine who actually sees your ad. CTV gives you guaranteed delivered impressions, ensuring your television campaigns are actually reaching voter eyeballs.

Annie: Can you explain more about targeting in digital advertising?

Shawn: Targeting allows you to reach your audience through various devices, such as SMART TVs, laptops, or mobile phones. Unlike the old days of door-to-door canvassing or direct mail campaigns for an entire neighborhood, Choozle’s advanced targeting capabilities enable us to identify and reach the specific households that are most relevant to you. This ensures that your resources are used efficiently, avoiding unnecessary costs associated with reaching an entire neighborhood or, in the case of traditional TV, an entire DMA, which can be wasteful.

Annie: Does Choozle offer demographic targeting for political campaigns?

Shawn: Yes, Choozle offers a variety of targeting options. We use first-party data to target known voters and third-party data to identify people who lean a certain way or care about specific issues. We can target based on demographics like age, gender, income, and education level, as well as interests and geographic areas. Choozle has our own audiences of voting blocks that campaigns can use and we also have access to Trade Desk audiences and many other partners.

Annie: How does Choozle provide the necessary support for political campaigns, especially at the speed of the news cycle?

Shawn: At Choozle, we offer end-to-end support for political campaigns, covering planning, targeting, execution, and optimization. We understand the urgency of political campaigns and provide responsive assistance to keep things moving quickly. By operating at the speed of the news cycle, we ensure seamless campaign management and rapid adjustments to stay ahead of the curve.

Annie: How does digital advertising help with fundraising, specifically with Choozle?

Shawn: Fundraising has become challenging in recent years, and the success of email fundraising has diminished. Digital media helps by engaging with your audience, making them aware of you, and explaining your platform before making a financial ask. People prefer to know the candidate before they receive a fundraising email or text. With dynamic passback pixels, you can tie actual donations and donation value to your programmatic campaigns, allowing you to measure the direct impact of your digital efforts on fundraising.

Annie: What are some other challenges campaign managers are facing in 2024?

Shawn: Early voting is a big challenge. Campaigns used to hold onto their advertising budgets until right before the election, but now, with early voting starting as early as September 20th in some states, it’s crucial to start advertising early to reach voters when they begin to cast their ballots.

Annie: How has the audience changed with the inclusion of Gen Z voters and more millennials?

Shawn: Our political process is moving at the speed of a news cycle, which is now often just hours long. Campaigns need partners who can keep up with these developments and quickly execute strategies that align with current events. Gen Z and millennials are engaged with fast-paced digital content, so timely and relevant messaging is critical.

Annie: How important is compliance in political advertising?

Shawn: Compliance is crucial in political advertising. Campaigns must ensure their creative content is approved and include necessary disclaimers, such as “Paid for by XYZ Campaign,” to build trust with voters. Adherence to Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations, state-specific rules, and digital platforms’ policies (e.g., Facebook, Google Ads, Twitter) is essential.

Choozle reviews and follows political advertising guidelines before campaigns go live. Caution is needed with microtargeting to avoid discrimination and targeting based on sensitive attributes like race or religion. Compliance with data privacy laws, such as GDPR and CCPA, is also necessary, including obtaining user consent for data collection. Fact-checking claims before publication is important for maintaining accuracy and avoiding misleading statements. Prioritizing transparency, accountability, and fairness helps uphold ethical standards and build voter trust. It’s important to work with a partner who understands the laws around political advertising.

Annie: How responsive is Choozle to clients’ needs in a fast-paced political environment?

Shawn: Choozle has worked with over 1,400 political campaigns and developed a responsive approach. We have a dedicated team for political advertising who can quickly address issues and work directly with partners to expedite processes. This helps ensure the timely execution of campaign strategies.

Annie: What metrics or KPIs do you recommend for measuring the success of political advertising campaigns?

Shawn: Transparency in reporting is key. It’s important to track all tactics used to see what works best. Metrics like ad impressions and clicks are useful, but more important is understanding the secondary actions, like website visits or engagement with your content, which indicate that your message is resonating.

Annie: How should campaigns combat misinformation and negative attacks online?

Shawn: I recommend disabling comments on platforms like Meta and Twitter to avoid disruptive commenters. Candidates must focus on positive messaging about their plans and policies rather than engaging in negative attacks. People respond better to candidates who present a clear and positive vision.

Annie: What tips do you have for optimizing political advertising campaigns?

Shawn: The Choozle platform’s auto-optimization features are invaluable for advertisers, as they identify top-performing tactics and automatically allocate resources accordingly. Unlike traditional TV, where political schedules can be disrupted, Choozle offers specific private marketplace CTV deals that target heavy news consumers on channels like MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and Fox Business, ensuring your ads run as planned. Regularly reviewing campaign metrics every few weeks allows for timely adjustments, and having a responsive partner to help analyze and adjust strategies is crucial for success.

Annie: Thank you, Shawn. Your insights have been incredibly valuable.

Shawn: It’s my pleasure. The team at Choozle is excellent, and our platform has had great success in the political realm. Thank you for having me.

