testAuthor: Dstillery

Soak up the sun and plan a great travel campaign

Posted on May 31, 2024 by - Trends

As the days get longer and the sun shines brighter, we’re ready to make waves this summer at Dstillery. 2024 is expected to see a record-breaking 4.7 billion air travelers globally, up from the previous record of 4.5 billion in 2019. This uptick represents an opportunity for programmatic advertisers. Summer 2024 is not only a great time to capitalize on the traveling trend but also adapt and reorient your campaigns for a new adventure in the coming cookieless advertising landscape.

According to Google’s latest cookie deprecation timeline, cookies will go away in the first half of 2025. Brands and their agencies should consider expanding test budgets for solutions to reach travelers now and in the future as the cookie is retired. What’s out there? Fear not, explorer. We’ve identified a few solutions to help your summer travel campaigns run wild and free.

ID-free® Targeting. Okay, you’re right. We’re a bit biased in bringing this up, but let’s face it – we’ve got the only behavioral targeting solution without IDs on the market, and we’re proud to promote it. Our ID-free technology represents a paradigm shift in programmatic advertising by prioritizing performance and user privacy. Predicting the best impressions for a brand without knowing the user’s identity reshapes the landscape for advertisers seeking effective, privacy-safe targeting. It’s a vital tool for marketers looking to maximize their reach across inventory regardless of whether an ID is present.

First-party data. First-party data is more relevant than ever as the ability to target with cookies phases out, and it’s crucial for mid to lower-funnel campaigns. Embrace your first-party data and weave it into your campaign! Use it to seed your Dstillery Custom AI model, targeting inventory with ID-free technology or targeting users with 24-hour User Scoring technology, letting you expand beyond your known audience.

Use all available targeting solutions in your campaigns. Travelers who opt out of user tracking, today with cookies or in the future with alternative IDs, are just as valuable to your brand. Use all the tools available to reach your best customers. Your portfolio of solutions should include alternative IDs, contextual and ID-free, giving you a diversified, complete approach. 

Seeking the Perfect Solution

All great journeys have a destination. Whether you’re traveling to Italy this summer or trying to get your best customers to go, there’s no shortage of searching for the best routes, places, and pit stops along the way. We know that identifying the best keywords for search-powered models is a significant pain point for travel marketers.  Often, this is due to the general, often vague nature of single or common search keywords or phrases. The basic idea is that seeding your model with brand-centric search terms and long-tail search keywords and phrases allows you to understand a potential customer’s intent without identifying them with cookies. Simple, brand-specific search keywords, usually single words, are great for starting a campaign by casting a broad net. 

One major benefit to utilizing Custom Search Lookalikes is that they help to identify the search terms and phrases that are the most relevant for your brand and campaign goals. Custom Search Lookalikes aren’t strictly built to target individual keywords; they can be utilized to discover and action on the phrases that people use when searching for, discovering, and making decisions about your brand. Painting the picture using precise numbers, 41% of business and 60% of leisure travelers steer their decision compass based on information unearthed from online research built on a mixture of basic search terms and phrases.

For example, suppose you are promoting tours and activities in Tokyo. In that case, you will most likely try to rank for keywords like “tours in Tokyo” or “best tours in Tokyo” to drive as much traffic as possible to your website. Those keywords will be pretty common compared to a phrase, such as “best sushi tours in Shibuya, Tokyo,” which will draw more relevant visitors and be easier to rank for, resulting in higher conversions. 

Leveraging our advanced ID-free technology and data from a 2 million+ opted-in panel, our Custom Search Lookalikes gain unparalleled visibility into the digital behaviors of millions of users. We can determine where these users frequently visit online when searching for specific keywords. Our patented ID-free technology extends this user understanding to all websites. It assesses and ranks every ad impression based on its likelihood of reaching individuals actively searching for brand-specific keywords.

Your Destination Awaits

Custom Search Lookalikes specifically tune to your audience’s intent. This includes devices within our de-identified opt-in panel actively searching for your brand’s keywords. The solution effectively targets them to guide them further down the marketing funnel and brings the value of search keyword-based targeting to your summer travel campaigns. Using OpenAI embeddings for search queries from the largest search engines in the world in our panel data, we can identify the most relevant search keywords and phrases tailored to each audience brief. This allows us to create brand-specific keyword and search phrase clusters tailored to your brand and campaign goals. 

