LAS VEGAS — The “too-late target” is a perennial problem of the programmatic age. And it’s particularly cringeworthy when an ad tech professional experiences a targeted ad after they have already purchased the item they’re subsequently seeing on their digital screen.
“If I go into an electronic store to buy a new laptop or a new iPad, and then I complete that purchase, I don’t want to be pummeled with acquisition ads from that retailer on the enterprise side,” Adam Skinner, managing director, Retail Media at Epsilon, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Groceryshop. “I want them to know that I’ve made that purchase.”
Knowing not to “pummel” a consumer with post-purchase ads for the item they just bought takes data collaboration, Skinner noted. The process allows ads to shift from acquisition to retention or upsell messaging, eliminating poor customer experiences created when enterprise campaigns remain unaware of retail media conversions.
Harmonizing enterprise and retail worlds
Bringing together enterprise paid and owned assets with retail media networks under connected identity infrastructure creates more efficient optimization across both environments.
“The harmonization of the enterprise, paid and owned assets, as well as the retail media, bringing those worlds together under connected identity and AI really powers the ability to get more efficient optimization and efficient usage of those media assets on both sides,” Skinner said.
When these systems operate independently, brands waste media spend targeting customers who have already converted through retail channels, while missing opportunities to shift messaging toward complementary products or retention strategies.
Real-time audience optimization
Data collaboration sets up audience segment movement in near real-time, preserving customer experience by preventing incongruent messaging as consumers transition between life stages or purchasing patterns.
“You may move out of one audience segment and move into another. That really needs to be as real-time as possible to preserve the customer experience,” Skinner said. “You don’t want to be sending the wrong message as a marketer to your customers.”
A working mother, for example, should receive messaging aligned with her current audience segment characteristics rather than outdated targeting based on previous behaviors no longer relevant to her situation.
Omnichannel identity
Connected identity infrastructure promotes true sales lift and incrementality measurement across offsite, onsite, and in-store campaigns that would remain fragmented without data collaboration.
“When you’re having connected identity at the core, you are able to see that full omnichannel experience across all of those channels,” Skinner said. “If there was a campaign that was executed offsite and then you had an onsite campaign and then you also had an in-store campaign, connected identity and data collaboration allows for that true measurement across those channels.”
This unified measurement capability unlocks insights that media activation alone cannot deliver, enabling brands to understand how different touchpoints contribute to conversion throughout the customer journey.
Keeping collaboration privacy-safe
Clean rooms provide privacy-safe environments where brands and retailers can collaborate on measurement without compromising data protection standards, while maintaining the ability to measure media effectiveness accurately.
“Data collaboration allows brands, retailers, and partners to collaborate in a privacy safe environment,” Skinner said. “But it also allows them to effectively measure that media as well.”
This balance between privacy protection and measurement capability addresses regulatory requirements while enabling the attribution analysis brands need to optimize spending.
Scale through data overlay
Combining brand first-party data with retailer data in clean room environments creates more efficient targeting and better customer experiences while expanding addressable scale and reach.
“By bringing the data together from a retailer and a brand or even a brand collaborating in a clean room environment with their 1-P data [first-party] and being able to then overlay those audiences with a retailer’s data, you’re getting a more efficient and effective use of that 1-P data,” Skinner said.
“Targeting the right customer on the right device with the right message at the right time really comes into play when you have that data collaboration working in harmony together,” Skinner said. “That really enables better targeting and better customer experiences, and then ultimately better ways to measure.”