Attention has been growing for how ad tech can target users across various devices by looking at the “moment” the user is in. While this is not a new technology and mainly just a spin on how ad tech sells themselves, it has grown recently in popularity. Major advertisers like Taco Bell have taken advantage of this, which has spurred blogs like Ad Week to cover it in more depth.
So what is a “moment”? Aki Technologies, the relatively new ad tech startup that was part of the recent Taco Bell campaign, refers to them as “mobile moments” and tracks consumers' phone activity and data. Aki claims they can target ads based on specific behaviors like the app a consumer first uses when they wake up, their most used apps and the time of day a user takes a specific action.
Google refers to them as “Micro-Moments” and has this to say about them “Mobile has forever changed what we expect of brands. It's fractured the consumer journey into hundreds of real-time, intent-driven micro-moments. Each is a critical opportunity for brands to shape our decisions and preferences.”
Essentially we are looking at a deeper understanding of what a user does, not only online, but specifically with their mobile device, which is becoming more and more an integral part of daily life. We now have the ability, as marketers, to take advantage of this to drive consumer behavior. Ad tech companies are enabling us with the tools to decipher the best way to approach each user on a one to one basis, crafting a customized experience that will best resonate with that individual.
This starts with identifying moments that a brand wants to insert themselves examining all parts of a consumer journey. From here we can begin to understand a consumers needs during each moment, using context to insert the brand at the right time. At all points in the consumer’s journey, it’s important to optimize and take an in-depth look at how the consumer is interacting and responding in the moment we have targeted. And of course, like all things digital, measurement is a vital part of a moments campaign.
With the ad tech industry pushing this technology more now than in the past, and with major players like Google branding this form of targeting for themselves, it will be interesting to see how brands and marketers take advantage of it.