Let’s end the confusion around “people-based marketing” once and for all

This is the latest edition of our “Big Ideas” newsletter, a monthly missive on the larger issues in the digital marketing industry. If you’d like to subscribe, click here.

Hi all,

“People-based marketing.”

It’s a phrase that gets thrown around in our industry too much.

Like such overused stalwarts as “holistic,” “disruptive,” and “synergistic,” “people-based marketing” is being used by companies that don’t actually know what the term means. So let’s end the confusion: a true people-based marketing platform is one in which you can connect people’s digital selves (their mobile IDs, desktop cookies, Connected TV data, etc.) with their real-world selves (PII data that’s ethically sourced).

It means you can follow them from screen to screen, from the sports scores they check at work to the baking show they stream at home. It means you know their age and gender, sure, but you also know they’re shopping for flowers and that the lease on their car is ending.

All of which is to say: you know them as REAL people and value them as such. So the next time your marketing partner purports to be people-based, press them for specifics. (And make sure their data is ethically sourced.)

Here’s what else is going on.

The metrics that marketers deal with are bad

There, we said it. Open rates. CTR. Impressions. While offering bits and pieces of the whole picture, none of these metrics actually tell you that a real person saw your message, engaged with it, and performed the action you wanted them to. We’d like to change that.

Join us for a webinar at 12:30 EST on September 12, where we’ll introduce people-based reporting, a set of metrics that tell marketers the WHOLE story. We’ll show you those metrics in BRIDGE’s Visual Reporting Dashboard, so you never have to be in the dark about your digital campaigns again. Register here.

Heard on the street

Only one-quarter of all digital ad spend ever hits actual people, according to the Association of National Advertisers. This is a problem.

You might be doing everything right at the top of your funnel: running killer social, hitting all your marks on display and mobile and targeting the right folks on Connected TV. But you need to protect the bottom of your funnel, too. The best way to do that is through paid search.

People-based insights come faster when you go with a one-stop-shop.

“Choose your own advertising” isn’t a new concept, as evidenced by Hulu’s Ad Selector. But the practice could have wide-ranging implications if it gains traction on digital.

Some exciting news: we’ve joined the Digital Advertising Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to establishing and enforcing responsible privacy practices in the digital ad industry.

Black Friday is coming sooner than you think

It’s time to start prepping for Fall’s slate of holidays, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and 2019’s end-of-year sales. If you’d like help getting started, head to our custom audience page and let us know.

And if you have a different segment you’d like to reach ⁠— retail shoppers looking for deals, sports fans searching for fantasy football intel ⁠— feel free to contact us.