So now that you’ve found the missing piece of your campaign solution, kick back and enjoy the summer breeze, maybe even a cool beverage. Forget the guesswork and rest easy knowing that your campaign uses cutting-edge AI to find your best prospects with the best key terms and phrases. Custom Search Lookalikes gain privacy-safe visibility into the digital behaviors of millions of users, including their search and site visitation behaviors. The best travel campaigns will use all of the tools at a programmatic buyer’s fingertips. Building a campaign that powers programmatic inventory solutions with search behavior data is a strategic and savvy way to maximize your campaign budget. Who knew it could be so easy?

Who cares about Google’s cookie timeline?

Posted on May 1, 2024 by - Cookieless, Trends

On April 23, Google delayed the deprecation of 3P cookies to 1Q 2025 due to concerns raised by the UK’s CMA (antitrust authority) and ICO (privacy authority). The delay itself is not terribly surprising, and the fact that it was only shifted by one calendar quarter does not seem material.

Nevertheless, and predictably for an industry as large and diverse as programmatic advertising, reactions in the marketplace have ranged the full gamut, depending on the commentators’ perspectives.  

The Google delays have become the story

Some skeptics have said with great conviction and a certain amount of schadenfreude that this delay is not the last and that there will inevitably be more. Maybe many more. 

At the extreme, some have embraced the idea that the series of delays indicate that full cookie deprecation from Chrome will never happen. These absolute denialists tend to be people and companies with a vested interest in the status quo, reliant on 3P cookies, unprepared for change, who would prefer that it never happens. Their opinion reflects their fears. 

Meanwhile, many journalists who cover Google and adtech make light of it, with quips about cookies crumbling or not. For them, the story has evolved beyond the ultimate demise of cookies and implications for the industry; it has become the story of ongoing delays. 

While these articles are clever and amusing, they in effect validate the skeptics’ views by focusing not on the impact of signal loss, but on Google’s struggle to actually make it happen.

The genie is out of the bottle

There is also a growing cohort of adtech companies who dismiss the continually shifting timeline as irrelevant. Many companies have been developing innovations inspired by the threat of cookie deprecation since early 2020, many of which have value propositions that go beyond just filling the gap left by cookies.  

These emerging solutions are now genies that are out of the bottle, and cannot be put back due simply to delays. Indeed, whether cookie deprecation ever actually occurs, new competing technologies will chip away at different functions cookies have served.  

At Dstillery, we clearly identify with this perspective.  Our ID-free® technology uses AI to do behavioral targeting without any user tracking at all.  It is 100% privacy compliant, with no consumer tracking or profiling via cookies or any other IDs.  What’s more, ID-free performs 2.5X better than cookie-based user targeting, and delivers significantly greater scale.

Whether or not cookies ever go away, we see a bright future for ID-free. 

Some of our clients are already using it as a standalone alternative to user targeting, with superior performance, scale and privacy.  

Some are using it to complement their user targeting, boosting reach while adding campaign efficiency.  

Some are using it to replace crude and less effective content-based contextual targeting.  

And some clients in the healthcare industry and in Europe are using it today to address privacy-based user targeting constraints that are particular to their industry and geography.

We have a lot more ID-free innovation in the pipeline, as do many of our adtech peers.  Our clients and partners are hungry for more.

While it is still highly uncertain, it seems safe to assume that cookies will be retired from Google’s Chrome within the next 12 months. But maybe not. Who cares? 

The genie of innovation is out of the bottle. The industry ought to focus less on debating Google’s timeline and more on the benefits from the wave of adtech innovation that it has inspired.  

Patient-centric healthcare: insights from PHM Healthfront

Posted on April 26, 2024 by - Healthcare

PHM Healthfront was an inspiring and thought-provoking conference centered on the patient as the key focus of every discussion. There was so much to do in a two-day event featuring 18 industry-focused sessions with popular health, media, and culture voices. 

I had a chance to see actress, model, entrepreneur Brooke Shields, actress, producer, advocate, and author Gabrielle Union-Wade, Commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League Jessica Berman, as well as the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Sasha Colby. These women energized the time between sessions with their stories about life, health, their experience as women, and the delicate nature of what it means to do business in healthcare. 

The Healthcare Journey 

In healthcare marketing, recognizing the deeply personal and emotional nature of an individual’s healthcare journey is key. Each person and their condition is a different path and story with a wide range of emotional weight. For marketers, we must continue to build a genuine connection between our messaging and media. Without connection, brands risk making statements that don’t resonate with patients during a vulnerable period in their human experience. 

