DM Magazine October 2019

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Personalizing How the senior Canadians market are unique PM 4 0 0 5 0 8 0 3

vol. 32 • No. 10 • October 2019

The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

Marketing to the Mosaic

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Is your marketing plan really complete?

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Reaching recent immigrants

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Moving to a Total Market Approach

// 3 Marketing to the Mosaic Vol. 32 | No. 10 | October 2019 EDITOR Brendan Read - brendan@dmn.ca PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Richard Boire Howard Lichtman Kevin Deveau Bryan Segal Larry Filler Stephen Shaw Jacquelyn Folville Niraj Sinha Ishan Ghosh Sean Taggart Sean Gordon David Yee LLOYDMEDIA INC. HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS / PRODUCTION:

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Raise the Work: theme of AFP Greater Toronto Chapter’s Congress

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Customer Centricity

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How to stand out from the crowd

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The different approaches to segmentation

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How Canadians are unique

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Making travel connections Feature

Marketing to the Mosaic ❯❯18

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Is your marketing plan really complete?

Decoding the future Interview with Mitch Joel

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Reaching recent immigrants

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Moving to a Total Market Approach

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Delivering personalization at scale

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Personalizing the senior market October 2019

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AFP Congress 2019

Raise the Work: theme of AFP Greater Toronto Chapter’s Congress

By Jacquelyn Folville

Gary Tannyan

❱ DMN.ca

Congress has helped to position AFP as an industry leader. the philanthropic sector. Equally if not more importantly, it has also helped to build up the fundraising profession as a whole.

“Each year, Congress challenges and inspires me. It gives me the chance to work with a new volunteer management team, sponsors and exhibitors, to plan something new and exciting for delegates: an experience they won’t forget,” says Cynthia. “I’ve been running this conference for the past 24 years and always look forward to changing things up with a new theme or element that engages our members and appeals non-members be part of our AFP community.”

Conference call to action The theme of this year’s conference is #RaiseTheWork: a call to action to those in the sector to come together to discover new ways of thinking, to support each other and collaborate to raise the quality of their work and to elevate the fundraising profession.

AFP Greater Toronto Chapter

practical takeaways they can implement right away back at their organizations to advance their causes and their careers.”

As the largest conference on fundraising in Canada—providing three days of hands-on learning and inspiring plenary presentations—Congress has helped to position AFP as an industry leader and go-to association for those who work in

This is fitting for the Chapter’s 24 years of the conference encouraging professional development, and especially so this year given that this will be Cynthia’s last Congress before retiring in her role as Chapter Director. “I am lucky to have been able to work with outstanding teams over my tenure at AFP to continuously raise the work and grow the Chapter to be the largest in the world,” says Cynthia.

Like any industry, it is important that fundraisers take time to invest in themselves and to step up their game, because even the slightest improvement can lead to the biggest breakthrough.

And unlike most industries, when fundraisers get better at their work, the impact is far reaching.

It can improve lives and make the world a better place. That’s why Congress 2019 is about raising the work—asking those in the non-profit sector to examine the choices they make (both big and small)—and encouraging them to be better. It’s also about celebrating the achievements of the sector.

“I think we need to get better at celebrating ourselves. Not everyone gets to fund social good with their day job,” says Scott Jeffries, director of media and data services at Stephen Thomas Ltd and Congress 2019 Marketing Chair. “That meaningful impact is

a benefit of our career choice and we shouldn’t be shy or equivocate about that fact. We should own it.”

Plenary sessions To kick off this year’s celebrations and to lend a hand in the #RaiseTheWork rally cry, are three inspiring plenary presentations: 1. Janet Bannister, partner at Real Ventures and founder, Kijiji.ca; 2. Kishshana Palmer, CFRE, “Queen of Focus” and “Leadership Whiz”, business trainer and coach; and; 3. Alvin Law, musician, author and motivational speaker.

Janet Bannister

AFP Greater Toronto Chapter

F

rom November 25 to 27, 2019, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Toronto Chapter will host its 24th annual Congress conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The conference is one of the Chapter’s signature events that provides a unique professional development and networking opportunity.

“I look forward to Congress every year; as a fundraiser, it’s my Christmas,” says member Laura Champion, who is also a part of this year’s volunteer conference management committee and incoming Chair of Congress 2020.

Each year, the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter Congress hosts approximately 1,000 delegates made up of fundraising and non-profit professionals from across the country who come to learn, connect and be inspired.

