NEW YORK: Programmatic advertising can play a flexible role for companies like 1800Flowers.com, the florist and gifting group, where sales are heavily influenced by major events throughout the year.
Chris Taylor, vp/marketing at 1800Flowers.com, discussed this subject – which is an increasingly important topic for marketers – at Internet Week 2014 in New York.
And he reported that Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day constitute the three key annual bellwethers for the firm, and thus determine its advertising tactics.
"For Valentine's and Mother's Day, pretty much everybody has a need to buy flowers, whether they choose to buy them online or not," Taylor said. (For more, including the skills that modern marketers need at 1800Flowers.com, read Warc's exclusive report: Getting to know the modern marketer: Operational insights from 1800Flowers.com.)
"So, there, it's really about reach, and making sure you're in front of people, making sure everybody's aware of your product versus competitors, and it's not as much about specific targeting."
The company's advertising requirements, however, change "dramatically" immediately after Mother's Day – and it is here that programmatic assumes a vital role.
"We go from everybody being a potential flowers customer to very, very few people being potential flowers customers. How many times does anybody really buy flowers?" said Taylor.
"Where programmatic really shines is that it keeps our hands on the steering wheel, on the buttons, to be able to say, 'Look, we're going to go from trying to reach as many people as we can in the United States on Sunday, May 11th to on Monday May 12th be very, very focused and very, very targeted' really without missing a beat."
Many of the subsequent primary purchase occasions are then based around anniversaries, birthdays or for friends and family members who are unwell.
"So it becomes a very, very specific effort to target those people for birthdays, for get well, for any other everyday type occasion," said Taylor.
Chris Taylor, vp/marketing at 1800Flowers.com, discussed this subject – which is an increasingly important topic for marketers – at Internet Week 2014 in New York.
And he reported that Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day constitute the three key annual bellwethers for the firm, and thus determine its advertising tactics.
"For Valentine's and Mother's Day, pretty much everybody has a need to buy flowers, whether they choose to buy them online or not," Taylor said. (For more, including the skills that modern marketers need at 1800Flowers.com, read Warc's exclusive report: Getting to know the modern marketer: Operational insights from 1800Flowers.com.)
"So, there, it's really about reach, and making sure you're in front of people, making sure everybody's aware of your product versus competitors, and it's not as much about specific targeting."
The company's advertising requirements, however, change "dramatically" immediately after Mother's Day – and it is here that programmatic assumes a vital role.
"We go from everybody being a potential flowers customer to very, very few people being potential flowers customers. How many times does anybody really buy flowers?" said Taylor.
"Where programmatic really shines is that it keeps our hands on the steering wheel, on the buttons, to be able to say, 'Look, we're going to go from trying to reach as many people as we can in the United States on Sunday, May 11th to on Monday May 12th be very, very focused and very, very targeted' really without missing a beat."
Many of the subsequent primary purchase occasions are then based around anniversaries, birthdays or for friends and family members who are unwell.
"So it becomes a very, very specific effort to target those people for birthdays, for get well, for any other everyday type occasion," said Taylor.
Data sourced from Warc