I keep thinking about PHM President Amanda Palmer’s statement during her panel discussion with Brooke Shields: “Healthcare is the biggest community you never chose to join.” It’s true; we find community in our moments of vulnerability. From pre-diagnosis to seeking treatment, to treatment and recovery, each brand must craft a deeply customized message that truly resonates with the people they’re trying to reach. At Dstillery, we value our relationship with our brand partners, as it helps us understand where their clients are coming from in their healthcare journey. This insight allows us to thoughtfully craft audiences and strategies that are aligned with the sensitive nature of the patient journey. 

Using AI for Personalization to Keep the Patient at the Center of the Experience 

Another panel I loved was between Matt Turner, the Deputy Editor in Chief of Business Insider, and Stephen Farquhar, the CEO of Publicis Health. Dstillery is the leading AI targeting company, so any panel about AI instantly caught my attention. In today’s healthcare landscape, integrating AI for personalization places patient experiences at the front of marketing strategies. Stephen noted: “Using real-world data is not theory.” We encourage our partners to harness audience data to seamlessly unite media and content, crafting tailored messages that resonate with specific and diverse patient segments. 

Dstillery leverages real-world data from ICD-10 codes to uniquely personalize each model to the condition or specialty we are trying to reach. By grounding our approach in real-world data, we can make informed decisions about your campaign strategy and create campaigns that speak to patient needs without infringing on privacy or coming off as cliche. 

Knowledge, Permission, and Placement

It’s no secret that healthcare marketing is quickly shifting across the United States. Navigating these shifts requires a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the healthcare space. Healthcare marketers possess invaluable insights into patients’ barriers, seeking to navigate the seemingly overwhelming “data chaos” to establish effective targeting strategies. During a panel, Loren Grossman, Global Chief Strategy Officer at Publicis Group, said: “Imagine knowing your next customer as well as your best customer.” 

That’s the vision for him and his solution team. This is exactly how our healthcare solution, Custom Patient Targeting powered by ID-free® technology, works. ID-free is a first-of-its-kind targeting technology that delivers scale and privacy for advertisers’ programmatic ad campaigns without knowing anything about the user. The technology uses AI to learn from browsing patterns detected in de-identified opt-in panel data. You can think of it this way: Fueled by content data, ChatGPT understands the words in a sentence. Fueled by digital journey data, ID-free understands every website visit. With this understanding, ID-free scores and ranks every available impression, finding the best impressions for a brand. 

Patient-Centric Strategies

At the heart of these efforts lies a focus on the patient, with the ultimate goal being to facilitate awareness of necessary treatments and care. Success hinges upon cultivating a continuous testing and learning culture, particularly with innovative targeting products. As regulations continue to play out in courts, it’s important to have a proven plan. Dstillery’s Custom Patient Targeting offers a unique approach that eliminates the need to navigate complex HIPAA, NAI, or DSP regulations that protect patient data and privacy. Reach your best audience for any health condition – without compromising privacy or performance. Pete Groves, Senior Managing Director at Publicis Sapient, declared, “AI is going to raise the bar for all of us and how we work together.”

I think that’s true. At Dstillery, it already has. Let’s figure out how we can raise the bar on your next healthcare campaign.

Ready for a cookieless future? Check out our ID-free® testing guide

Posted on April 17, 2024 by - Cookieless, User Guides

With cookie deprecation and cookieless testing top-of-mind for many media buyers, here is a quick overview of the best ways to set up and test Dstillery’s ID-free®, the only behavioral targeting solution without IDs. 

ID-free is a first-of-its-kind targeting technology that delivers performance, privacy, and scale by predicting the value of an impression to a brand without knowing anything about the user. This patented technology uses AI to learn from browsing patterns detected in de-identified opt-in panel data, ultimately answering the question: When someone visits a site, how likely will they be interested in your brand’s message?

Audience Definition

The first step is defining your target audience in your display, search, or CTV campaign. If you have used an ID-based Dstillery audience in the past and found it successful, you can simply request an ID-free version of the audience. If you haven’t, you can use a variety of signals such as first-party data, search terms, URL lists, or our catalog of thousands of pre-built audiences to seed your ID-free model.  