Closing Thoughts

The shift toward digital media offers unparalleled opportunities for precise targeting, efficient fundraising, and timely engagement with voters. Compliance and responsiveness are also crucial, ensuring campaigns run smoothly and messages are effectively delivered. As political campaigns adapt to fast-paced news cycles and younger voters’ preferences, a robust digital strategy is essential.

By leveraging the insights and strategies discussed in this blog, campaign managers and political strategists can optimize their digital advertising efforts, combat misinformation, and ensure their messages resonate with the intended audience. Stay ahead in the digital landscape, and make your next political campaign successful.

Connect with Shawn to optimize your current or upcoming campaigns.

Shawn Fox

Shawn brings over 20 years of digital advertising experience, specializing in political campaigns. She began her career in publishing, where she launched and grew a digital division. In 2013, Shawn transitioned to political advertising, working with major campaigns through her role at The Detroit Media Partnership, including President Obama's. After that, she worked with a political firm that focused on digital strategy and fundraising.
At Choozle, Shawn leverages her expertise in digital targeting, programmatic advertising, and compliance to help clients achieve their campaign goals efficiently. Known for her responsiveness and adaptability, she excels in the fast-paced political environment. Shawn's deep understanding of digital media and commitment to campaign success make her a key asset to any team.

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Connected TV Options for the Holiday Season with Sam Rutishauser

Choozle — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:55:22 +0000

Sam Rutishauser joined us for a live Choozlechat last month explaining why connected TV is such a good option for highly targeted campaigns during the holiday season. Read the highlights and listen to the full podcast below.

Why is CTV such a good opportunity for the holiday season?

During the winter season and Q4, there are naturally many more people who are spending their time inside and watching television on their favorite streaming services. The amount of viewership and engagement during this time is pretty significant. For a lot of people, getting together and watching holiday movies and live sports during this time is a part of the tradition. Connected TV (CTV) ensures you can align your brand with the festivities while reaching highly engaged audiences.

Why you should consider connected TV

Television, in general, is such a different ad environment compared to other digital strategies. Connected TV can be used as a stand-alone tactic, but it is even better to use in combination with other digital channels. With CTV, you can match profiles to other devices in the household and complement your campaign’s messaging to make it holistic. CTV can be really great for creating sequential messages that continue to follow up with retargeted ads across other devices. The holidays, and the time leading up to the holidays, are so hectic that it is really important to stay top-of-mind and create brand resonance in the household.

Holiday events and brand alignment

Connected TV is a great opportunity to be a part of those seasonal sporting events and holiday appointment television. With traditional TV, it can be hard to tell who is actually watching at times. With CTV, you only serve ads to those who have turned on the TV and selected a specific program, so it is almost always appointment television viewing. Also, ads are generally better received on connected TV as opposed to traditional TV. Surveys show that people are much more willing to pay less for a streaming service with ads as opposed to a streaming service at a higher cost without ads, so there is just a greater buy-in to engaging with the ads on CTV. Connected TV is a great opportunity to create personalized and themed content for the holidays while reaching your target audience at the right place and time.

Listen to Sam’s full Live Choozlechat here:

Connected TV and digital advertising offer so many opportunities to craft a highly targeted campaign that can actually speak to your audiences’ needs in the right context. Connected TV and digital marketing won’t be a one size fits all opportunity for everyone, but that is why we always encourage experimentation to find that perfect recipe for your business.

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How Choozle is using machine learning for digital marketing with Callie Federer

Choozle — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 11:51:10 +0000

Marketing & communications specialist, Sarah Lilly, sat down with Choozle’s data scientist, Callie Federer, to learn more about the possibilities machine learning brings to the digital marketing landscape. During their conversation, Callie shared what machine learning actually is and described some of the exciting new ways it is being used at Choozle.

Machine learning brings a new perspective to digital marketing with a new tool to leverage the massive amounts of data we collect, allowing us to dive deeper into the opportunities hidden within.

Callie received her Ph.D. in Computational Bioscience, where she focused on machine learning in the context of understanding the brain and using the system of the brain to build better machine learning. Since graduate school, she’s focused on applying machine learning in many different fields, including particle physics, cancer treatment, character recognition for a calculus tutoring app, and now helping marketers make better decisions and optimization choices.

So let’s jump in with a few exciting points Callie shared with us about using machine learning for marketing.

What is machine learning?

Machine learning is a way to solve a problem without using a traditional rules-based approach to create software. For those like us, who didn’t know what a rules-based approach is, it’s a way of telling a computer to perform a task in which a data scientist needs to come up with all possible scenarios and tell the computer, if X happens do Y. Machine learning, on the other hand, utilizes data and past experience to understand scenarios with less bias than a human. The example Callie uses is teaching a computer to categorize fruits based on their attributes. A rules-based approach would entail telling the computer, if it’s yellow it’s a banana, and if it’s red it’s an apple. But pretty quickly, you can see this is flawed as there are yellow apples and red bananas in the world. Instead, if you utilized machine learning, you could provide the software with massive amounts of photos and data about fruit and tell the computer to classify the different fruits as best it can. The algorithm can then start to learn things about the relationship between shape and color when it comes to categorizing fruits, so you don’t have to come up with all possible cases yourself.

