The very best marketing campaigns grab their audience by the gonads — but it takes data to figure out exactly what goes into reaching out and touching someone. Join GPS technology giant Garmin for insight into turning analytics into powerful creative that gets bottom line results.
Under global digital advertising and social media manager Carla Meyer, Garmin has grown from a one-person social media team to a ten-person global digital advertising department — and, in the process, has become a data-powered creative force.
“We had a good creative foundation,” Meyer says, “but creative wasn’t being informed by digital and social data.” They now are able to create assets specifically and custom-designed for every platform, medium, and audience they target, rather than repurposing TV commercial or print ads.
“That makes all the difference in the world for us and our campaigns,” says Meyer. “For us, creative is a really important variable. It’s the creative that people engage with and that drives the feelings or emotion and connection to our brand and so really, creative is the variable that’s driving the success of the campaign.”
Data is not just the guiding force for their creative choices but sometimes the spark, she says. “I’m able to look at it and say, ‘What are we getting, what is the connection, and how do we make it better?”” she explains. “How are we engaging our audiences — is it meaningful? Is it impactful?”
The analytics behind their upper-tier fēnix 3 multi-sport watch campaign showed that their initial hunch — that the watch would appeal to the serious and seriously athletic rugged sports enthusiast — was a case in point.
“Through running this campaign, we actually found that we had a very large audience in the business segment — a more casual fitness enthusiast, who definitely cared about the look and the style of the watch,” Meyers says. “From the ad data, we were able to identify an entirely new audience of people that we weren’t necessarily looking for at the outset but that loved the watch — higher-end businessmen with the expendable income to purchase it.”
They adapted their creative strategy throughout the campaign funnel in response, Meyer says, adding a new angle alongside the colorful, high-energy outdoor lifestyle footage. “We did more fashion-focused ads, less outdoorsy rugged; more close-up product shots in a fashionable, more business environment and it worked well for us.”
Their campaign was two-part, with video ads on Instagram building awareness and Facebook carousel ads driving conversions. When Meyer says ‘it worked well for us,’ she’s referring to the fact that the adapted campaign generated a 9.7x return on ad spend — slightly ahead of their hoped-for 2x goal.
This kind of success is all about breaking down silos. “So we’re getting creative at the table with strategy, with planning, and media buying, and our partners,” says Meyers. “Looking at all our campaigns this year as we’re building out, and bringing creative closer in the process, is really helping us drive future ripples too.”
Want to know how to start, and where? Join our interactive round table discussion with GPS technology giant Garmin and advertising technology leader Undertone for insights into leveraging the dramatic power of data-driven creative.
Don’t miss out!
In this VB Live event, you’ll learn how to:
- Find your customers online and how to reach them
- Refine targeting and creative with data
- Leverage creative as the key variable in digital marketing
- Reach out to influencers, the new gatekeepers
Speakers:
- Carla Meyer, Global Digital Advertising and Social Media Manager, Garmin
- Eric Franchi, Co-founder and SVP Business Development, Undertone
Moderator:
- Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat
This VB Live event is sponsored by Undertone.