The article below was written about driving traffic to local Furniture Stores, but the concepts are relevant for almost all businesses wanting to attract more customers into their local brick-n-mortar location.

In 2019, Tango was discussing the changing consumer media habits with some of its top clients.  

During those meetings, the clients themselves often said they no longer watched broadcast TV but watched videos on YouTube and streaming services, including TV content and movies.  

Some still do watch regular old TV in their living rooms, but this shift in viewing habits has amplified during the past 2 years.

The conclusion from many of those client meetings in 2019 were plans for Tango to package up a few different types of online and social advertising tactics for our furniture retailer clients.  Covid hit and all stopped for a few months.  But then, furniture stores got super busy and many stopped advertising or scaled back.

Since those discussions in 2019, Covid has fueled the fire behind people using different forms of media in more and more ways other than the traditional use of broadcast TV and cable TV.  Here at Tango, all of the media plans we manage have moved significant dollars into Tango’s online and social programs.  While this was underway years ago, it certainly hastened during the last two years.  While many of our clients continue to use TV advertising and occasional direct mail or circular campaigns, all have significantly expanded their online advertising – at the expense of traditional media budgets.

This is timely too.

TV ratings have been dropping each year, for many years.  More and more people unsubscribe from Cable TV each year.  Younger generations don’t even know what it is.  At increasing rates, consumers watch “TV programming” and video programming through streaming services and consume media content in so many more ways than ever before.  This will continue to evolve and expand.  Here are a few sitting-on-the-sideline TV stats:

  1. Primetime Olympics in 2021 reached 15.5 million viewers.  4 years ago, the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics reached 26.7 million. London games reached 31.1 million  
  2. The 2021 Super Bowl had its smallest audience since 2007
  3. MBA Finals continue to dwindle.  This year was higher than last, but lower than most of the previous 10
  4. The MLB playoffs had its lowest ratings ever this past year.  

We know this is happening and most of us have known “cord cutter” and “cord nevers” in our circle of friends. 

This TV viewing trend is statistically true and reminds us that we gotta find more ways to reach today’s shopper.

What can we do?

Lots, but the “lots” takes work, a different mind set, and requires multiple advertising platforms.  

The model for Tango has shifted during the past few years and now embraces the intersection of:

  • Content
  • Data
  • Technology

Embracing these 3 core categories of contemporary marketing changes our mind set in part from guessing which TV stations or shows our target audience hopefully watches, to focusing more on who that target audience actually is.  The better we define the target audience, the better we can create content, and place it or send it where that audience will find it.  In fact, we no longer guess about the “where” in this formula… When a furniture shopper gets wherever “there” is (where they seek information or entertainment), our content instantly shows up there too.

This shift allows us to continue to reach large audiences, but now we can narrow-in on perfect audiences, without guessing, deliver messages to furniture shoppers and those who behaviorally are furniture purchase intenders. In many cases, we can track someone who is in the store because of the advertising.  And, we can track someone who received ads and actually made purchases.  TV and traditional media still play a part, but no longer the dominant part of a media plan.

This big scary change of TV seemingly dying is creating massive opportunities for furniture retailers, and advertisers in general.

Change in advertising plans to reach today’s shoppers

To reach as many of today’s shoppers as possible, media plans need to diversify beyond traditional media like TV, circulars and direct mail.  Powerfully, these changes allow advertising to better target shoppers lower in the purchase funnel, or further along on their purchase journey. Today, strong Tango-managed media plans can and need to include

  1. Google Ads, Search.  Shoppers go to Google to figure out what they want and where to shop… This is foundational for every Tango client
  2. Social Media Posting (and boosting a little).  Most retailers are doing this, but often spending too much on boosting and not enough on advertising
  3. Social Media Advertising.  Tango has FB Blueprint Certified ad experts launching managed social ad campaigns that go way beyond posting information. Posting is important,  But, Facebook advertising, which may sound a little similar to boosting posts, leverages sophisticated audience creation and optimization to reach furniture shoppers.  Measurable results are better (x2 to x3 better) both quantitatively and qualitatively when compared to boosting – which again serves a different purpose
  4. Geofencing.  A few years ago, we did not suggest Geofencing because it was primarily available only from local TV stations, Cable companies, Newspapers, etc., all attempting to reclaim lost revenue from traditional sources. As a result, the prices were high, too high to justify the results. But Tango launched a Geofencing program in 2020 and have successfully managed hundreds of geofencing campaigns. Our prices are lower than anyone’s and our results have been fantastic.  We have changed our tune on this and feel all should do it.  We typically start campaigns at $12CPM, and through ongoing optimization, are able to bring this cost down so that clients get even more impressions at lower CPMs. This is the only way to advertise directly to consumers shopping right now and it works.  This program allows us to see how many instore shoppers actually received ads.
  5. YouTube Pre-roll Advertising.  Catch folks who fit a perfect audience for the client.  And, this campaign only spends money when someone watches an entire video (or at least 30 seconds, whichever is greater).  Because people can skip a video, the ones who watch a client’s video are truly interested
  6. OTT-Streaming Video Advertising. This program reaches those folks consuming video in countless different ways. Identify the perfect audience, and advertise wherever they go to watch video.  This program extends the traditional TV campaign reach. We have access to the same inventory as everyone, but charge less.  We charge $32CPM, and in some cases are able to get inventory for less through better bidding strategies and ongoing optimization.
  7. Targeted Email Blasts.  Launch an email campaign on Thursday and Google Analytics shows that website activity dramatically jumps on Thursday and Friday. More in-store shoppers follow during the weekend.  Our fee is $20CPM which is one of the lowest in the business.  And, in some cases we are able to secure demographically and behaviorally selected records for a little less.  It is amazing to look at Google Analytics when we launch a campaign and see the activity dramatically spike – like clockwork.

The cost for all of these programs combined still allows a significant traditional media buy for things like TV, direct mail, circulars, and billboards.  These programs add massive improvement to the over-all media reach, targetability, measurability, and effectiveness.  Today, without these programs, only a minor % of all possible furniture shoppers are ever targeted with advertising.