At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, Omnicom made significant strides in the realm of search automation by unveiling a strategic partnership with Amazon Ads. This collaboration, announced specifically for Amazon's Marketing Cloud clean-room solution, marks a significant expansion of accessible search data from the previous 13 months to an impressive five years. The move aims to provide Omnicom Media Group and its Flywheel unit with first-to-market access to this extensive data in the U.S., with plans to extend availability globally.
This enhanced dataset will flow through Omnicom's integrated platform, Omni, which has already been instrumental in facilitating previous collaborations, including a recent search deal with Google. The expanded access allows Flywheel clients to examine five years' worth of consumer search history, thereby helping brands to adapt their strategies based on evolving purchasing patterns and conversion rates.
Megan Pagliuca, Chief Product Officer at Omnicom Media Group, explained the importance of this development, stating, “This capability, which [Flywheel] has really led the development of, is both going to empower our ability within Amazon’s sponsored ads, so essentially Amazon search capability, but also more broadly.” She emphasised the relevance of scale in leveraging biddable advertising, countering the prevalent belief that scale does not confer an advantage in this domain.
Patrick Miller, Co-founder of Flywheel, discussed the significant shifts towards e-commerce that have occurred since the onset of the Covid pandemic, stating, “Amazon’s become more and more important to brands, including CPG and others not considered endemic to the e-commerce giant.” He highlighted notable statistics, including that 70% of customers in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector purchased from a single brand on Amazon over a four-year period. Such insights afford brands the ability to evaluate the merits of investments in search or display advertising over a prolonged timespan.
The expansion of the dataset is also viewed as a substantial advancement for advertisers. Paula Despins, Vice President of Measurement, Analytics and Data Science at Amazon Ads, said, “Extending a brand’s available lookback window from 13 months of their Amazon purchase signals to five years enables advertisers to more deeply understand key customer journey metrics.” This capability allows for a more nuanced analysis of customer engagement throughout a product's lifecycle.
Haleon, a client of Omnicom known for its health and wellness brands such as Advil and Flonase, perceives this new data capability as a pivotal "huge unlock." Kelly Kavanagh, Senior Director of Integrated Marketing and Media at Haleon, noted the historically challenging task of quantifying consumer long-term value. The five-year data lookback will enable Haleon to better understand consumer interactions and growth over time, facilitating more informed strategic investment choices.
Clarissa Season, Chief Experience Officer at OMG's Annalect, further explained the integration of data into business processes. “The idea is to integrate [the information] into the full workflow," she remarked. Season highlighted the necessity of applying consumer insights not only in the context of media purchasing but also in planning processes, ensuring a data-driven approach to activating consumers and measuring the consequent impact for future optimisations.
These advancements in AI automation and data utilisation illustrate the ongoing evolution of business practices in the digital era, particularly as brands increasingly turn to sophisticated advertising solutions to harness consumer insights.
Source: Noah Wire Services