What’s the difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence?

These two things are talked about and used almost interchangeably. Artificial intelligence is the goal, and machine learning is a possible method of achieving artificial intelligence. From a broad perspective, artificial intelligence is getting a computer to think and act like a human. And while there are some examples of computers performing tasks as well or better than humans, like playing chess, machines still don’t contain the same depth and variety of understanding of things the same way a human does. And to be frank, artificial intelligence doesn’t exist yet. Machine learning is simply a tool we use to help computers learn how to do different things.

What do marketers need to know?

Machine learning is a powerful tool that can help cut down difficult choices and reduce menial work while avoiding inherent human bias. But it’s not magic, it’s just math. While there are a lot of tools that position themselves as automatic machine learning, it’s not always foolproof if there isn’t someone who knows at least some of the math behind the algorithms. The last thing you want is to be making decisions based on an error coming from your machine learning algorithm. You must be able to trust your data and the decisions your algorithm makes for you.

Machine learning at Choozle

The data science group at Choozle is still pretty early in some of the projects we are setting out to achieve, but the first piece of technology we are working on is a budgeting tool for marketing campaigns. This piece of machine learning can’t predict the future yet, but it is helping predict how a marketing campaign will perform based on the previous budget used and past performance of the campaign. You could use this tool to shift your budget up or down and understand how those changes might affect clicks, conversions, impressions, and more. Choozle is helping marketers to make decisions by leveraging years of campaign data to predict outcomes based on the historical trends shown.

We have a lot of other ideas of how machine learning can help you make all of your decisions for your campaigns on the Choozle platform, but as of now, we are still trying to figure out what would be the most helpful to start with when it comes to creating a campaign.

Listen to Callie’s full ChoozleChat podcast here:

If you have any questions or just want to learn more about how Choozle is using machine learning to improve our platform, reach out to us here.

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choozlechat: Relic Agency shares how specific targeting strategies can drive success for travel destinations like Bristol, TN

Choozle — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 07:52:51 +0000

Marketers of travel-related services were among the first ones to bear the brunt of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic when worldwide restrictions were put in place. As restrictions begin to ease, consumers have been looking for ways to start traveling closer to home.

For travel destinations, digital advertising strategies can vary greatly, but the one thing they all have in common is precise audience targeting’s ability to drive results.

We sat down with Monica Rich at Relic Agency to better understand how they put together digital advertising strategies for their travel destination client, Discover Bristol.

Kim Boshart, Product Marketer, Choozle: Let’s start with an explanation of your role at Relic Agency.

Monica Rich, Digital Marketing Specialist, Relic Agency: My role is Digital Marketing Specialist at Relic Agency. I run digital ad campaigns, gather analytics, and improve ad performance within pay-per-click (PPC), programmatic display, social media, email marketing, and SEO campaigns for clients primarily in the tourism industry.

Q: From your point of view, what impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on travel behaviors for consumers?

MR: In the peak of quarantine, travel was at a historic all-time low. Many travel destinations and tourism offices struggled to stay afloat, and many had to lay off employees and cut down budgets with such low demand. Fortunately, the team here at Relic Agency thought ahead and knew that once the travel ban would be lifted, the floodgates would open and demand would not only increase but skyrocket. We worked with multiple clients to develop and build out recovery campaigns that were ready to launch whenever that time came, and we could catch the wave of increased travel interest. That time certainly did come as cases went down, the travel ban was lifted, and the vaccine became readily available to the public. Travel is still on the rise (almost to pre-COVID levels) due to people wanting a vacation after being cooped up inside for so long, and it’s been interesting to see the trends evolve so dramatically.

Q: What kind of strategies and tactics do you use for your travel destination clients?

MR: Because every destination’s visitor profile is different, as is every destination’s needs, every digital media plan must be unique. We evaluate the destination’s needs and goals with each client, align them with the target personas, and map them to the right messaging and the right network. We build awareness within our personas through impression-based strategies like programmatic display, non-branded PPC, YouTube, and broader social media buys, as well as develop strong SEO on the website. We then move those audiences through the marketing funnel by serving them stronger calls to action (CTAs), such as visiting certain pages on the website, downloading a travel brochure, or signing up for a newsletter. We do this mainly through content marketing on social media buys and automated email marketing. Ultimately at the bottom of the funnel, we encourage consumers to book a hotel stay in the area through branded PPC ads and purchase-focused social media buys and email marketing, as well as measure actual foot traffic through geo-fenced display ads.

Q: How have these strategies and tactics changed over the last year?

MR: We have certainly had to adapt our strategies in this past year due to the pandemic. We shifted our focus to recovery campaigns for when tourism exploded again, and it was time well spent. That’s not to say we disappeared off the map; it was still important to serve low-intent awareness ads with soft messaging like “plan your vacation in the future when you’re comfortable,” so that customers didn’t forget about us. We even pushed content marketing like creating coloring and activity books for each of our destinations that kids and families could print out and use while in quarantine. Once we launched the recovery campaign, the messaging changed to something along the lines of “come have a safe vacation and get a breath of fresh air.”