Campaign Setup

One of the most common pitfalls we see with testing is not allocating enough budget and time to allow the model to perform and optimize. We recommend three months for a proper cookieless test to truly understand how the audience performs against your KPIs. Beyond awareness metrics, ID-free excels in cost-per metrics such as:

  • Cost per action (CPA)
  • Cost per click (CPC)
  • Cost per complete view (CPCV)
  • Cost per site visit (CPSV)
  • Return on ad spend (ROAS)

In terms of budget, we recommend a $30,000 monthly budget in media – split out evenly between ID-free and ID-based versions of your audience – without highly restrictive inclusion lists and operating all hours of the day. These campaign parameters will allow you to truly understand and optimize your ID-free campaign with the most information available throughout the testing period.

Make the Most of Your ID-free Test

Our experienced Client Success teams can help you through all the details of creating a proper A/B testing framework. Beyond campaign parameters, to properly assess ID-free performance, efficiency, and scale, we recommend an A/B testing approach by running both ID-based and ID-free audiences in parallel. We recommend creating one line item for your ID-based audience and one for your ID-free audience. When creating these line items, try duplicating them rather than creating them from scratch. This ensures that various settings in your line items are identical, except for the singular variable (ID-based vs ID-free audience) you are testing. Also, since our industry still uses third-party cookies for attribution KPIs, we recommend targeting trackable Chrome inventory for both line items. 

Bonus Test to Assess Performance Outside of 3rd Party Cookies

Using conversions measured on trackable inventory, Dstillery can model the conversion rate per site across all domains specific to the campaign. Using this data, we can understand the performance of impressions delivered on inventory with no trackable identifiers. To learn more about this measurement, read our case study with Tombras, where we drove 2.5x more conversions than traditional cookie-based targeting.

Ready to test ID-free? Amazing. It’s available on every DSP. Contact one of our representatives to get started today.

Product updates: what’s new?

Posted on April 9, 2024 by - FAQ

If you’re looking for the latest Dstillery product updates, you’ve come to the right place. Scroll for the latest updates, features, and announcements.

Never miss an update when you subscribe to our product emails.

April 9, 2024
ID-free® Key Product Updates

New year, new ways to harness our ID-free targeting technology. Since last year, we’ve added some big solutions to our ID-free-powered product suite:

  • Predictive Bidding: Instead of making buy or don’t buy decisions, Predictive Bidding chooses the best price to pay for your best impression. Available exclusively on The Trade Desk.
  • Dstillery CTV: Eliminate the time-consuming hassle of manual PMP setup and breakthrough cross-device limitations. Powered by ID-free, Dstillery CTV has precision and is customized for relevance.
  • Custom Search Lookalikes: Leveraging ID-free technology and data from a 2 million-plus opted-in panel, Custom Search Lookalikes gain unparalleled visibility into the digital behaviors of millions of users. Custom Search Lookalike audiences assess and rank every ad impression based on its likelihood to target individuals actively searching for brand-specific keywords.

January 24, 2023
ID-free® Registered Trademark

It’s official! We’re so proud to announce that — after a lengthy 20-month process — ID-free Custom AI® is now a registered trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. 

That makes Dstillery’s ID-free a patented AND registered cookieless targeting solution. 

Give ID-free a try and start extending your campaign reach today.

September 1, 2022
ICD-10 Codes for Custom Patient Targeting

Custom Patient Targeting, Dstillery’s privacy-safe patient targeting solution for healthcare brands, now accepts ICD-10 Codes as seeds for the model, making targeting specific conditions even more precise.

Healthcare clients that don’t have access to first-party data can now leverage Dstillery’s access to Real World Data (RWD) to seed their models.

Click here to get started with Custom Patient Targeting.

July 26, 2022
Deal IDs for ID-free Custom AI

In partnership with Microsoft (formerly Xandr Curate), our Deal IDs offer a flexible, easy-to-activate PMP option for your next ad campaign. We custom create your deals in the Xandr supply exchange, mimicking the same privacy-safe targeting that we apply directly via API, and send them your way for activation.

Deal IDs — which connect curated and desirable inventory from your SSP to your DSP via a unique ID — can be used today and in the cookieless future.

Click here for our Deals ID FAQ.

July 20, 2022
UID2 for ID-free Custom AI

We’re excited to launch one of our most requested features. Your custom model just got even more custom. You can now send us your brand’s first-party data as UID2s, giving you another option for seeding your ID-free Custom AI model. Enjoy the same ID-free behavioral targeting, now with more options.

