CampaignUS: Former Sysomos CMO Mark Young to lead marketing at GSTV
By Laura Stein | CampaignUS
GSTV – formerly Gas Station TV – has hired industry veteran Mark Young to serve as its first CMO amid a major growth period for the national video network.
Young, who most recently worked with GSTV as a consultant on its go-to-market strategy for 18 month, previously served as the CMO of Sysomos. He also held senior marketing roles in the past at Microsoft Advertising and ClearChannel.
As CMO at GSTV, Young will lead all marketing, communications and brand creative for the company.
Over the last year, GSTV has seen great momentum – from expanding its premium content partners with the likes of Chedder, ChiveTV, So Yummy, Blossom and LiveNation to launching Octane, its insights and analytics service.
According to the company, GSTV has 93 million monthly unique views; reaches one in three Americans per month; and receives more unique monthly users than Spotify. It also says that more people between 18 and 34 years old in the U.S. watch content on GSTV than go to Starbucks each month.
"I’m thrilled to join GSTV during a time when the company is experiencing tremendous momentum with its brand and agency clients," said Young in a statement.
He added: "Advertisers are seeking innovative solutions beyond traditional media buys to engage consumers and deliver on business outcomes, and its important our message and value as a true business partner stands out."
Adweek: What McDonald’s Acquisition of Dynamic Yield Means for DOOH and Personalization
Brands are able to target their consumers are every touchpoint feasible
By Sean McCaffrey | Adweek
Last month, McDonald’s announced its largest acquisition in 20 years. Yet the $300 million purchase of Dynamic Yield was notable for another reason: It legitimizes outdoor as a two-way medium for ad messages and delivers personalization at scale.
Simply put, McDonald’s, long a leader in outdoor advertising, has signaled that the space will be used for creating a dialogue between consumers and brands. The purchase lets McDonald’s vary its electronic display of items and DOOH network for walk-up or drive-thru customers based on the weather or consumer demand. For any franchisee who has ever mused that a product or service would be a perfect day for certain promotions then this purchase gives hope that they might be able to switch to promoting ice cold drinks when the temperature rises or hot chocolate on inclement days. But more importantly, it also connects that in-the-moment message to all other data-driven consumer engagements in both paid media and in-store messaging.
Too often we miss the true value of innovation in the moment and only grasp more foundational shifts in hindsight. It’s those brands and agencies that execute on such tectonic shifts that can accelerate their growth and gain share even in mature markets. With this acquisition, we’re seeing that singularity, the moment that will most matter in years to come, right now with DOOH and its impact on marketing strategy and investment outcomes.
The evolution of DOOH is clearly more than signs becoming screens. The marketer’s goal of presenting the right message to the right person at the right time is now in reach. DOOH networks have broadcast-level scale and bring added benefits of location-based context, dynamic creative and sequential messaging on the literal consumer journey. Such an objective has long been elusive for the $8 billion U.S. out-of-home market but now appears to be imminent. As with previous advertising innovations, marketers who embrace the technology first will reap the rewards.
It’s time to consider the truly available digital audience nature of the classic OOH channel.
Such promise is one reason why digital out-of-home spending has continued to outpace all other buying methods and is a bright spot in the menu of advertising options. This is bigger than dynamic screens; it’s the birth of digitally-enabled communication between brands and shoppers. It’s time to consider the truly available digital audience nature of the classic OOH channel.
But let’s face it: OOH has traditionally suffered from the one-way nature of its communications. A billboard can’t hear or recognize you, so the consumer has a natural advantage over it. Or, alternatively, it’s been judged only by physical placement. But what if OOH is now considered more broadly as every consumer touchpoint outside the home including in-restaurant placements? The location and physical context still matters that’s OOH’s most core value.
Current state-of-the-art technology can already vary messaging based on the time of day or the weather, but now, connected audience data drives true convergence of mobile, location-based and addressable audience marketing inclusive of DOOH.
