4 min read
The truth of the times during the COVID-19 pandemic is that brick and mortar stores nationally are suffering. The numbers are coming in and they are confirming these struggles. The preliminary data says that 1 in 5 restaurants could close permanently across the nation. This is not just a problem for mom and pop restaurants/storefronts either, of the 125 retailers tracked on the S&P Global Ratings, roughly 15% are at risk of defaulting on their debts. So with all that said, what can we do to help drive foot traffic to brick and mortar businesses?
GPS Location Data Based Audience Targeting To The Rescue
Joel Cox, Strategus’s EVP of Innovation & Strategy, knew that the behavioral data to target consumers who are “willing and able” to leave their home to visit brick and mortar establishments exists today post-COVID, it is just questionable when it comes to scale, taxonomy, cost, accessibility and verification. So, the Strategus innovation team approached the problem from a different angle.
By leveraging an aggregation of multiple data sources traditionally used for location based confirmations of visitation and connecting them into Strategus’s proprietary audience targeting platform we could see that it was clear that certain device IDs were still exploring the physical world with medium-to-high frequency and certain were not. Bingo!
But, that’s not enough, you can’t just trust this data blindly, we need to verify it… After much brainstorming and late nights, the team had a eureka moment. The key lied in fitness tracking, wearables and mapping.
Apple has been publishing their mobility data since the COVID 19 pandemic has started to help the world understand people’s behaviors have changed in terms of movements, map requests, etc. by every major city. We were able to take our device ID focused data by market that we aggregated and cross reference it with Apple’s mobility data and the trends were almost spot on. So now, we know the device ID behaviors we have access to match the confirmed global trends.
Brick And Mortar Advertisers Can Target Customers Who Can Actually Visit Their Storefronts, Restaurants, Etc.
That is correct.
Strategus is proud to say that we are one of the first providers who can activate an entirely new proprietary layer of audience targeting that we are calling “Emerging From Home” to all Strategus clients. This audience targeting technology works in tandem with all other audience targeting parameters we offer and attribution technologies, think of it as a baseline criteria or qualification layer to narrow the pool. You can still apply all other targeting parameters including geo, behavioral, demographic, time of day and technographic.
This is a monumental game-changer for all brick and mortar establishments that are looking for an edge in these trying times. This ensures no precious advertising dollars are being wasted in one of the most trying economic times of human history. This will save businesses, jobs and is a key evolution for brick and mortar businesses in “The New Normal.”
There are also some other databases that Strategus has integrated into its solution to add even more layers of “Willing and Able” audience targeting to help brick and mortar businesses weather this storm.
Please, if you want to know more about our Emerging From Home targeting data, please reach out to our experts. We are happy to answer any questions you may have and want to help any brick and mortar establishment get through these trying times.
We can get through this time together, Strategus is excited to be able to help.