With over 80 sessions ranging from beginner-level how-to fundraising workshops, to intermediate practical and skills-based presentations and to senior-level discussions, Congress has something for everyone.

“Congress is a great way for both our members and non-members to connect professionally, exchange ideas, ask questions and network with experts in the field and to re-charge outside of the office,” says AFP Greater Toronto Chapter Director, Cynthia Quigley, AFP Greater Cynthia Toronto Chapter Director.

Quigley.

“It’s an opportunity for individuals at all skill levels to engage in new ideas and to leave with

Janet Bannister Janet is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and their businesses reach their full potential. As General Partner at Real Ventures, Janet has led investments in a dozen companies and works actively with Real’s portfolio companies to help them accelerate growth and create meaningful impact. Her October 2019

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Kishshana Palmer, CFRE Kishshana Palmer, CFRE, is a resident “Queen of Focus” and “Leadership Whiz”. She has a knack for helping talented career professionals of all skills and

Kishshana Palmer

backgrounds succeed. A national speaker, trainer and coach with a 16-year background in fundraising, marketing and talent management, Kishshana has helped countless professionals and entrepreneurs grow and develop their management and leadership skills.

Alvin Law Alvin Law grew up in an environment where the mantra was” There’s No Such Word As Can’t”! It made life challenging but what’s wrong with that? It wasn’t until he grew up that he observed how many completely “able-bodied” people took the opposite approach.

That formed a profound question for this Hall Of Fame Speaker: “Who has the actual handicap here?”

Alvin Law

Alvin Law may appear to have a predictable programme. He was born without arms and was written off by the medical world, then he proved everyone wrong... blah, blah, blah! Everyone at has heard it before. But you’ve never heard an approach like Alvin Law as he addresses the ever-changing world of both fundraising and life itself…a plenary presentation you won’t want to miss!

So, whether you’re new to the sector, or have been to the conference countless times before, #AFPCongress2019 has lots in store. Plus, it can help you build your network to ensure you’re not only answering the call to raise the work but are doing so with the latest tools and knowledge in hand,

AFP Greater Toronto Chapter

background is a combination of founding and building successful entrepreneurial ventures and making an impact at leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, McKinsey & Company and eBay. Janet launched Kijiji.ca and grew it to become one of the most visited web sites in Canada. Subsequently, she led the Kijiji Global business, accelerating growth in North America, Europe and Asia. Prior to launching Kijiji, Janet was at eBay in Silicon Valley where she led multiple “non-collectibles” categories and helped transform eBay from a collectibles to a mainstream marketplace. She also founded and built a successful consulting business and was CEO at a Torontobased start-up in the online content and commerce space.

AFP Greater Toronto Chapter

AFP Congress 2019

putting you at the forefront of philanthropy.

With a large variety of sessions across every area of expertise, Congress is the premier professional development experience for fundraisers providing the support you need to find your edge, take that extra step, and go forth to change the world.

To find out more about the AFP Congress and to register visit http://afptoronto.org/ congress-2019/. To learn more about the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter, visit www.afptoronto.org or follow @afptoronto on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for the latest Chapter news and updates.

Jacquelyn Folville is the marketing and

communications specialist, AFP Greater Toronto Chapter. The AFP Greater Toronto Chapter is a recognized leader in promoting philanthropy and providing education, training and best practices for those in the fundraising profession. With more than 1,200 members, the Greater Toronto Chapter is the largest of the more than 240 AFP chapters throughout the world.

Events Calendar October October 7 ACT Canada Forum Toronto, Ont. www.actcda.com/act-canada-forum/ October 16 Retail West 2019 Vancouver, B.C. http://retailwest.ca October 29 Retail Flyer Forum Toronto, Ont. www.retailcouncil.org/events/retail-flyerforum/

November November 12-13 Customer Experience for Financial Services Toronto, Ont. www.cxfinancialservices.com ❱ DMN.ca

November 13-21 National Philanthropy Day Victoria, B.C., Ottawa, Ont., Lethbridge, Alta., Montreal, Que., Hamilton, Ont., Winnipeg, Man., Vancouver, B.C. and Edmonton, Alta. https://afpglobal.org/afp-canada/eventscanada November 19 Brick & Mortar Retail Forum Toronto, Ont. www.retailcouncil.org/events/brickmortar-retail-forum/ November 19 Retail Cannabis Forum Toronto, Ont. www.retailcouncil.org/events/cannabisin-retail-forum/