Such sentient displays inject consumer intelligence into even routine interactions so a store rep can suggest a new or offbeat menu item that a shopper might like because it’s based on knowledge of their buying patterns. Suggesting the right offer, news, entertainment or insight to a targeted group of consumers in real-time drives results.
Imagine how such technology would work if adapted to pretty much every consumer. It would know better than to promote a new drink to someone who never varies from his standard purchase but could reap incremental sales from someone who’s open to such a suggestion. That’s the promise of cognizant out-of-home: It’s an intelligent system that knows both the store’s selection and the frame of mind of the visitors at moments in time.
Of course, such types of listening can be abused, but ideally it augments a human staffer who merely sizes up a consumer based on their age, sex and other signs of purchase intent to make a well-thought-out recommendation.
The best marketers have always understood the power of OOH. It offers massive canvases, broadcast scale, location-based targeting, unavoidable messaging and truly special creative opportunity. The past several years of Cannes Lions OOH winners have shown the new promise of the medium such as Google, Twitter and others. But many have also ignored the medium due to perceived limitations like targeting, measurement, attribution and true integration with overall media and creative strategy in the digital age.
The potential magic in this acquisition is the realization that all consumer touchpoints are an opportunity to personalize at scale.
Such is the evolution of DOOH, which can bridge the gap between out-of-home brand communication and a consumer’s personal profile. In the process, OOH is meeting consumers in the digital audience age.
Ad Age: GSTV’s Sean McCaffrey on the Data Behind Marketing at the Pump
GSTV President & CEO Sean McCaffrey sits down with Ad Age President & Publisher Josh Golden to discuss how bringing brands to the pump delivers value for its global advertising network.
Watch the full interview here.
QSR Brands: Digital Video Can Work Harder to Reach Your Customers
By Sean McCaffrey, President and CEO of GSTV
As hungry consumers hit the road this summer, QSR brands are spending big on digital video, particularly mobile, with high expectations of heavy foot traffic to match their spend.
According to a recent study by IAB, 59% of marketers’ digital ad budgets are allocated to digital video already and more than half of buyers plan to increase spending by 53% during the next year.
I’m amazed at how often I hear brands discuss with confidence their strategic media plans for reaching travelers. Often, they over-index on digital video, particularly via mobile, as the solution.
Millions of dollars later, the question remains: Are consumers seeing your videos in the context that best serves your restaurants? There’s a good chance they won’t be in the right place at the right time— or in the right mindset— to make your ROAS the best it could be.
Consider that some 70% of mobile device usage now takes place in the home, and those that do watch on-the-go are 17% more likely to skip mobile video ads (source: Pew; Magna and IPG Media Lab).
Though we may be experiencing the so-called Golden Age of Television, Millennials — who spend more money eating out than any other generation — aren’t watching when it needs to count for your QSR. Reporting from Restaurant Marketing Labs shows that trend will only balloon as the mobile-first, short(er) attention span Generation Z will surpass Millennials to become the most influential market by 2020.
So, where does that leave mobile video in terms of reaching on-the-go consumers? Rather than try to motivate a consumer to get off their couch for your new green juice or breakfast sandwich, it’s easier to tempt them on-the-go. But not necessarily always on their phones.
We set out to understand the habits of these consumers through a third-party study by MasterCard and Placed examining the consumer journey following a fuel transaction. Analysis found that within an hour of filling up, fuel customers transact 54% more and spend 46% more at QSR (vs. non-fuel buyers). QSR campaigns on GSTV have driven double-digit incremental lift in store visitation.
Digital video is clearly still popular with consumers, it just isn’t increasing the total time your consumer spends engaged with your brand. Location-targeted ads are the single most effective display advertising strategy for QSRs across online and mobile, according to Mobile Marketer. That study showed consumers were three times more likely to visit an advertiser’s store when they were served a geo-fenced ad nearby.