Q: How has Choozle helped you execute your campaigns and strategies for your clients?

MR: Choozle has been very helpful in targeting unique audiences by using geo-fenced locations, contextual marketing via keywords, and even finding audiences that visited certain locations historically through their vendor Factual. We’ve been able to hyper-target with these tactics and get great results, proving campaigns’ success through conversion tracking.

Q: What are some of the benefits of being able to target specific audiences?

MR: Targeting specific audiences is key to a successful campaign; if you get too broad of a scope in your targeting, you essentially waste money on people who would never be interested in your product or service, no matter how well or how often you advertise to them. Narrowing down our audiences through Choozle’s tools allows us to fill the marketing funnel with the right pool of people and spend ad dollars towards those more likely to buy the product. To quote Adam Stoker, the CEO of Relic: “Good marketing is all about getting the right message to the right people at the right time.”

Q: How have these strategies helped improve your campaigns and performance?

MR: I think the first sign that changing our marketing strategies improved our performance is that not only were we able to stay afloat during the pandemic, but we were still growing as a company! With the successes of our current clients in their recovery campaigns, other DMOs reached out to us via response to our content marketing, and we were able to gain more clients and even acquire another agency. The key to our recovery campaigns was being adaptable and flexible. We had messaging, ad creative, and strategies that were ready to go whatever direction the campaign needed to take as the world changed so frequently around us.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face when implementing digital advertising?

MR: A tricky, unique challenge that tourism digital marketing faces is figuring out the best KPI to indicate success. Since the true conversion happens in the real world (visiting the destination) rather than something trackable online (like an e-commerce purchase on a site), there’s only so much you can do to figure out who in your funnel actually converted due to your digital marketing efforts. Sometimes there are ways like measuring transient room tax of hotels in the area or measuring foot traffic in a drawn-out conversion zone on a map, but most of the time you’ll have to measure conversion as someone downloading a travel brochure or clicking the “book a room” button on the website. It’s tricky, but as long as you think creatively, you’ll find ways to prove the success of your campaigns.

Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for other marketing professionals looking to come up with strategies for travel destinations?

MR: Always start your strategy by building out the marketing funnel! A buyer’s journey should be clearly mapped out by what tactics, channels, and messages you use to guide them from awareness to conversion. Don’t forget to include retargeting in your funnel; not only does it retain customers and coax them through conversion, but it also builds brand loyalty.

Q: Any final thoughts?

MR: Lastly, I’ll emphasize Adam Stoker’s phrase again because I love it so much: “good marketing is all about getting the right message to the right people at the right time.”

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choozlechat: Targeting college students with digital advertising during the pandemic with OnCampus

Choozle — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:59:21 +0000

Due to the pandemic, college campuses look a bit different. These changes present new challenges for marketers trying to connect with students through digital advertising. College students are a dynamic audience that many marketers are looking to reach.

Like all other consumers, a variety of mediums can reach college students. In addition to the traditional forms of advertising, like TV and radio commercials, and ads on billboards, transit, and print media, digital advertising has become another key channel in reaching college students.

To better understand the strategies used to target college students, and how this market has changed over the last year, we chatted with Brendon Basile, Director of Media Operations at OnCampus Advertising. OnCampus Advertising specializes in advising agencies, brands, and universities on how to best connect with Millennial and Gen Z college students.

Q: Let’s start with an explanation of what OnCampus Advertising does and the type of clients you work with.

Brendon Basile: We focus on reaching college students while they are in the college experience. This also includes their parents, faculty & staff, and alumni. Our clients range from banks and telecoms trying to target the back-to-school audience to other businesses and universities trying to reach students to recruit them for jobs or to have them go to their graduate or medical school programs. We also have a lot of youth-oriented brands.

Q: From your point of view, what impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on reaching college students?

The pandemic limited the activities we could do directly on campus. In-person campaigns were not possible due to social distancing, and the fact that many campuses closed limited our reach using traditional media such as brand ambassadors, newspaper print, and out-of-home advertisements.

More on back-to-school advertising in 2020 is found here.

Q: What kind of strategies and tactics do you use for your clients?

We use various strategies, from the more traditional print, brand ambassadors, and out-of-home, to digital-focused campaigns. We have seen a real uptick recently in mobile, email, and CRM targeting-based campaigns.

Q: How have these strategies and tactics changed over the last year?

We needed to find ways to reach college students when they were studying at home instead of at a specific university. As students moved to more remote learning, we couldn’t just target the college campus.

Q: How has Choozle helped you execute your campaigns and strategies for your clients?

Mobile geoframing with a look-back window of nearly a year allowed us to identify students that were on college campuses prior to the pandemic and allowed us to target them regardless of their current location.

Additionally, using an email source provider, we created our own custom CRM lists linked to students’ emails instead of physical locations.