Visit us online for complete list

November 22 CMA Awards Gala Toronto, Ont. www.the-cma.org/education-events/ awards November 25-27 AFP Congress Toronto, Ont. http://afptoronto.org/congress-2019/

December December 2-3 Data & AI Marketing Toronto Conference and Expo Toronto, Ont. https://datamarketing.ca/2019/

www.dmn.ca October 2019

Customer Centricity

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How to stand out from the crowd S

Kevin Deveau is vice president and managing

director for FICO Canada and is the North American Insurance Practice Lead. His team is responsible for growing FICO’s Canadian and insurance market share and strengthening relationships with FICO’s clients.

tanding out from the crowd is more important than ever for businesses. Market saturation, rising customer expectations, increased competition and growing regulatory requirements are motivating businesses to identify areas where they can improve on their customer engagement. Being able to directly market to customers, and provide them with a unique experience, is how organizations will set themselves apart and create a returning customer base.

In order to directly reach customers, organizations need to understand customers’ purchasing behaviours and be able to interpret what products or services they may want in the future. To do this, organizations need to be able to pull all relevant customer data easily and efficiently. However, most businesses manage their customer information in siloed business units, making it difficult and inefficient to pull the information when needed.

each customer relationship. It also informs the type of rewards being offered to each customer, and the timing and structure of those rewards. Some loyalty programmes will consistently repeat product rewards while others will feature weekly deals based on the consumer’s previous spending habits.

Each customer template has its own predictive model that is scored against each member. These programmes are highly granular and predictive, allowing making personalized offers to customers based on their predicted wants and needs.

Today, consumers expect some sort of personalization. They realize that they have a choice.

They can choose where to shop and what brands to buy.

These insights, gained by centralized decisioning, become the key to customer satisfaction and retention.

Without the use of centralized decisioning and loyalty programmes, it’s easy for businesses to fall behind.

Enter centralized decisioning But by managing information in one seamless system, such as with centralized decisioning, organizations can reach customers more effectively and provide them with a more personalized experience.

Centralized decisioning allows businesses to use personalized customer information and to develop products that meet their needs, resulting in a faster time to market and consistent customer engagement.

It does this by providing a 360-degree view of customer data, across all channels, and for the entire duration of the customer lifecycle, through monitoring spending habits in order to provide offers to each customer based on predicted future purchases.

Enhancing the customer experience Customers interact with companies in various ways and across multiple channels. These include the Internet, mobile devices and through their peers, as well as through more traditional channels.

One negative interaction can damage the ongoing relationship with that customer. For example, if a customer receives an email offer and clicks on it only to find it is not available and/or they are unable to find out more information via the web site or by phone, then they’re left confused and frustrated and associate that experience with the organization or brand.

Hence, why consistency—and centralized decisioning—is important. Customer engagements ought to be managed systematically across all channels to build a dialogue with customers and ensure an ongoing relationship with them.

Customers want to know that they are receiving the best value for their money.

This results in measurable and valuable business strategies that leverage past IT and decisioning investments to reach customers, while also allowing for the latest innovations in communications, analytics and optimization.

Improving loyalty programmes A prime example of where centralized decisioning can help is with customer loyalty programmes, which are popular with consumers and businesses alike.

These programmes provide each consumer with a personalized set of offers every week based on their past spending habits, allowing them to save money by buying the same products and/or related products in the future.

Customer data is at the heart of every loyalty programme. Leveraging it allows businesses to create diverse and highly targeted offers based on October 2019

How customers benefit One of the many benefits of centralizing decisioning is that it simplifies the buying process for customers.

Customers want to know that they are receiving the best value for their money and prefer the process be as simple and convenient as possible. They also appreciate when an organization takes the time to get to know their preferences and/or offers rewards for their loyalty.

How businesses benefit Centralized decisioning allows businesses to deliver highly personalized products due to the centralized storage of all consumer data, the consistent decisions through customer updates and automation of manual processes to improve speed in decisions, as well as customer interactions.

By proactively pursuing a strategy of data-driven customer-centricity, businesses can better customize their combinations of products and services, and offer solutions targeting the right customer segments. This not only allows businesses to stand out, but also leads to high customer satisfaction.

DMN.ca ❰

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Marketing to the mosaic

Is your marketing plan really complete?

