In June and July of 2016, 652,000 households in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas saw at least twice as many TV ads promoting summertime deals on the Toyota Camry as others in the region. Not only did Gulf States Toyota target these households specifically based on data showing they were in-market car shoppers, the regional Toyota office measured whether the addressable ads led to an increase in foot traffic to dealerships by directly tracking when anonymized mobile devices associated with the targeted households showed up in stores.
The process involved three key players: audience data provider Experian, addressable TV ad seller AT&T AdWorks and mobile location data firm NinthDecimal. First, AT&T, which offers DirecTV inventory, imported audience data associated with in-market car shoppers from data broker Experian. Following some refinement tests, 652,000 households were determined as the target audience. During the campaign run, those households were shown up to three times the number of ads others in the non-targeted audience were, accommodating advertiser rules for optimal frequency, and ensuring ads didn’t run back-to-back, for example.
The campaign results showed that the ads sparked 19% more Toyota dealership visits from those targeted compared with the control group. NinthDecimal also found that 80% of visitors traveled 10 miles or fewer between their homes and the dealership.