Q: What are some of the benefits of being able to target specific audiences?

Our clients want to reach specific types of students. Whether it’s because their offers are only valid for certain schools, or their solutions only make sense for specific majors, we need to drill down on the right audience. We want to avoid media waste whenever possible to maximize our client’s value.

Q: How have these strategies helped improve your campaigns and performance?

CRM, mobile, and programmatic campaigns that utilized existing Choozle audiences have helped drive traffic to our clients’ landing pages.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face when implementing digital advertising?

Attribution is always tricky with digital advertising. Many clients still pay closer attention to the last click, which gives heavy weighting to search. They don’t always consider the media that drove someone to conduct the search in the first place.

Q: Any final thoughts?

The ability to hone in on a specific target has been greatly beneficial in delivering the right audience to our clients. Whether it’s through mobile geoframes, CRM data, or using data from various media partners, we can narrow the scope of any campaign.

Brendon Basile started working in advertising nearly 20 years ago. Since joining OnCampus Advertising in 2013, he has managed over 100 campaigns targeting colleges and universities across the US and Canada. Brendon runs all facets of clients’ campaigns, from digital to event marketing. Outside of advertising, he enjoys cheering on the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins, and is a proud Syracuse Orange alum.

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Madden Media shares how specific targeting strategies can drive success for travel destinations like Luzerne County

Choozle — Tue, 11 May 2021 10:15:52 +0000

Marketers of travel-related services were among the first to bear the brunt of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic as worldwide restrictions were put in place. As restrictions ease, consumers have been looking for ways to travel closer to home.

For travel destinations, digital advertising strategies can vary greatly. While the strategies are different, the one thing they all have in common is the value of precise audience targeting and drive results.

We sat down with Andy Rupert at Madden Media to better understand how they put together digital advertising strategies for their travel destination clients.

Let’s start with an explanation of your role at Madden Media.

Andy Rupert: I am a Media Specialist at Madden Media. In my role, I am creating and managing digital campaigns for destination marketing organizations across the United States. My clients I work with are literally from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. We do a lot of work in SEM, video, display, native, and others to get the most out of campaigns for our clients.

From your point of view, what impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on travel behaviors for consumers?

Before working at Madden Media I worked at a destination marketing organization (DMO), so more at the ground level directly with partners in a destination. Obviously, when the news of the virus first came out people were understandably afraid. When that happened much of the interest in travel plummeted. If you can’t get someone to leave their house for groceries, how do you expect to get them to travel?

As more information has come out and the vaccine has started to roll out you’ve seen a lot of the travel research picking back up closer to normal levels. There is simply a lot of pent-up desire to travel and be somewhere other than your home or town. A lot of people are planning that next weekend trip or next week-long trip to experience something new. This period of time is a great opportunity for brands to be creative and catch the eye of potential travelers with disposable income.

What kind of strategies and tactics do you use for your travel destination clients?

We really push for quality over quantity at Madden Media. So not only do we want to uplift a brand to make it more recognizable, but getting visitors to websites to have high-quality visits. In that, I’m looking at 3+ minute long sessions on the website or 4+ pages per session. We really want consumers to dig into a destination to find enough cool things for them to really consider a trip to a destination.

We use a large variety of actual tactics because DMO’s aren’t a cookie-cutter approach. There are different sized DMO’s and in different parts of the country. Every destination has different “wow” factor assets in their backyard that appeal to different niches of audiences. The first thing you have to understand is what makes the destination you are working with great. What do consumers already know about the destination? You rope in consumers with what they know, then tell them what they don’t.

How have these strategies and tactics changed over the last year?

Obviously, the way we live our lives is different and the way we consume content. It has to be an incredible year if you worked at a streaming service or a video meeting company.

There seems to be more sensitivity given to the consumer now than there was before. This is because there are different levels of comfort with getting back into travel. Some people are ready to dive right back into the deep end of the pool and there are others that just want to dip their toes in. You have to be sensitive to that and also knowledgeable about the standards set in place by local and state governments. You need to craft a message that resonates with both audiences.

How has Choozle helped you execute your campaigns and strategies for your clients?

In Choozle, we’re looking to elevate a brand’s awareness more than anything. A client I worked with recently was Luzerne County, PA. They are located smack-dab in the middle of one of the busiest and most populated pockets of the country. Just a couple of hours from Philly or NYC.

Obviously, they are surrounded by some pretty big destinations and brands. They are located next door to the Pocono Mountains, which have long been a destination for people escaping the city. Luzerne County offers something a little bit different than either the major cities or the Poconos and there is an audience for that. We ran several different campaigns for Luzerne County and had terrific success in not only creating brand awareness but also creating quality clicks to their website in a way they may never have had before.

Choozle was definitely a key piece in that story of driving awareness for a destination that is just a short drive away and has a lot to offer.

What are some of the benefits of being able to target specific audiences?