By Ishan Ghosh

P

utting efficiency over effectiveness is a trap into which many a marketer falls victim.

But flipping that around confers powerful benefits.

Did you realize that your brand could be part of the $154 per week South Asian’s shopping basket?

Or that you can share the $136 per week Chinese shopping basket who together have a household spending of $67 billion annually?

(Information courtesy of Environics Analytics).

Overcoming the mindsets So, let’s get our priorities back on track and get over a few mindsets.

Mindset 1. “My proposition and message are broad enough to include all or most audience segments, so why would I need to nuance them?”

Well, would you treat the Quebec market the same as the rest of Canada? Did you know that 1 in 5 Canadians speak a second language other than English?

The other language is not French, but another, non-official language. According to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages these are, in rank order: Mandarin, Cantonese and Punjabi.

These non-official-language speakers are presently concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area and in Metro Vancouver. But as employment opportunities spread out across the country, along with the need for more affordable housing, expect to see immigrants speaking other languages make their homes in other communities.

Each immigrant culture is as distinct as the French culture.

Each having diverse unique consumption behaviours, attitudes towards products, motivations and stimuli as the Franco-Canadian market. It’s never a one-size-fits-all proposition. If you find yourself needing a proposition that fits and motivates French-Canadians more ❱ DMN.ca

appropriately, how much more so cultures that are so much more diverse that form a significant segment of our target market.

For example, to offer a “Gen Pop” proposition and message of a flexible mortgage, where you can skip a payment, to an Asian audience would be ridiculous. Asian cultures hate debt and want to pay off their debt as soon as possible.

Mindset 2. “I know that the ethnic audiences are important to me, so I will set aside part of my marketing budget to target them”.

Is there any market that is growing at more than a quarter of a million consumers each year?

Millennials? Boomers?

It’s in fact, Immigrants. The largest source regions being the South Asian continent, China, the Philippines, Middle East and South America. Each bringing in their distinct cultures and habits. All potential consumers.

Every one of them needing a new bank account, a mobile phone, clothes appropriate to their new environment, a place to buy groceries (their groceries), a means to commute and eventually a home they can call their own: the final anchor in their new land.

So, the question to ask yourself is, “Have I examined where my real market lies?”

For example, if I were marketing to new mothers or young parents, who would these be? The profile of most immigrants are young singles or couples. Likely, as part of their new life they would, if single, contemplate marriage and having a baby shortly after, or if a couple, they would have waited to settle in the first year and then have a baby or they have already arrived with kids, to fulfill their Canadian dream.

Would not this market be far larger “segment” than what is called the “mainstream” market?

Why would you set aside a small part of your budget to market to the far larger audience? Should you not be recalibrating your ROI?

Mindset 3. “OK, I know Canada is a mosaic of diverse ethnic cultures and that’s why I feature them in my advertising. That would certainly check off the ‘inclusion’ box for me”.

But does it really? Is segment representation the same as segment targeting?

Let me illustrate through an ad campaign that IKEA ran a couple of years ago. The 30-second spot showed a young South Asian couple entering a cramped tiny home and discovering that with IKEA they could get ideas to furnish it to their taste. Finally, the camera zooms out to reveal how small the home really was. It was, in fact, a cottagey-type tiny home in the wilderness (on Georgian Bay)!

So, what’s wrong with this ad that checks off the inclusion box by using a couple from the Millennial generation who also looked ethnic, both big markets for the brand?

Nothing. But it also does nothing.

IKEA is a store and brand that is certainly a favourites with South Asians, whether newcomers or “New Canadians”. The Millennials shown in the ad are also relatable to the new generation of South Asian immigrants.

But South Asians, especially those who have moved to Canada recently, are generally urban and the concept of a tiny modern cottage home in cottage country is certainly not their idea of an aspiration or fulfilment of The Canadian Dream. In fact, they would not even consider a starter home of this kind!

The ethnic group featured in the ad may see themselves in the ad and feel good about it, but then realize it’s really not talking to them. This ad would have passed over a big chunk of IKEA’s very lucrative market. A missed opportunity for IKEA to have engaged their huge potential South Asian or other ethnic segment by representation but not targeting.

Mindset 4. “Most multicultural segments are exposed to general media, so it may not be necessary to target them specifically in ethnic media as well.”

