Think dynamic creative isn’t right for your brand? Think again

Programmatic buying has been a revelation for data-driven marketers who are trying to eliminate waste and reach specific audience segments. They’re further aided by the ability to use it in combination with dynamic creative optimisation (DCO), which has opened a new world of options to marketers who want to boost their brand’s impact with personalised and relevant messaging to consumers.

Even with its clear benefits to ROI brand lift, DCO has largely been ignored by brands outside of the retail, travel, and automotive verticals. Because it’s so often used in conjunction with product-based retargeting or geo-targeting a high volume of local offers, many marketers have come to view DCO as a strategy only for ecommerce and automotive. But that’s simply not the case - DCO can be used across a wide variety of verticals, even those with fewer creative assets and no ecommerce component, such as CPG and entertainment.

For brands with a large volume of products, pricing and offers that change frequently, DCO is an obvious solution to the pain points inherent in delivering their messaging. But the application of a dynamic creative strategy can seem less obvious to brands without these components. For instance, many CPG brands don’t sell their products online, but rely on bricks and mortar retailers for sales. These brands typically don’t have retargeting or segmentation data, and their products are relatively cheap. Is there a way to improve brand lift and justify the investment?

The short answer is yes. Brands don’t need to do millions of permutations and manage complex DCO campaigns in order to realise the value of creative personalisation. Instead, these brands can focus on smaller DCO strategies that leverage real-time marketing and contextual targeting, serving different creative permutations around different events, or adjusting the ad based on the context of the page.

This can be as simple as a beverage company targeting different messages around differing kinds of sports content. The messaging could be as easy as touting their brands as the best thing to drink at the game with related, interchangeable imagery for various sports. Better yet, this can change over the course of a year, from summer sports like tennis and cricket, to winter sports such as football and rugby. Brands can additionally work in creative that shows endorsements from sports stars during appropriate games. 

When it comes to entertainment; language, geography, and time-based ad serving are great tools, because they allow advertisers to show a trailer in the correct language with dynamic elements like critical reviews, release dates, and local theatres. This single campaign can be used around the world to drive viewers to the box office, without having to buy and build multiple iterations for each county, region or country.

Brands shouldn’t view DCO as a tool that only works for ecommerce advertisers, or others who are sitting on massive troves of audience data and segmentation strategies. DCO can be done on a smaller level, and the messages delivered to consumers can be just as impactful as a campaign with thousands of permutations. By using the available data – context and timing – to align product messaging, advertisers across any vertical can realise the benefits of dynamic creative.