I think the days of a blanketed general message are over. Consumers fit into very specific niches. At Madden, we focus more on intent-based advertising than we do on demographics as you’ve traditionally seen brands do. We want to tap into those desires more so than try to draw up a visual of what we think the audience would look like. You could be a 23-year-old young professional or an 82-year-old grandmother and enjoy a brewery visit. You could be a 27-year-old single grad student or be planning a family trip and enjoy a relaxing trip to a lake. We keep focused on the intent and desires.

How have these strategies helped improve your campaigns and performance?

I feel that we get a better audience that is genuinely interested in our campaign when we focus on intent and quality web visits over vanity metrics such as clicks or impressions. At a DMO, I would have easily traded 10 okay clicks for one great web visit that could lead to a consumer requesting more info or making a trip. When you focus on quality you build a stronger community that wants to listen to what your destination has to say.

What are some of the challenges you face when implementing digital advertising?

I think that destinations have to be realistic that we are not, and I hate this term, but “one-stop shops”. You have to be very honest about what you do better than any of your immediate competitors and drive that home to the right niche audience. A million places have hiking trails, a lake, or a new hip brewery. What assets are head over shoulders more impressive than your neighboring regions?

Taking that message of why you’re great for that specific audience and delivering on that promise is what creates great traction. Choozle comes in as a great platform to drive those arguments home to the right people, with the right intents, at the right time.

Do you have any words of wisdom for other marketing professionals looking to come up with strategies for travel destinations?

I would say you are best served to pour your efforts and money into a few targeting tactics you do really well and support your region’s assets. Rather than sprinkling money around to 10-12 routes, really pour it into 3-4 that support your business goals.

Be very clear about what your business goals are and have the measurement tools in place before you turn on those campaigns. If you aren’t seeing the results you want from an outlet, do be afraid to switch up creative or a tactic.

Any final thoughts?

Don’t be afraid to be different from other travel brands. So many places try to replicate something they saw someone else do when they should just be authentic and unique.

Want to hear more from Madden Media? Check out how they adapted their travel marketing campaigns to the new normal in 2020.

The post Madden Media shares how specific targeting strategies can drive success for travel destinations like Luzerne County appeared first on choozle.

choozlechat: Guild Content shares a piece of the digital advertising pie with Papa John’s

Choozle — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 10:38:03 +0000

Small restaurants and large chains alike have had to take up “contactless” delivery methods.

Many restaurants have shifted their digital ad buying to reflect new delivery options, often using ad tech to insert the nearest location into the advertisements. Others are using a completely new creative approach.

To dig into how restaurants are leveraging digital advertising, we sat down with Colin Potter, Vice President of Business Operations at Guild Content, to better understand how they put together a digital advertising strategy for Papa John’s and where they’ve excelled.

Let’s start with an explanation of your role at Guild Content.

Colin Potter, Vice President of Business: Guild Content is a full-service content marketing agency located in Kansas City. We’re focused on creating compelling content for clients we love. I’m responsible for keeping our revenue healthy by ensuring our clients are happy and that we are delivering flawlessly for them.

How have you had to re-strategize your digital strategy for your clients in the restaurant industry as a result of COVID-19?

CP: Consumer buying habits have shifted during the pandemic, with more Americans staying in and ordering food. Seventy percent of Papa John’s orders have been coming in digitally–with mobile being its fastest-growing platform–and it’s really inspiring to see how quickly the Papa John’s team pivoted to be solution-oriented for their customers. From contactless delivery to a fully operational e-commerce platform and menu innovation, we’ve been fortunate to be on the front lines as a trusted partner during this unprecedented time.

What kind of response and results are you seeing as a result of these new digital advertising strategies?

CP: Consumers pay for convenience. The ability to order online can be a big driver to why customers choose a specific restaurant, but they need to know that online ordering is an option. For Papa John’s, we had to drive awareness across multiple devices like desktop, mobile, and connected TV. But more importantly, we had to drive true connections with the customer to get them to take action. When done right, you can use digital advertising as a way to connect with the customer through storytelling.

For your clients in the restaurant industry, what kind of strategies and tactics do you use?

CP: It starts with humanizing and localizing the brand and gearing everything towards the customer, which in turn leads to increased engagement and sales. Customers don’t want to be advertised or marketed to, they want to believe in a brand, for the brand to have empathy for their experience, and for the brand to help solve their problem.

How has Choozle helped you execute your campaigns and strategies for clients in the restaurant industry during COVID-19?

CP: The Choozle team has provided tremendous insight and strategy into the latest digital trends for the restaurant industry. Their nimble and transparent approach has afforded our group the ability to optimize in real-time to ensure we’re meeting Papa John’s customers where they are with the offers they want.

How have these strategies helped improve your campaigns and performance?

CP: The proof is in the pudding–or sauce–with Papa John’s having their best North American system-wide sales in the company’s history.

How have these strategies helped improve your campaigns and performance?

Do you feel like you’ll need to continue these strategies for your restaurant clients as we move towards a post-pandemic timeframe?

CP: It’s always going to be imperative to put the customer first. It’s about connecting instead of convincing. We’ll see how things shift as we move out of the pandemic, but I hope more restaurants remember to put the customer first.

Any final thoughts?

