Allison Squires
Allison Squires is the Director of Services at People Pattern, where she uncovers Audience Insights to inform brand’s digital strategy, content marketing and paid media efforts. Allison was previously a digital strategist at Dachis Group (acq. Sprinklr), where she developed global digital education programs and worked with global brands to create, implement and measure social business strategy. Allison has a passion for digital analytics, integrated marketing and craft beer.

World Cup Audience Intelligence: Spend Less, Score More

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The FIFA World Cup is the world’s most widely viewed sporting event. With such an engaged audience, marketers around the world are jockeying to get in on the action. In fact, the event is projected to provide a $1.5B boost to the global ad market. Big sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Johnson & Johnson are paying $75M each for a TV presence around the games. With so many people watching, marketers need a game plan to mobilize fans without exceeding their budget.

One alternative to big budget productions is to trade in traditional media buys for targeted and relevant social content…sometimes with a little added juice. During the World Cup Final in 2010, Twitter saw the largest period of sustained activity in the platform’s history – showing there is an audience who is present and willing to engage. But how does a brand stand out among the crowd?

Marketers at Volkswagen are using audience data to appeal to an identified market segment they know will be watching the game: young, Hispanic, males. Nielsen reported that between 2010 – 2050, this specific target audience would grow by more than 150% , making them a particularly hot target during the World Cup.

The trouble is that Volkswagen is not the only brand targeting young, Hispanic males. Hyundai, an official sponsor, is also hoping to capture this audience. So what can Volkswagen do to stand out? Use audience intelligence.

Great news for Volkswagen: the data lines up.

The data breakdown shows that 15% of Volkswagen’s audience is Hispanic, of which 76% are male. Of that segment, millennials make up 40%, 85% of which are engaging with brands through Twitter via their personal mobile devices.

Diving deeper into the social following, VW and Hyundai share nearly 80k Twitter followers. That’s 30% of VW’s audience that could waver between a VW and Hyundai for their next car purchase.

Analyzing the context around the conversation, we found followers of VW are discussing higher education and YouTube music videos at a greater rate than sports. Volkswagen leveraged this insight and responded with a campaign specifically designed to hit the sweet spot.

With rich audience analytics, brands can make data-driven content recommendations and effective ad buys that resonate with consumers on a previously inaccessible level. With a fan understanding, smaller brands can spend less to engage more of the right audience.

Going up against big sponsors isn’t easy, but by accessing deep audience insights, marketers can move from the sidelines to center field.

Find out more with a custom demo.

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