The entertainment industry (and the world) went off script with the onset of COVID. Now, after more than two years of enduring the global pandemic, consumers are prioritizing entertainment options more than ever. Friends and families are getting together to attend sporting events, movies, and concerts, as well as play video games and stream content together at home.
As they step out to attend live events, consumers need to know and trust their entertainment brands. 2022 is about providing relevant content and developing personalized advertising experiences for customers, wherever they are along their purchasing journey.
Watch our recent virtual fireside chat, “Entertainment Industry: Discussing Entertainment Trends and Advertising Strategies,” to learn about some of the top ad strategies for brands in the entertainment industry.
The event featured Veronica Oviedo, senior marketing manager for the NBA team San Antonio Spurs Sports and Entertainment, who was joined by Marc Vásquez, digital director of Strike Marketing Group, a full-service marketing agency in Houston, Texas, with many entertainment clients such as Cirque du Soleil, Houston Symphony, the Houston Sabercats, and Houston Dynamo. The panelists discussed how they pivoted during the height of the pandemic, how to be successful at reaching consumers across their purchase journey, and how Quantcast can help entertainment clients reach the right consumers.
Here are three key takeaways from the conversation. Be sure to watch the discussion in its entirety to hear the specifics of how the Spurs and Strike Marketing Group were able to align their advertising to shifts in consumer behavior.
1. Keep up engagement with customers by providing relevant content
Whether we’re in the midst of a pandemic or at the doorstep of a possible recession, it’s important to consistently engage with your customers and build up those relationships as much as possible. Entertainment brands are building engagement with their consumer base by communicating empathy, understanding, and support. Veronica pointed out that the Spurs used their mobile platform to consistently engage with their customers, provide them with entertainment, and take their mind off the pandemic. “What the pandemic really did was force us to move to a mobile platform quicker than what we had planned on doing,” said Veronica.
Marc added that with Strike Marketing Group, they focused on developing positive media campaigns for their clients during the pandemic. The goal was to maintain engagement and brand awareness with their clients’ customers. One example of staying in communication with their clients’ communities was in the case of a zoo, where they helped develop virtual programming so that visitors could feel as if they were actually there. Marc pointed out that with their clients, there is definitely an increased desire to go out and attend events, so it was important to develop messaging that was in line with that desire. For instance, one of Strike Marketing Group’s clients was Cirque du Soleil, which created a tagline on their website declaring “The Intermission is Over” with links to shows that tickets were available for purchase. With Quantcast’s data, Cirque du Soleil was able to identify potential customers on their website who were showing an intent to purchase. By leveraging this customer intent data and pushing out offers to these customers, they were able to increase sales and their ROI.
2. Use analytics to segment audiences and drive personalization
In the past, if someone wanted to purchase a suite, they had to indicate their interest via the regular Spurs website, and a sales rep would call the person and walk through the different suite options. Now, the Spurs have an entire website dedicated to purchasing suites; a Spurs fan can pick the game, the type of suite, and the experience they want. Now that they have the Spurs Suites website, they were able to work with Quantcast to run full-funnel advertising campaigns to drive sales for both single game tickets and suites, as well as dynamic campaigns for Spurs merchandise. Given that the Spurs games have resumed, they now have a comprehensive view into their customers using Quantcast data; they know how many games they have attended, which specific games they went to, and what they purchased in both the arena and in the fan shop. Armed with this information, the Spurs are able to segment their audiences better and provide them with content they know they will be interested in. Veronica said the data provided by Quantcast is “allowing us to be able to market smarter and give our audiences exactly what they want, versus what we may think they want.”
3. Leverage Quantcast to understand audience behavior and reach audiences at scale
The Spurs run full-funnel campaigns for both single-game tickets and luxury suites. They leverage machine learning to segment their audiences and to discover new audiences. As Veronica explained, “What Quantcast does really well for us is helping us find similar people to those who have already converted. It’s important for us to continue to find new people that have similar behaviors, so we run separate, full-funnel campaigns for basketball suite bookings, single-game ticket purchases, and merchandise.” One of the insights Veronica discovered is that people who have a certain household income were not purchasing suites, but rather were purchasing single game tickets for a certain order value. Using this data, the Spurs rolled out a campaign that specifically reaches consumers that have higher order values, versus those who typically have an average order value. Veronica explained that “having Quantcast be able to dive into our data, help provide recommendations, and allow us to continue to do A/B testing has been helpful.”
Marc added that with his clients, “Quantcast is able to provide us with really valuable insights when we’re looking at optimizing campaigns.” He stressed that it’s important to ensure that they have very strategic impressions so that they’re reaching the right people who are more likely to convert.
Learn more
Be sure to watch the entire Entertainment Industry fireside chat here. You can also read about how other brands such as Audacy, IMVU, and Secret Cinema are using Quantcast to better align advertising to customer shifts in behavior, reach consumers across their purchase journey, and acquire new customers.