CP: We believe companies have the power to make the world better, to make connection possible, and to tell stories that inspire souls and ignite change.

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choozlechat: Powering success for luxury travel brands with Neat Digital

Choozle — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 10:48:45 +0000

Digital advertising strategies can vary greatly depending on the vertical and target audience. For marketers looking to tackle strategies for luxury travel, it wasn’t any different. While the strategies are different, the one thing they all have in common is the value of precise audience targeting.

We sat down with Jill Parkinson at Neat Digital to better understand how they put together digital advertising strategies for their clients.

Let’s start with an explanation of your role at Neat Digital.

Jill Parkinson, Media Planner: I’m the owner of Neat Digital, an ad agency based out of Las Vegas. We work with luxury travel brands to bring together marketing strategies that drive measurable results.

From your perspective, what is the benefit of having an in-house digital advertising solution at Neat Digital?

JP: Using an in-house digital advertising solution saves us time and money. We can plan and launch campaigns quickly without spending a lot of time communicating with multiple vendors or providers. Beyond the time it saves, our agency sees a fair amount of cost savings by running the campaigns within our own solution.

For your clients, what kind of strategies and tactics do you use?

JP: For the luxury travel brands we work with, they are looking to reach a very specific audience. Therefore, we look to leverage targeting tactics that allow us to have more control over the audience we are targeting. We use a mix of site list targeting, third-party data, and retargeting within our digital advertising campaigns. If available, we always try to incorporate first-party data of email lists or past visitors to use CRM onboarding.

How has Choozle helped you execute your campaigns and strategies for your clients?

JP: Luxury travel clients aren’t looking to target the masses. They are looking to reach very specific audiences that are affluent niche audiences. Choozle provides much better third-party data segments and tactic options than we’d find through advertising solutions on social media platforms or Google.

How have these strategies helped improve your campaigns and performance?

JP: Being able to target specific audiences in our campaigns allows us to drive results throughout the funnel. Using third-party data puts these affluent people into our marketing funnel and allows us to use retargeting to remind people to sign up. As a result, we see a higher click-through rate through ads we run through Choozle than ads we run on social media platforms.

Check out this blog for further digital marketing best practices for the travel and hospitality industry.

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choozlechat: What Data Genomix learned from 2020 digital political advertising

Choozle — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 10:54:43 +0000

Welcome to the other side of political advertising, where we look back at the 2020 election cycle to learn and improve for the next one.

Looking at the numbers, digital advertising was huge. Kantar Media originally estimated $1.2 billion would be spent on digital. But we expect the estimate will soon be increased to about $1.8 billion. Roughly 15.3 percent of that spend will go toward digital, and 69.0 percent will go to TV.

What else did we see, other than the obvious spending increases? OTT took center stage this cycle but has some growing up to do. According to Nielsen, since quarantine living began, total hours spent with CTV devices are up a whopping 81 percent year-over-year. That increase equates to nearly 4 billion hours of use per week.

To better understand what we can learn from digital political advertising in 2020, we sat down with Mitch Wohl, Client Success Manager at Data Genomix, to better understand how they put together digital advertising strategies for political races.

Let’s start with an explanation of your role at DataGenomix.

Mitch Wohl, Client Success Manager: At Data Genomix (DG), we offer our data-driven digital marketing solutions in two ways: Self-serve (SaaS) and managed service. My role at DG in Client Success is to execute the managed-service side of the business. Through doing so, I build client relationships and oversee project deliverables from the digital marketing campaign execution to post-campaign reporting. We focus on cross-channel digital marketing strategy for client campaigns, working with campaign managers, partners, candidates themselves, and everyone in between.

For today’s chat, I’d love to dig into your digital advertising strategies for political races. What worked this election cycle?

MW: One of our major successes for this year was the cross-channel, hyper-targeted approach that my team strategized and executed. We focused on reaching voters one-to-one, where they spend their time online, from social media, banner ads, digital video, connected TV, and just about any other web-connected medium. In addition to finding the right people, we also focused on sending them the most relevant messaging. In multiple instances, we made data-driven decisions from polling results and message testing (both of which we execute in-house) to understand and refine the best possible creative and messaging. Our use of relevant messaging and targeted voter audiences across multiple channels resulted in a superior win rate in the 2020 cycle.

What kind of response and results do you see as a result of these digital advertising strategies?

MW: Generally speaking, we saw very positive movement from our digital approach. From the strategies we put in place, we delivered ad campaigns that resulted in increased voter awareness, turn-out, and movement in the right direction for our clients. These efforts resulted in the passing of ballot measures and the election of candidates. This election season we attributed a win rate of 76 percent across campaigns to our cross-channel approach. Every campaign is on a limited budget, and we had clients in the country’s most expensive media markets, places where conventional TV or billboards were not a smart investment. We utilized a highly sophisticated digital approach that achieved results, on budget. In the digital landscape, our years of experience, robust data-driven approach, and place at the forefront of emerging platforms separate us from the competition. The positive response we received not only from our advertising efforts but also from happy clients was a measurable form of success in this election cycle.