Yes, it is true that the majority of the population, including multicultural audiences, are exposed to mainstream media channels. But here are a few questions to ask. What engagement channels are they really “consuming”? MasterChef Canada or “MasterChef meets HomeChef” on Fairchild TV, with chef Denice and food blogger Bosco Mo? Or Celebrity Nutritionist Jojo Wang? Does Instagram or WeChat have a stronger influence on them?

How much of the impact of communication is being lost due to these channels not being the ones they are used to having a deeper engagement with, where they are usually used to receiving messages specifically targeted to them?

Like a few other cultural segments, the larger part of the Chinese audience in Canada have high language dependency or preference to be engaged in their native language. They may be exposed to “mainstream” media because it is everywhere, but that does not mean they consume it.

The lack of fluency in English (or French) is a major barrier to their comprehension of media in those languages.

While a small segment of the 1.7 million Chinese population in Canada do consume mainstream TV programmes and are exposed to out of home media, where are their decisions being influenced?

Would you be losing out on connecting with almost 5% of Canada’s consumers?

In conclusion I would like to suggest, that on embarking on your next marketing plan, please consider the question, in the title of this article, “Is my Plan really complete?”

Ishan Ghosh is guru, pundit, partner and CEO,

barrett and welsh (www.barrettandwelsh.com).

Advocate for diversity and inclusion.

October 2019

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Marketing to the mosaic

Reaching recent immigrants

By Howard Lichtman

E

very company faces challenges in attracting new revenue. The solution is actually obvious: growth lies in reaching new immigrants to Canada.

Immigration is a growth strategy for the Government of Canada and so it should be for your business.

The numbers speak for themselves: one in five Canadians are foreignborn, according to Statistics Canada. That is equivalent to the size of the population of the Province of Quebec.

The newcomer audience continues to grow with an expected 320,000 immigrants (and growing) arriving in Canada every year. Coupled with 570,000 international students you have 900,000 potential customers that you have never marketed to before.

If they know your brand from home, then you need to keep that loyalty. If they don’t, it’s the perfect opportunity.

business or product is coming from newcomers. What else should you keep in mind?

The answer? Just as most brands have a specific Quebec strategy because there are certain language and cultural considerations you should have a specific strategy for ethnic consumers.

Preferred language One of the questions we often get asked is: “how important is in-language communications?” The answer is, it really depends on the group that you are targeting.

Let’s start with the Chinese community. According to Statistics Canada, 19% of Chinese native speakers don’t speak English or French. They will not understand your message if you are communicating only in English.

While English may not be a barrier for other communities, such as South Asians, Filipinos and Arabs, that does not necessarily mean it’s their preferred language.

Cultural nuances don’t disappear among secondgeneration immigrant children.

Worried about their lifetime value? Statistics tell us that more than 60% of international students stay in the country. When you focus on certain sub-segments, like the Chinese and the South Asian populations, this number climbs to more than 90%.

The largest immigration groups are from India (23%), the Philippines (14%) and China (11%). Current projections suggest that by 2036, the South Asian community of 1.9 million will have grown to 4.1 million. At the same time, Chinese community is expected to grow from 1.6 million to 2.6 million and the Filipino community will grow from 900,000 to 2.2 million.

So, we’ve established that the revenue growth opportunity for a October 2019

Today, 22% of Canadians have a mother tongue other than English or French, 69% of recent immigrants prefer speaking a language other than English or French at home and 12% of all Canadians prefer to always speak a language other than English or French.

My best advice is to match your language to the media of choice.

If a publication, radio station or TV channel is communicating to consumers in their native languages, so should your advertising. In-language media provides incremental reach, not only for Chinese audiences but also for South Asians and other groups across all ethnic spectrums, ranging from traditional media to online search and social.

Speaking of social, you can’t miss reaching out on Chinese social media sites. Half of Chinese consumers spend their time on Chinese versus mainstream social media. Further, Chinese social media is much more influential in purchase decisions.

While there are many different Chinese media outlets, WeChat is referred to the most and it’s no wonder: it has more than a billion monthly active users globally.

There are more than 538,000 active monthly WeChat users in Canada, Comscore reported in August 2017. Companies do not “advertise” on WeChat, it’s more of a BuzzFeed editorial type of advertising.

It is important to mention that it’s not just about language preference and comfort levels.

Translating an English campaign into French is not sufficient to connect with your audience. People born and raised in Quebec have a different cultural sensitivity.