I always enjoyed marketing expert and author Tom Goodwin’s take on mobile, which is that it’s a behavior, not a channel. Behaviors are highly complex and difficult to track, making mobile video anything but the panacea many believe it to be. It’s an ever-evolving advertising puzzle for QSR. The key is to stay as nimble as your consumers.
QSRs need a more focused model for reaching an increasingly elusive and frenetic target audience. In my view, the best digital video campaigns for the industry will reach key consumers when they’re active, more likely to spend and — most importantly — when they are hungry.
MediaPost: When Is Using A Cellphone Not Mobile Usage?
By Sean McCaffrey | MediaPost
As the penetration of mobile devices reaches near saturation in America, quantitative data alone becomes an inadequate guide as to how to target consumers when and where they have intent to purchase. Advertisers seek newer media formats for reaching consumers, with a renewed emphasis on qualitative data.
With sea change about in data use and media decisions, reaching the right consumer in the right context at the right time is still paramount to driving real business growth.
Some of those new media have actually been hiding in plain sight, among them video advertising at fuel stations and, particularly so, in summer.
According to Pew, some 70% of mobile device usage now takes place in the home with 99% of consumers using devices there every week. Additionally, the two next most frequent places of weekly use are “in transit” (82%) and at work (69%), neither of which may involve a “ready to purchase” context.
These are not surprising research findings, but they highlight the need for more creative and lateral thinking from marketers. That’s particularly so when you realize mobile video consumers are most often watching at home, according to recent research by the Streaming Video Alliance — and those that do watch on the go are 17+% more likely to skip mobile video ads, per Magna and IPG Media Lab. This all makes it even harder for traditional advertising media to reach consumers during the summer months when we’re leading even more active lives.
For advertisers, the situation will get worse next quarter thanks to external factors. Chief among them is the continuing demise in the audience numbers watching more traditional television, which is subject to an even more dramatic seasonal decline in summer.
There is also real pressure on air-time as we contemplate a fall season full of political advertising ahead of the November midterms. Given the requirement for media outlets to squeeze in as much on-air political balance as possible, the cost of other airtime soars, creating a very real trickle-down effect into the summer months. Non-political advertisers will seek better value ahead of September and October.
Increased demand inevitably leads to higher costs — particularly in digital budgets, where 60% of the spend is now in video, according to IAB. These increases come despite evidence that consumers are not spending more total time with video and that millennial consumption of television continues its inexorable decline. What’s more, it is easier today for consumers to curate their own content without recourse to an advertiser-funded media now that free, owned and subscription media are all stealing the other’s lunch.
Where to find consumers with both the time and, importantly, the disposition to engage with brand content and advertising in the summer months, preferably near a point of purchase? The fuel station is a previously overlooked, but relatively obvious, media location. The weekly or twice-weekly fill-up is often a crucial few moments ahead of a grocery or other shopping trip, or journey to an event, QSR stop, picnic or cookout, the beach or any other summer activity.
Brands need to be prepared for the challenges the summer will inevitably bring, whether they’re political or behavioral, or the host of better-known issues like brand safety, fraud or even GDPR; these things will have an impact. The only question you should be asking is, what are you doing to mitigate them? And where is there previously untapped opportunity to find real impact and engagement amongst all the disruption?
The Drum: Four Unexpected, Data-Driven Media Buys For Quickly Boosting Sales
By Sean McCaffrey | The Drum
Of all the topics that come up in my conversations with brands, agencies, media and data/analytics partners, how to quickly boost sales is always a common one. Even though most brands plan their media spending annually, every marketer should have a deep bench of partners they know have a higher likelihood of driving sales without the long lead. Oh, and that can leverage the most relevant data resources on the market.
For brands wanting to know who they can call today to have a data-enriched campaign running tomorrow (or maybe next week), with a degree of certainty that they’ll see some lift, read on.
To hone the list, I’ve put recency in the crosshairs, which means we’re not talking about TV, mobile, social or any of the usual suspects. Why recency? Recency theory holds that ads are most effective when they air “immediately before the time of decision” per Nielsen. Brands shouldn’t overlook recency when considering where to place media, especially if making the sale is their immediate goal.
