Adapt to a Changing Landscape with Social and Digital Out-of-Home

In an ever-changing landscape for advertisers, reaching consumers with relevant messaging is more important than ever. In a recent webinar, Quotient’s social and digital out-of-home (DOOH) team leaders Janna DoddRob Reinfeld and Norm Chait explored why these easy-to-pivot channels are critical for brands to remain nimble and responsive to shifting marketplace conditions. 

 

 

Consumer Behavior Is Changing

Though the pandemic prompted dramatic changes in consumer behavior, what remains to be seen is how the grocery-retail landscape will evolve in response. Whether it was switching retailers, experimenting with new brands or adopting eCommerce services, more than 75% of consumers have changed their shopping behavior since early 2020. Some of these changes have likely left a permanent mark on the typical grocery shopping experience. Notably, nearly 60% of consumers turned to online grocery during the pandemic and plan to continue using it at the same frequency moving forward. 

With the increase in eCommerce, there’s also a shift in when people are buying their groceries. Today’s consumer is shopping while working, with a 32% increase in the number of online grocery orders placed between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. during the workweek in 2020. 

eCommerce isn’t the only place where people are buying their groceries. Many consumers are adopting a hybrid experience in which they toggle between in-store and online services. In early 2021, 73% of consumers purchased online and 93% of consumers purchased in-store. When breaking down the age demographics, 66% of Gen Z, 61% of millennials, 52% of Gen X and 37% of baby boomers prefer to shop in-store as well as online. Consumers are also shopping around, with 83% of shoppers regularly visiting between four and nine chain stores for groceries. 

So, with all of these consumer behavior changes in mind, how do advertisers ensure that consumers are purchasing their brand at their designated retailer? 

Join the Conversation with Social

Like many other forms of technology, social media usage saw considerable growth during the pandemic: Today’s consumer spends an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social platforms. Whether shoppers are looking for recipe content, makeup tutorials or household cleaning hacks, many people consume their content over social. 

For brands, social media represents the opportunity to join the conversation in a way that is still flexible and easy to pivot. Advertisers and retailers alike can switch messaging, calls-to-action and user journeys as market conditions change. Social also offers the ability to leverage authentic content from trusted, relatable influencer voices and reach precise audiences with relevant messaging thanks to Quotient’s exclusive shopping data. 

Furthermore, social is evolving as video content grows in popularity. The average user consumes 16 hours of online video content per week. For brands, that represents a massive amount of time where they have people’s full attention, and running ads through these feeds is an effective—and measurable—way to reach those consumers. Sixty-one percent of consumers rely on video content when selecting a brand and 96% say the pandemic increased the amount of video content they consume, making video the next great frontier for advertisers to explore on social. 

 

Reach the Right Consumers with DOOH

Social is not alone; DOOH also experienced a boom during the pandemic. With numerous environments to activate in, DOOH is yet another tool that brands can use to amplify their campaigns and connect with consumers. Whether it’s a mall, doctor’s office, gym or pharmacy, venue-based out-of-home (OOH) screens enable brands to reach decision makers as they’re engaging in various day-to-day activities, often while they’re physically inside the retail environment. 

Since early 2020, 73% of consumers reported noticing OOH on their shopping trips and 61% said they are more likely to purchase a product after seeing an OOH ad. And while eCommerce continues to grow, almost 95% of people are still making regular shopping trips to brick-and-mortar retail stores. Before the pandemic, DOOH ads reached six out 10 grocery store shoppers. Today, that visibility has increased to nine out of 10 consumers. Though behavior has changed, brands now have an even better opportunity to connect with shoppers as they’re making purchase decisions. 

Providing advertisers with yet another access point inside major grocery retailers, Quotient recently added new in-store audio inventory to our OOH platform, empowering brands to influence consumer decisions at the point of purchase. Because this technology can now be purchased programmatically, brands can leverage Quotient’s exclusive purchase behavior data to target and ensure ads are served to the right screens at the right time and the right place. 

To learn more about how you can use social or DOOH to connect with consumers today, contact us at communications@quotient.com.