🎛️ ABM's pandemic boost

While researching the all-new updated MarTech Intelligence Report on account-based marketing (ABM) solutions, which just launched, we learned about how B2B buyers are engaging with companies in the current environment, and how marketing technology providers are helping those companies turn prospects into customers.

ABM in one form or another has been used by B2B marketers for well over a decade, but rapid advances in the sophistication and accessibility of relevant data – and in technologies that enable ABM – are fueling more widespread adoption of this approach. Other driving forces, which I mentioned at the start, are fundamental changes in the B2B buying cycle — shifts that the COVID pandemic accelerated as events and in-person meetings went virtual.

Digital engagement, Salesforce noted in its “State of the Connected Customer” report, “has hit a tipping point this year, with an estimated 60% of interactions taking place online, compared to 42% last year.” The company expects this trend to become part of the “new normal” post-pandemic. Its survey showed that 80% of business buyers expect to conduct more business online after the pandemic as compared to before.

Read more and download the report here.

Join this hour-long event curated for marketers on July 29 at 12 p.m. ET. Learn how to simplify the personalization process and use resources more efficiently and effectively from special guest Randy Warner of Forrester and also experts from Sleep Number and Dow Jones.

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It seems as though B2B marketers have been stuck with the same ad channels for a while now. But with its data-driven approach to measurement and targeting, the rise of Connected TV advertising has made it a viable third ad channel for those in the B2B space looking to differentiate from the competition. Learn how it’s possible to utilize Connected TV as a performance marketing channel similar to other tried and true methods. We’ll explore everything from targeting in-market B2B audiences to tracking conversions to measure success.

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Cannabis consumer software and services company Fyllo has partnered with Comscore to deliver purchase data and digital demographic data so brands can reach the growing cohort of cannabis consumers. Understanding these users through better data empowers marketers across all categories, not just the cannabis market.

In recent years, Fyllo has assembled a number of media, retail and regulatory solutions around its Fyllo Compliance Cloud, providing ways for marketers in a highly regulated market to reach recreational users of cannabis, as well as users of cannabidiol (CBD) products.

Reaching cannabis and CBD users. This partnership combines Comscore’s demographic data on digital media with Fyllo’s targeted cannabis user purchase data. “This partnership is taking a step toward targeting, addressability in adtech, triggering purchasers, DSPs, and all things programmatic on CTV and other media,” said Ryan Wolin SVP, BD & data strategy for Fyllo Compliance Cloud.

Purchase data that can be combined in a privacy-compliant way with digital media consumption demographics enables more brands, including non-cannabis “mainstream” marketers, to reach this growing cohort through digital channels like CTV. As cannabis products become more widely used, these consumers can be messaged about packaged goods, consumer electronics, financial services or any other category.

Demographics, not stereotypes. Marketers who assume that cannabis consumers are low-functioning “stoners” are missing opportunities to engage with a growing demographic. Consumers use cannabis and CBD products for recreational as well as medicinal benefits. As more states legalize and introduce regulated markets for these products, the behaviors and tendencies of cannabis consumers are taking shape.

According to a 2021 National Cannabis Study by MRI-Simmons, when Cannabis and CBD consumers are compared to US consumer averages, this consumer is:

Why we care: We’ve seen data collaborations emerge as a big trend in digital marketing due to the anticipated challenges surrounding the phasing out of third-party cookies and more stringent privacy legislation. The Fyllo and Comscore partnership might tip the scales for marketers by making contextual targeting possible for a growing cohort market. A “mainstream” CPG or beverage brand is already marketing to cannabis users, they just don’t know it yet. This collaboration allows brands to serve smart campaign messaging and get the most out of their spend by connecting in a more meaningful way.

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In a way, consumers just have too much choice now. With everything at their fingertips — for example, almost all the music ever recorded for a small monthly subscription, and countless thousands of out-of-copyright free books — no wonder that consumers find their niches and stick to them.

There was a time everybody watched the same TV shows at the same time and saw the same billboards driving down the street. There were a limited number of channels to deliver a big message to a big audience. Of course, it’s great to have more channels and a choice in when and where content is consumed, but there’s now such a multiplicity that, for marketers, capturing an audience is like herding cats — thousands and thousands of them.

MarTech Editorial Director Kim Davis described this challenge in a recent appearance on The Radcast podcast.

Watch the clip here.

“We stand with you: What does that mean? It’s simple. It means that we recognize that this is a fight for all of us. Not a fight for people of color against those who aren’t, but a human fight in which everybody stands up against racism. Collectively, we stand together to advocate for change.” This is part of a public service announcement ad management firm Mediavine is displaying in unsold ad space across its network of some 8,000 publishers.