What are some of the challenges you faced when implementing digital advertising in the 2020 election cycle?

MW: Political advertising gets more and more complicated every year. As industry experts, we know what it takes to run political ads online. A challenge can be helping our clients understand the various policies or restrictions, which are often different if you are talking Facebook vs YouTube vs banner ads, and so on. We created clear documentation and guidelines so that our clients could easily understand the differences between each channel, enabling us to run political ads through every possible digital medium.

How do you think political strategies will change after this year?

MW: While I think it’ll be similar to 2020, we’ll need to adapt to the changes in political requirements for 2021. As we all witnessed, Google and Facebook can turn political ads off on a whim, with no clear date on which they will return. For that reason, we have to be very innovative and ensure we can roll with what is thrown at us. While our placements might not look the same in 2021, we can still utilize person-based digital advertising strategies across multiple channels, largely enabled by our patented marketing technology.

What political advertising strategies or tactics are you hoping will continue after this year?

MW: Simply put, the low threshold to entry in order to run digital ads has truly advanced our American Democracy. No longer do you need to spend tens-of-thousands on cable TV buys or direct mail in order to get your message out. Online ads enable campaigns and causes of all sizes to speak to their constituents. I am very worried that if there continues to be unreasonable blackouts and restrictions on digital political ads, that only those campaigns with a significant war chest of funds will be able to reach voters. This is the real crisis. All of the platforms have ensured proper ad transparency (often above TV or direct mail). The majority of “misinformation” comes from people’s personal posts or groups, not from paid ads. But Twitter, Facebook, and Google are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We will work hard to ensure that campaigns of all sizes can reach their voters.

What is one thing you wish you knew at the beginning of the campaign?

MW: Timing is important. I have personally learned a lot about the timing and process to build audiences, supply creative for vendor approval, and finally, get ads live across the various channels. The team at Choozle has always been super helpful in all of these areas. So, I guess I wished I would have better understood each step of the process, but any time I was unsure a Choozle support representative was there to help.

Any final thoughts?

MW: We’re grateful to the whole Choozle team. Their platform and expertise enabled us to be very successful in our 2020 general election campaigns.

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Exploring DOOH advertising with Hunter Phillips | choozlechat ep. #18

Choozle — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 11:16:40 +0000

In this choozlechat podcast episode, we chatted with our Director of Partnerships & Strategic Solutions, Hunter Phillips, about digital out-of-home, or DOOH advertising.

We cover:

What DOOH advertising is
How DOOH advertising fits into your marketing strategy
What DOOH capabilities are available within Choozle
And lots more

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts, and see below for key takeaways.

Key takeaways

Do you want to explain what digital out-of-home is?
Digital out-of-home refers to any media that’s displayed in environments viewable to the general public, such as digital billboards, screens found in businesses, shopping malls, and other highly-trafficked locations. Today, digital media can be purchased programmatically. Often, you’ll hear the acronym DOOH, and then specifically for programmatically-bought digital out-of-home, it’s PDOOH. There you have more acronyms to add to your ad tech catalog. By purchasing programmatically, it’s providing advertisers with an even more efficient and cost-effective access to this type of inventory.

How do you see programmatic digital out-of-home fitting into overall marketing strategies?
Digital out-of-home is a great higher-funnel tactic to support awareness goals, but it’s also been proven to be very successful in amplifying and improving the performance of other digital campaigns like display, search, and social. A couple of years ago, Facebook actually conducted a study with a French advertiser that showed a 50 percent increase in likeliness to purchase when Facebook ads were complemented with out-of-home advertising. Additionally, you’ll see some larger brands using digital out-of-home as a means of testing messaging strategies and coordinates with an ad recall study just to help inform creative adjustments before they open it up to other channels and really make a larger investment in the campaign. So, there are a lot of applications here. But, I think the biggest thing is that you view it as a complementary service, particularly for higher funnel brand awareness stuff. In my opinion, it also just adds a legitimacy factor to the brand itself. If you’re up there with big names, like your Coca-Colas and Nikes, now that same inventory is available to smaller advertisers because it can be purchased programmatically.

Do you want to go into some of the capabilities provided by Choozle as part of our digital out-of-home offering?
Yeah, first and foremost, the biggest draw to me as far as the capability goes is just the accessibility and scale through our partners. We have access to almost half a million screens across North America. This includes all different venue types, much more than just traditional digital billboards. But like you said, it includes shopping mall kiosks, screens at gas stations, golf courses, waiting rooms, bars, and restaurants. It’s an incredible opportunity for scale. We also offer highly granular, location-based, and venue or screen type targeting, as well as the ability to layer on more high-level consumer and demographic data based on mobile location data for over-indexed areas, for certain demographics. Currently, we’re offering it as a fully-managed service without any campaign management fees. It’s a great opportunity to dip your feet into this new channel, have our team and our partners really take on the management side of things, and get a stronger understanding of how this fits into your overall digital marketing strategy, how it can complement the other channels that you’re executing, and really just explore this new channel and see the benefits of it firsthand.

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