By: Bethany Shocki
Micro-Moments and the Flight of the Bumble-Bee
The coveted purchase path has guided marketers on their quest for consumer attention since advertising began. We’ve all seen the marketing or purchase funnel, and know that our advertising and marketing messages need
to reach consumers across the five stages of Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Loyalty, and Advocacy. However, the modern consumer—overwhelmed by messages and savvy on multiple devices—rarely takes a linear path when making a purchase decision. Instead, the new purchase path consists of countless micro-moments, and understanding the value of these moments (and how to leverage them) is what makes successful media campaigns.
How Millennial Moms Delineate the Purchase Path
Consider one of MNI’s most requested audience segmentations, the Millennial Mom. Advertisers want to reach her due to her overwhelming spending potential—Millennial Moms yield $200 billion in spending power annually1. Demographic research proves that she trusts digital media the most, and that she’s a mobile influencer2. But a psychographics analysis reveals the true opportunity for advertisers when they go through the media planning and buying process. We discover that the millennial mom is time starved, a multi-tasker, and she seeks products that offer her convenience. She streams her favorite TV shows because she doesn’t have the time to watch them in real-time. She looks for recipes online that are easy and healthy for her family. She flips through aspirational magazines during her “me” time, and uses them to relax and unwind after a long day.
These micro-moments with media make up the new consumer purchase path. At MNI, we call it the “flight of the bumble bee,” because it’s anything but linear. It’s inconsistent and undefined, but appreciating the zigs and zags is what helps our media planning and buying experts carefully select tactics that are sure to reach her, at points where she’ll be most receptive to the message. Consumers are still learning about products, then considering and researching them prior to conversion, but valuable insights lie within the specific nuances of individual audience segments (e.g., C-Suite Executives behave very differently than Millennial Moms, and media plans should be adjusted accordingly).
A New Approach to Audience Segmentation
At MNI, our integrated media planning process always begins with identifying and researching the advertiser’s target audience, to discover micro-moments and insights that will shape the overall strategy. This enables our media planning team to request specific elements and technologies from our host of preferred media vendors—backed by research—so that the ultimate media recommendation delivers results against our clients’ KPIs. It’s the true art and science of media planning: marrying facts with media know-how and the experience that comes from 45 years of successful client campaigns.
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