When West Elm first dipped its toes into video ad retargeting a few months ago, the furniture and housewares retailer set “a pretty solid benchmark” for measuring the outcome. “For us, video retargeting has been extremely powerful,” the company’s VP of Innovation, Luke Chatelain, said in a panel discussion at Beet.TV Leadership Summit titled Outcomes. “I think the crux of the matter is getting that right message, that bigger brand story in front of a unique individual who is trying to find out more information,” said Chatelain.
Accompanying Chatelain in the discussion was Oren Harnevo, the CEO of video marketing technology provider Eyeview, which sponsored the event and has been working with West Elm as it builds out its myriad video offerings.
Noting that West Elm is a successful brand that does no TV advertising, “which is pretty groundbreaking for a brand to be growing so well,” Harnevo talked about the opportunities in personalizing video based on data insights. “They have a lot of different types of consumers and they have a lot of data behind it,” said Harnevo. “They believe in video and they want to tell people about their craftsman work and how they create what they’re selling.”
To Chatelain, it’s not only about selling product but projecting the ethos of the West Elm brand and “help evoke those emotions that really help to drive people to the store and actually help them complete the purchase.”
Asked about video retargeting by moderator Rebecca Lieb, who is an Advisory Board Member at Netswitch Technology Management Inc., Harnevo drew a distinction between traditional display ad retargeting. “In this example, it’s a lot more about just finding consumers that are known consumers to the brand. Most of the ad was still about elevating the West Elm brand,” Harnevo observed. “It’s very different to what we know in display, while still maintaining a super high ROI, which we’re very happy about.”
When the subject turned to the complexities of personalizing video creative for different audiences, Harnevo said it can be really hard given the current ecosystem and value chain. This is because there often is a creative agency “that thinks of a TV brief and then a media agency that executes on specific media metrics” and perhaps a third entity tasked with measurement—all three of which might be located in different countries. “It’s difficult to get to an iterative process,” said Harnevo.
Eyeview’s solution was to take much of the value chain in house, with its own creative shop that works with marketers’ creative agencies. “Data goes from creative to media, and media communicates with creative” because they’re sitting close by each other. “I think the value chain really needs to change to support personalization and I think it’s a great opportunity for us.”
This video is part of a Beet.TV leadership summit on video outcomes presented by Eyeview. For more videos from event, please visit this page.