Paul Macaluso, chief executive at the fast-growing quick-serve restaurant Krystal, told QSR Magazine last week that recency is one of the most important elements of restaurant marketing.
“We need to be in front of people when they’re thinking about food or when they’re hungry. It’s just not TV anymore,” he says. “Certainly not predominantly TV anymore.”
Sometimes the simple answer is the right one. Here are a few to consider.
Intersection’s Link kiosks
With a monthly reach of 44m (Source: Geopath), anyone walking the streets of New York or London has seen a Link kiosk. It’s the sleek digital obelisks that offer beautifully displayed content, free wifi, phone calls, device charging and tablets for local search. These are savvy technologies that are only growing in number.
And given that almost every major retailer, QSR/fast-casual, finance, travel - and so many other business categories - sell in New York and London, Link is a recency goldmine. In these urban markets, you can combine recency with proximity - consider a promotion for financial services. Link makes sense for consumers who are directly outside or blocks away from the institution.
Cinema
Cinemas present a unique option among this list because moviegoers are a captive audience, unable to opt-out. They’re sitting down, noshing, and relaxed because all they’re doing for the next 90 minutes is watching a flick. It’s an opportunity for a brand to say hello and ask for their consideration.
With the evolution of the movie theater to include reclining chairs and alcoholic beverages, consumers may be more likely to arrive on time, snacks and all. And for theaters located inside shopping malls, viability goes up further. Monthly reach is 25m and 15.1m for National CineMedia and Screenvision, respectively (Source: Nielsen Media Impact, Sept 2017).
Walmart’s WMX and Kroger’s ClickList Ad Platforms
You’re on Kroger’s ClickList website, or walmart.com searching for cereal, and a sponsored ad shows up for something you’ve bought in the past with a deal if you buy two. Recency doesn’t get any more recent, and advertising here should be a no-brainer for brands selling, or thinking of selling, in either store.
Why is this media buy “unexpected?” Amazon’s AMS/AMG are so well known at this point; I want to call out Walmart’s WMX and Kroger’s ClickList, newer platforms that have the same kind of advertising options (or will). Various news outlets have reported that Kroger is selling ad units and developing a programmatic platform. WMX, by contrast, came around just after AMS and AMG.
There is sure to be a lot of upside for brands that get in early and develop relationships with these platforms, invest, and learn how to take advantage of them early. Hint for media and advertising agencies: if you can help brands do this, you’ll win. The substantial growth brands have seen on Amazon, and the cottage industry of agencies and media companies developing Amazon-specific service offerings is a clear sign the same is sure to happen for WMX and Kroger.
A significant player in the space, Walmart’s WMX sees a unique monthly reach of 103.3m thanks to Walmart.com traffic (Source: comScore, Feb 2018). Kroger's reach data is not yet available.
GSTV
Self-promotion alert, but here’s why it matters. GSTV is the new name for Gas Station TV, a data-driven, national video network delivering targeted audiences at scale across tens of thousands of fuel retailers (BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon-Mobil, Kwik Trip, Speedway and more). This format reaches one in three Americans monthly, and know from research that people who are fueling up are very often on their way to buy something else. I could go on, but know there are plenty more reasons to consider GSTV.
All of these businesses have access to best-in-class third-party data resources. They offer all the trappings of du jour digital offerings, without the risk that an off the cuff remark from a celebrity will send stock prices plunging.
And, most importantly, they reach consumers at natural times when a purchase is a likely outcome, times when audiences are potentially in a buying mindset. While there are plenty of media formats disrupting consumers at all other times of day, doesn’t it make sense to reconsider the options that aren’t as disruptive?
Thoughtful application of these unique media offerings could mean a big difference for brands who leverage them appropriately. And in a marketplace rife with fraud, brand safety, and so many other issues, it pays to have tools like these at your disposal.
Sean McCaffrey, is chief executive officer at GSTV