The same applies to immigrants who come with their own cultural nuances, which includes everything from family structure to education, from online behaviour to gender roles, food and mealtimes and to expressing opinions.

These cultural nuances don’t disappear among secondgeneration immigrant children.

That’s why the Wharton School of Business has stated that there are no second-generation immigrants: they’re all 1.5. Sure, they speak English, but they were brought up in their parents’ homes, and those cultural beliefs, values and attitudes don’t disappear in a generation.

Payment methods Of the other nuances payments stand out, notably for recent Chinese immigrants and also for the one million Chinese tourists who visit Canada every year. To connect with them you should accept payments through UnionPay, WeChat Pay and Alipay.

UnionPay is the credit and debit card of choice for both Chinese Canadians and Chinese tourists.

Wisely over 70,000 Canadian merchants are already accepting UnionPay. It can also be utilized at 85% of Canadian ATMs. The average transaction size is $2,500, according to payments processor Moneris: substantially more than mainstream credit cards.

According to the Nielsen Outbound Chinese Tourism and Consumption Trend: 2017 Survey, 65% of Chinese tourists use mobile payments when travelling overseas. They are also used by Chinese international students.

That’s where Alipay and WeChat Pay become significant. The WeChat accounts link to their bank accounts in China, so they avoid paying the currency exchange fee.

AliPay and WeChat Pay represent more than 90% of the Chinese mobile payment market, reported Forbes in March 2018. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay use QR codes which can be scanned to make a purchase.

Reaching international students As part of its growth strategy, the federal government has encouraged international students to come to Canada. You can only expect this number to grow, as the government makes it easier for international students to stay in the country post-graduation.

This creates a revenue growth opportunity not only for colleges and universities, but also for businesses. We started telling our clients that international students would increase when their numbers were around 250,000.

Today, as noted earlier, there are 570,000 international students in Canada.

Whether you are running the company or an employee whose been tasked with revenue growth, don’t miss the newcomer opportunity on your doorstep.

Howard Lichtman is a founding partner of

Ethnicity Matters (https://ethnicitymatters.com), Canada’s leading authority in marketing and communications to a multicultural world. He serves on the Board of Governors of Exhibition Place and is a member of the Canadian Marketing Association’s Agency Working Group.

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Marketing to the mosaic

Moving to a Total Market Approach

By Niraj Sinha

O

ver the last two decades or so, Canadian marketers have approached their marketing plans in the context of two distinct segments—the General Market or “mainstream”—and the Multicultural Market or “ethnic” (also referred to by Statistics Canada as “visible minorities”).

While the mainstream has been largely considered to be Caucasian consumers, the multicultural consumers in Canada have been represented by mostly immigrant Asian ethnic groups. About 60% of new immigrants come from Asia, particularly China and India, reports Statistics Canada.

Changing and diverse demographics International immigration is rapidly changing the demographic landscape. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, nearly 22% of the population is now foreign-born.

Thanks to favourable governmental policies, immigration has now become a socioeconomic reality in Canada. Moreover, immigrants’ and ethnic consumers’ contributions to Canada’s economic, societal and political fabric is expected to further increase in the context of an aging population.

Now, almost like a cliché, many Canadian marketing firms specializing in multicultural markets often quote unequivocally that multicultural is the “new mainstream”. While this is somewhat true in the context ❱ DMN.ca

of the rise of ethnic majority neighbourhoods across Canada, the fact remains that this “new mainstream” will increasingly become more diverse in the years to come.

for training marketing executives to become well-versed in relevant cultural segments and introduce a collaborative multicultural dynamic between marketers and all partner agencies.

Testing for success In the beginning, it is highly advised to consider testing a Total Market campaign in a smaller market before rolling it out on a national or larger scale. This will

A successful TMA demonstrates how marketing should work in more diverse societies.

What is and why TMA As a result, brands that seek to win this new Canadian market need to consider embracing a Total Market Approach (TMA) and expedite implementation to gain a first-tomarket advantage. TMA is largely defined as a marketing approach where a brand recognizes the need to communicate its message to more than one segment of audience.

It becomes even more relevant in the context of the Canadian mosaic, with many unique cultures thriving together, versus a melting pot as witnessed in the United States.

As soon as Canadian brands embrace a TMA, it will prompt them to move away from a segmented marketing approach, eliminating silos and paving the way for an inclusive Total Market gamut, proactively integrating diverse segments from inception to execution.

