Verizon Media Partners with Catalina to Enable Real-Time Decisioning for CG

Consumer goods marketers have long struggled to connect the dots between the impact of their digital campaigns along the customer journey and the metric that matters most - sales. That was true even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has only further disrupted the typical purchase cycle and radically altered consumer behavior multiple times throughout the past year.

As a result, advertisers have been challenged to keep up as they observed new trends in real time. During the early days of the pandemic, the frequency of in-store visits spiked as consumers panicked to buy essential goods. This was followed by a sharp decline in store trips during lockdowns, even though the basket value increased while consumers shopped in bulk to stock up for longer periods. Many brands suspended their digital campaigns in response disruption in maintaining supply, even though online sales soared. It was, and continues to be to some extent, a tricky time for CG advertisers.

If one thing has become abundantly clear through these constant shifts in behavior, it’s that traditional measurement solutions that connect digital campaigns with actual sales, such as closed-loop studies, are no longer the only tools needed to support today’s CG Marketers. Advertisers need additional flexible, inflight measurement solutions that provide real-time, actionable insights into the impact of digital campaigns on purchases.

That is what Verizon Media aims to enable through a new partnership with Catalina. It is integrated with the CG sales data in the US, allowing brands to link in-store and online purchases to digital media influences in real-time. Catalina has access to 170 million unique shopper cards and direct retailer relationships with most grocery stores, as well as value stores, mass general, and convenience.

Through this market integration with Catalina, the combined companies aim to bring together Verizon Media’s first-party data with Catalina’s sales insights to provide validated omnichannel sales conversions influenced by true media exposure. These solutions include:

• Inflight Sales Analysis matching media exposures to observed purchase events on a daily basis, powered by Verizon Media’s identity graph, to help advertisers understand the effectiveness of their media on a user-level in real-time. This allows for informed in-flight adjustments that enable advertisers to make the most of their media campaigns.
• Post Campaign Measurement through Catalina may also provide independent validation of incremental sales impact to verify effective optimizations through their Sales Lift measurement in partnership with Verizon Media.