Magic or innovation? Experience both with Audience Brief Genius

Posted on December 13, 2023 by - Audiences

Your AI-powered audience discovery companion

Dstillery’s Audience Brief Genius is not just a tool; it’s a time-saving, stress-reducing partner designed to streamline the audience selection process for your campaigns. Fueled by cutting-edge technology from OpenAI, this advanced AI tool instantly transforms your audience brief into a curated list of audience recommendations, saving you the headache of manually searching for new audiences when your campaign needed to start yesterday.

Personalized audience recommendations in a snap of a finger

We’ve all seen it before. A brand’s unique persona — detailed in a nuanced audience brief — unjustly minimized into a handful of 3rd party audiences.

For example, take this food brand’s persona: “Adventurous and thoughtful food consumers, who like to make choices good for the environment and their bodies, while also prioritizing getting the most out of life. They are willing to sacrifice a little taste for a healthier alternative. They are typically in a household without kids and have the disposable income to spend on unique food experiences.“

This might get manually translated into three audiences: ‘Foodies’, ‘Healthy eaters’, ‘Household income $150K+’. While this selection is acceptable, with the advancements in AI and LLMs, there has to be a better way.

With Dstillery incorporating OpenAI’s technology that powers ChatGPT into Audience Explorer, we finally have a way to understand and quantify the relationship between the audience persona and specific audience segments like never before.

Feels like magic

When AI just works, it feels like magic. And when you use our new LLM-based search feature in Audience Explorer, you might just feel this way, too. So how does it work?

Getting a bit into the technical details, Dstillery leverages OpenAI’s embeddings to create a method for establishing a meaningful relationship between an audience brief and Dstillery’s audience taxonomy.

First, Audience Brief Genius takes an audience brief as an input, which typically includes descriptions of interests, demographics, affinities, and other relevant information. OpenAI’s embedding technology is then employed to convert this input into high-dimensional vector representations — a fancy way to say number sequences that are easy for computers to understand.

Next, these embeddings are compared with Dstillery’s entire audience taxonomy, which has already been translated into vector representations similar to the audience brief.

By analyzing the vector similarities, we can identify the audience segments with the closest similarities to the text in the audience brief. This approach not only saves you time from manually selecting audiences, but also ensures that your campaigns are using the audiences most aligned with your audience persona ultimately leading to a highly targeted, more effective ad campaign.

Audience Explorer, powered by OpenAI, now enables advertisers to finally bridge the gap between your brand’s unique audience personas and targetable audience segments. With Dstillery’s audiences found in every major DSP, and made available as user-based segments, PMPs, and custom bidding algorithms, activating any of these audiences is just a few clicks away. 

Click here to use Audience Brief Genius.

A new approach to CTV advertising

Posted on November 15, 2023 by - Connected TV

Connected TV advertising reaches viewers that traditional TV advertising simply cannot access anymore. Last year, CTV streaming represented a record-breaking 34.8% share of total television consumption in the U.S., a 22% year-over-year rise in streaming volume. As more viewers have shifted from traditional cable to streaming services, advertisers understand how important CTV ads are to reach their target audiences.

At Dstillery, we also understand the importance of reaching your best audiences on CTV, so we developed an ad-targeting solution dedicated to CTV. 

We’ve taken the Dstillery display audiences used by 85% of the Fortune 100 brands and brought them into the world of CTV. Whether you’re looking for more relevance, scale or ease-of-use, our CTV solution is meticulously crafted with your needs in mind.

What makes our CTV solution different?

By combining the prowess of our patented AI technology with a deep understanding of your audience’s online content consumption habits, Dstillery’s CTV solution allows you to match your audience to the most relevant genres and networks for them. This simplified yet AI-powered process eliminates the time-consuming hassles of manual PMP setup and breaks through cross-device scale limitations.

Here’s how we do it.

1. We work closely with you to understand your campaign objectives and the audience you want to reach. With this in mind, we determine the best seed and build your model.

2. We run your model against our patented AI to identify your audience’s most relevant web content. Then, the AI bridges the gap between web content and CTV genres and networks to find the most relevant inventory for your audience. 

3. In the final step, we craft your PMP(s) by working in tandem with our SSP partners. This activation method streamlines the targeting of your brand’s most relevant CTV bid opportunities.