Executing the strategy A Total Market strategy must be reinforced and guided at the highest level of the organization to ensure its success. It would call

This collaborative approach is a prerequisite for the success of a TMA. All agencies must be briefed at the same time and should collectively participate in the entire campaign development process.

Culturally focused agencies—and if possible, various cultural media —should be in the marketing mix while working on the Total Market plan. It’s imperative to get everyone on the same page as soon as possible.

If a marketing team isn’t familiar with the cultural nuances of a diverse consumer base, the brand may not achieve the desired return on investment (ROI). Needless to say, most brands will have to invest in gathering relevant cultural insights through research and consumer focus groups to steer through rather unfamiliar territory in the beginning. That is because this “new mainstream” consists of various subcultures, languages, countries of origin and different acculturation levels in Canada. It takes very specific data and analytics to develop relevant messaging to effectively reach these consumers.

help to set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) and track the results: as well as return to the drawing board if the test campaign falls short of expectations.

A successful TMA demonstrates how marketing should work in more diverse societies. Rather than a diversity initiative of a mass campaign, the approach is an inclusive concept that requires alignment of all internal and external stakeholders under one overarching strategy.

Niraj Sinha is chairman and CEO of Maple

Diversity Communications. Started in 2010, Maple Diversity is the only multicultural advertising agency to be included in the list of Growth 500 (2017 and 2018) that ranks Canada’s fastest growing companies. Maple Diversity has won various marketing awards, including CASSIES, Summit International Awards and Excellence in Multicultural Marketing Awards (EMMA). As a result, it has been inducted on the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) EMMA’s “Wall of Distinction” as one of the most awarded in multicultural marketing.

Niraj is also an author of a bestseller book on international issues: Beyond Borders.

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Personalization

Delivering personalization at scale

By David Yee

U

nderstanding the customer’s needs and behaviours, and pairing it with the right content, delivery channel and message, dramatically increases the odds the content will pique their interest.

So, with technology playing a greater role in understanding consumer behaviour, it’s worth asking why so many brands still rely on rudimentary mass-market ads that largely target former customers: instead of delivering personalization at scale.

One obvious reason is the perceived difficulty brands face organizing and analyzing their customer data, which comes from many different sources and forms. Though brands have access to more granular details about their audiences, using the data fully requires cutting through an equally high volume of noise to extract the insights they need: a goal more easily articulated than achieved.

It’s clear an evolution is needed, as challenging as it may be. For brands to succeed in today’s marketplace, they must develop a strategy for personalization at scale. One that leverages artificial intelligence (AI)-powered analytics and is aligned with the brand’s needs and goals to transform customer data into genuine customer intelligence.

How AI can bridge the gap While the terms are often used interchangeably, there’s a tangible

October 2019

distinction between customer data and customer intelligence. The former is the raw data that brands receive from interactions with their audiences. The latter refers to the actionable insights extracted from this data that help deliver a personalized experience.

AI-driven solutions, such as Adobe Sensei-powered Adobe Target, are helping today’s marketers uncover customer insights that were unimaginable a couple of years ago. These solutions help to expedite and simplify a multitude of processes, which allows marketers to focus on engagement and delivering unique experiences.

AI can help make recommendations more targeted and easier to scale. We’ve all witnessed the power of personalized recommendations on sites such as Amazon and Netflix; the more precisely your brand tailors recommendations to its customers, the more likely they are to use the products and services they want.

For example, leading Canadian retail travel agency RedTag.ca has incorporated AI technology, through Adobe Sensei, to better understand patterns in their customer demographic, behavioural and conversion data, in addition to detecting anomalies on its web site.

“Giving our customers a unique experience by leveraging AI and technologies like Adobe Target allows us to deliver recommendations that truly are personalized and have that one-

on-one conversation,” says RedTag.ca chief digital officer Roberto Gennaro.

One of the most powerful tools available for automated recommendations is an algorithm known as item-based collaborative filtering. By ranking your digital assets by popularity, recency and frequency—and comparing them to attributes within each customer’s profile and purchase history—the algorithm provides each user with a list of personalized recommendations that carry the highest likelihood of engagement. You can add manual rules based on your own insights, and the algorithm will automatically incorporate those rules into its decisions too.

The more this algorithm learns from customer interactions, the better it becomes at recommending engaging assets, thus ensuring the right experience always reaches the right customer.

