From our partners at Microsoft Advertising.
In the wake of COVID-19, people are adapting how they live and work and unsurprisingly how they interact with brands. New research has highlighted this shift in behaviour and looks at how it reflects changing attitudes, values, and shopping patterns. At Microsoft Advertising, we want to help you navigate these changing consumer priorities - so you can strategically plan how to respond with our unique audience intelligence tools to connect with your consumers at the right moments across work and life.
Let’s meet your new consumers ...
The Self-care Enthusiast
This shopper values time spent with the people in their lives and focuses on mental and physical health. They want new diet tips, fitness ideas, and ways to manage their hybrid work-life reality. They expect to get information quickly and to have a seamless digital experience across multiple devices.
Speaking to the Self-care Enthusiast
Time management is top of mind- highlight convenient/time saving benefits: 'same day delivery’, ‘in-store pick-up’, etc.
Leverage our first-party based interest-led audiences to drive to relevant and informational lifestyle/fitness content-led pages via your paid media placements on MSN.
Target this shopper through Outlook where they connect, organise and get things done.
The Empowered Activist
This shopper votes with their wallet, by purchasing from brands that align with their values. They place more emphasis on shopping locally and supporting local businesses, as well as continuing to make eco-friendly and sustainable purchases. They prioritise authenticity and businesses that demonstrate their values with more than marketing messages.
Speaking to the Empowered Activist
Call out your product’s ethical/green features directly in your creatives and ad copy.
Expand your consumer reach by serving non-brand keywords that reflect their values: ‘Locally sourced’, ‘organic cotton’
Leverage the inclusive attribute ad copy annotation to highlight if your business is carbon neutral, wheel-chair accessible, etc.
Brand trust is king to this shopper. Brands that build from a foundation of trust create more authentic engagements and gain greater customer loyalty. Check out our Marketing with a Purpose training to help you build a trusted brand.
The Luxury Shopper
This shopper proliferated at the start of the pandemic, when luxury stores were closed. They expect the same seamless, personalised shopping experience in online service as they would receive in-store. They conduct extensive research and use multiple queries and search engines to find brands that meet their expectations.
Speaking to the Luxury Shopper
Create a seamlessly personalised shopping experience by combining search and native for a full funnel journey that drives awareness and brand affinity from the early research stage right through to purchase.
Optimise your shopping campaigns to include specific high-quality brands and products that appeal to this shopper.
Captivate this shopper through rich ads formats like multimedia ads and video extensions to showcase the latest trends or celebrity endorsements of your product or brand.
The Digital Nomad
The Digital Nomad arose from digital transformation, the expansion of the gig economy, and the increase of remote work. As shoppers, they use online research more than any other consumer group. A look at their daily search history might include travel products, transportation, housing, dining and entertainment.
Speaking to the Digital Nomad
Promote your convenient customer service that minimises time spent shopping and facilitates a quick purchase: ease of returns, loyalty club.
Leverage video assets in native and video extensions in search to draw these shoppers in.
Utilise the Microsoft Audience Network to reach audiences that have an intent to travel or who are in market for transportation.
3 key strategies
Tap into rich audiences
Reach and connect with new audiences that are in-market and ready to buy. Craft a laser sharp audience strategy with rich first-party data to connect with the right consumers in the right place at the right time. When you make a connection with the right audience everyone wins.
Time to shine
Stand out from the crowd in a saturated marketplace by reaching your customers across search and native. Drive more meaningful creative experiences and consideration at different touch points in their path to purchase for longer lasting, more lucrative relationships. Users exposed to a brand’s ad in both search and native are: 2.6x more likely to visit the brand’s site and 3.5x more likely to convert.
Widen that net
Understand and tap into the value perception drivers for your new consumers. From convenience time-saving drivers to ethical messaging that will make a meaningful connection on their decision journey.