Embrace the power of AI

By creating a new approach to CTV, Dstillery is helping advertisers build thoughtful, data-driven audiences. With Dstillery, navigating the CTV advertising landscape has never been easier.

Questions? Let’s chat.

Dstillery’s 21st patent awarded for Audience Explorer

Posted on September 15, 2023 by - Uncategorized

It’s official! Dstillery is excited to announce our THIRD patent for our Audience Explorer Tool, and 21st patent overall. This patent addresses Dstillery’s Artificial Intelligence and/or Machine Learning Systems and Methods for Evaluating Audiences in an Embedding Space Based on Keywords.

What is Audience Explorer? It’s Dstillery’s proprietary tool to find and understand our portfolio of over 9,000 audience segments. Easily search by popularity or keyword, or use our SmartSearch to find relevant audiences for your campaign. In Audience Explorer, you’ll be able to see the estimated audience size, the industry vertical/category, the scale of the audience, and the platforms that it is available for activation. 

Ready to use Audience Explorer? Check it out here!

A+ back to school campaign tips

Posted on July 27, 2023 by - Trends

back to school

Can you believe that we’re just weeks away from cracking open the school books again? Or are they iPads now? MacBooks? Some new technological device that your child has a nickname for that cost you at least a thousand dollars? Regardless of how your child or teen is learning, this is a great time for marketers to heat up the frying pan on Q3 and Q4 retail marketing campaigns focused on clothes, technology, and retail home goods. Unlike your child going to kindergarten and suddenly becoming a high school graduate, marketing campaigns happen and conclude in the blink of an eye. Let’s dive into some campaign trends and ideas to help your brand graduate into a next-level education-based marketing campaign. 

Navigating Back to School Campaigns in 2023

Back to School retail has now been delineated into two segments: Back to School and Back To College. Each segment has its own unique identity and retail traits that marketers can adapt to in their campaigns. In 2023 Back to School-based marketing campaigns have the opportunity to capitalize on $41.5 billion of retail spend. That massive number has grown substantially over the physical-to-digital education material transition over the last several years. For these non-collegiate students, the typical American home is set to spend roughly $890 per student in the household; a jump from $830 last year, which is likely tied to economic inflation.

The Generation Alpha demographic is especially notable in their influence on retail trends as they are the first generation experiencing school in a totally digital format. Generation Alpha rose from the pandemic and have become known as a demographic that is highly focused on inclusivity, sustainability, and social impact. In fact, 50% of parents of Generation Alpha students choose sustainable back-to-school products whenever possible. 

At this point, you might be asking, this demographic information is great, but where can I apply this to my programmatic campaign? We have the answer. Did you know that Alphas are heavily influenced by YouTubers who make shopping or gaming content? These students aged 6 to 16 want to purchase items displayed by their favorite digital personalities and YouTubers. This is a huge opportunity for Display, Video, and CTV campaigns focusing on electronics, clothes, and shoes, which are the three most prevalent areas of Back to School spend.

Opportunities for advertising and brand partnerships within video games such as Roblox are also massively influential as popular gaming reaches 24.2 million daily active users under the age of 13, and brands such as Forever21 and the Gap have opened virtual storefronts within the game. Even Fortnite has partnerships with Nike, Adidas, and other popular brands such as Marvel and Star Wars. 

Back to College Marketing Campaigns

Retail is even more of an opportunity for Back To College, especially with regard to higher-value retail items such as tech and home goods. Back to College Shoppers are projected to spend about $1,367 per college student this year, not including tuition or room and board. Collegiate-level retail shoppers are projected to spend a massive $94 billion in 2023, setting the pace for retail holiday spend in the months following. 43% percent of those spending more than the previous year say it is because they need more new gear, up from 32% in 2022. This tracks consumer spending for college students as nearly six in 10 parents are willing to splurge for the right reasons, like treating their child, self-expression, or better quality. 

While still motivated by digital trends, college students are less interested in following YouTubers for product advice and more interested in traditional retail trends and reputable brands as they mature in their identities and the marketplace. Brands like Apple for electronics, IKEA for furniture, and popular clothing brands will not have to do much work to attract college students to their products but they will have to appeal to them through campaigns that reach across various identity demographics.

Students will solidify their relationships with known brands in the physical-to-digital education material transition if they haven’t already, so campaigns that focus on awareness and consideration should be top of mind for technology retailers. Regarding retail goods such as furniture, college students gravitate towards affordable and easy-to-move items. One recurring expense for college students is home goods in the bedroom and living room which tracks with the traditional lifestyle of a college student moving from dorm to apartment to house. Campaigns promoting on these goods should focus on affordability, ease of integration into a student’s lifestyle, and eco-friendliness. 

