Article: 5-min Read
Why Target’s betting on shopper intent as the future of media.
Claudia Ahrens
Director of Product Management overseeing Audience, Identity, Privacy and Programmatic initiatives at Roundel
Director of Product Management overseeing Audience, Identity, Privacy and Programmatic initiatives at Roundel
What if one day you didn’t have to wait for shopper decisions to inform future media? And what if you could anticipate the right customer needs to enhance that relationship in a meaningful way?
At Roundel™, we understand Target guests better than anyone. It’s the reason Target created a retail media network. And our relationship with—and respect for—Target guests has enabled us to create media solutions that feel like helpful wayfinders for them. In fact, more than two-thirds (72%) of Target shoppers say ads on Target platforms remind them of a product they need or prompt them to purchase something they want.1
Before we start debating what’s next in e-commerce, let’s look at what we’re doing today to reach our audiences.
We believe that building this respect into a stronger understanding of customer intent will make advertising feel like magic. Because we’ve seen how an element of unexpected joy can help build loyalty. So, how does Roundel plan to leverage shopper intent to bring value and ease to the multichannel shopping experience?
While a lot of media is not yet based on intent, one area where we’ve advanced is search. For instance, a major toy brand wanted to add new buyers to its loyal customer base. They came to Roundel to reach non-buyers via non-branded Google search terms. There were two challenges they wanted help with: access to real-people data and granular campaign data.
Our solution was to find Target guests who might be interested in this toy brand but were not already actively searching for toys from that brand. To do this, the toy company reached Target audiences searching for relevant, specific terms not directly associated with the toy brand. (In this case, “toys for my grandkids” was a top hit.) And it used Roundel’s ability to optimize investments against the highest-performing guest audiences.
The results? Roundel’s closed-loop measurement let the toy company tie campaign performance directly back to actual sales, in-store and online, while making the company’s brand part of an important consumer moment. This time, that meant $18+ ROAS when calculating total brand sales over identified media spend.
This belief informs our current perspective and future roadmap. At Target, “guests” are what we call our shoppers, and we think of ourselves as their host. Like any good host, it’s our job to delight guests by elevating their experience at every touchpoint. This mutual respect and understanding inspire us to innovate. Roundel reaches audiences based on more than 150 million guests’ anonymized IDs, which has already reduced our reliance on third-party cookies well before the 2023 deadline.
Our first step toward this goal is Roundel™ Kiosk, a reporting platform that gives you a near-real-time view of actual audiences’ actions. With this tool, you can make more informed decisions on future campaigns by tying media spend to actual sales.
And not just solutions grow sales. As we continue to push the envelope for what’s possible in media, measurement will play an increased role in moving us closer to truly understanding shopper intent. Then we can leverage these new solutions to serve Target guests better and deliver value and ease.
Media is often based on past decisions and behaviors, but by focusing our innovations’ efforts on intent, we can start to understand what shoppers want or will want.
Director of Product Management overseeing Audience, Identity, Privacy and Programmatic initiatives at Roundel
Claudia joined Target in 2016. In her current role at Roundel as Director of Product Management overseeing Audience, Identity, Privacy, and Programmatic initiatives, she’s accountable for leading aspects of the operating system, building revenue generating products, and ensuring the product portfolio has data privacy protective guardrails in place.
Claudia joined Target in 2016. In her current role at Roundel as Director of Product Management overseeing Audience, Identity, Privacy, and Programmatic initiatives, she’s accountable for leading aspects of the operating system, building revenue generating products, and ensuring the product portfolio has data privacy protective guardrails in place.
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Source
1Roundel Channel Synergy Survey 2021.