Embracing the Digital Shift

It’s an exciting time for brands to rework their traditional marketing approach toward students. While we’ve acknowledged that generations are becoming increasingly online, 2023 is the first year when we have a new, fully tech-integrated generation starting school and cementing the transition away from physical learning materials. In the future, Generation Alpha will become a further template for marketers to analyze and understand as they experience their digital lives and advertising from birth, throughout the education process, and in daily life.

For more information on how to level up your back-to-school campaigns this year, contact us.

A data-driven dive into summer travel trends

Posted on July 6, 2023 by - Trends

summer travel data

The Sun hangs high in the sky. You’re working from home. You’re working in the office. You’re daydreaming about being on a beach in Greece or maybe you’re keeping it simple and considering a summer camping trip in Wisconsin. Do people still camp? Are domestic flights more expensive than international? What does the data tell us about the way Americans are spending their summers? We’re going to find out in this summer travel-themed blog that uncovers the web of data that links us all and expands with every passing moment.

2023 Travel Data

In the summer of 2023, 40% of Americans have intentions to travel and 44% are willing to travel more than once. 61% of travelers are keeping their travel plans within the United States, 16% going domestic and international, and 6% solely international. That’s a huge segment of Americans just waiting to pack their bags and jump on a jet or into a minivan and head toward their final destination. On average, 40% of travelers are most often taking trips for outdoor recreation like hiking or snorkeling, a family-related event, or exploring U.S. national parks. It’s important to get ahead of the curve with your marketing plans and look to capture these seasonal travelers with strong awareness and consideration campaigns built around the globetrotting mindset. Curious about what that looks like? Let’s explore some ideas together.

Crafting a Targeting Travel Campaign Strategy

Travelers have one main thing in mind when starting the ideation process of where to go: getting out of the house. Every journey begins with a destination. You can best capture your targets by considering the places they’re likely to go and then accenting your campaign strategy around the adjacent components to their destination. Nearly 39% of American adults say they intend to road trip more than 250 miles from their home this summer. For example, if a family is looking to travel to the beach, it’s best to start with broad strokes like Beach Vacation Enthusiasts, Waterfront Activity Participants, Luxury Hotel Guests, and Boat Enthusiasts to lay the groundwork for your audience optimization. These larger scale audiences are the backbone to a successful campaign because they represent the pillars of your audience’s initial identity and what it will come to be. In the early stages of your travel campaign planning, don’t be afraid to take big swings to bring interested parties with big tentpole audiences.

Leveraging Data to Enhance Consideration Campaigns

As you start to develop more insights into the characteristics of these sunbathing, wave surfing, and beverage-drinking targets, if it’s available, blend in your first-party data to begin to watch these broad stroke audiences evolve and learn more about their intentions. This is a vital part of any consideration campaign as it allows for your campaign to take a defined stance against your direct response goal. By working closely with our data partners and utilizing partnerships with opt-in data providers, Dstillery can weave domain data into our Consideration Solutions and help further map customers not solely based on assumed interest but also by their digital journey and online intentions. Consideration campaigns are where you begin to explore intention – where do these people exist online? What and where are they researching topics based around your brand?

Optimizing Consideration Campaigns for Maximum Results

We may know that they are Beach Vacation Enthusiasts, but perhaps they’re already local to an area like the American Southeast, so we can sharpen by adding in audiences like Myrtle Beach Trip Planners, Florida Atlantic Coast Planners, Beach House Second Home Owners, and Beach Supply Shoppers audiences to hone the signal in your consideration campaign to focus on users with the highest intention to deliver results. Their adjacency to the subject of your campaign based on their internet habits is that it improves Dstillery Considerations Solutions’ effectiveness. It thereby creates a microcosm based on your customers and their digital experiences and serves them ads that will ideally push them toward a real-world action.

This is all to say that campaign planning begins similarly to planning a vacation – with broad strokes that become more and more defined over time until you reach your destination. Nearly 42% of American adults say they intend to travel more this summer than last, so you’ve got to be ready to capture their attention and craft around it with turnkey targeting solutions. Reach out to Dstillery and build tactical, intuitive campaigns and strategies with our data experts today.