Extensive testing Another key component to effective personalization is delivering holistic experiences tailored to each customer. To maximize your clicks and conversions, you need to A/B test not only pages or products, but also large-scale variations in content, navigation, layout, timing and many other interconnected attributes.

That’s why today’s marketing technology platforms apply multiarmed bandit testing not only on individual products, services or content, but whole customer

experiences, from app or web site layouts to in-store visits.

Engagement at scale It’s worth noting that our recent Digital Trends report (https:// adobe.ly/2JsPEYm), conducted with Econsultancy, found that 28% of brands are already using AI. And that a further 29% plan to implement it in the short term. It will be critical for brands seeking to achieve personalization at scale to adopt AI and machine learning, and to partner with firms that can help guide them through their transformation journey.

Personalization at scale requires more than adopting AI, however.

It also has an impact on people and processes.

Developing true customer intelligence requires brands to reconstruct the way they develop customer profiles. That’s why, for example, instead of dividing the information they use to build their customer profiles into silos, leading brands are now combining their data into a single, unified platform.

This gives all employees the context they need to deliver highlytargeted, engaging experiences, no matter their department.

In the end it all boils down to the same core principle, which remains in place whether technology is involved or not: speak to your customers the way they wish to be spoken to and they’ll reward you with their business.

David Yee is head of Enterprise Digital Marketing, Adobe Canada (www.adobe.com/ca/).

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Personalization

Personalizing the senior market

By Sean Taggart

S

eniors— Canada’s fastest growing generation— have become an increasingly important demographic group for marketers. Their population expected to grow by 50% over the next ten years, according to Statistics Canada. In fact, onethird of adult life is now lived after the age of 65. We spend 8,000 days between the ages of 65 and 85: and seniors have high expectations for how they spend these days.

Today’s seniors are quite different from those a generation or two ago. They (and we, should we be fortunate to become seniors), are living healthier, more active and more social lives. Seniors also have an increasing savviness for technology and possess a thorough understanding of their lifestyle needs as they age.

The new generation of seniors are empowered. They research, ask questions and demand answers. And seniors, like the younger generations, are now expecting personalized customer experiences.

As the chief marketing officer (CMO) of one of Canada’s leading owners and operators of high-end seniors’ residences, Amica Senior Lifestyles, I am acutely aware that seniors are not only comparing Amica’s offering to the competition they are comparing it to all the service experiences they have had.

From the hotels they’ve stayed in, to the fine restaurants they’ve frequented and more. And the Baby Boomer generation coming up have even higher expectations of service and personalization than their parents.

Meeting individuals’ needs Seniors want to see themselves, and their desired lifestyles, reflected in the look, feel and service offerings of the seniors’ residences they choose to call home. But to achieve such personalization, strong consumer segmentation, targeted engagement and a robust ❱ DMN.ca

understanding of our target audience’s lived experiences are critical elements to consider.

Working with such a dynamic generation means that needs and expectations change. Continuously tracking consumer preferences informs our marketing decisions.

Moreover, not all seniors are alike; there isn’t a one-sizefits-all approach to marketing to this generation. To this end we recently repositioned the Amica Senior Lifestyles brand to meet those changing needs and preferences. We have incorporated personalization and an acknowledgement of the lived experiences of our target audience.

engagement with relevant content on our new interactive digital platform, Amica Conversations. The platform is intended to inspire and inform through the lens of residents’ personal stories and those of Canada’s leading experts in senior living.

The articles offer perspectives on caregiving, health and wellness, lifestyle and innovation. We are also continuously developing white papers and driving thought leadership on topics from downsizing to how to support someone living with dementia.

Our aim is to connect with our audience, providing them with essential tools and resources to

Moreover, not all seniors are alike; there isn’t a one-sizefits-all approach.

We used a targeted approach, leveraging both in-depth consumer research, as well as direct engagement with target customers to understand their specific needs: where they want to live, design preferences, service expectations, culinary expectations, interests and activities available to them.

This enabled us to create a personalized offering for residents and their families, promising to meet their needs, even as these needs change as our resident age.

Providing relevant content Stories are an important medium in marketing. They allow us to make sense of and rationalize concepts. Creating content that directly understands and supports the needs of the senior population allows brands to connect with their audience on a personal level and engage with them on topics that are of most interest to them.

As part of Amica’s marketing strategy, we are combining digital

support them in their current stage of life.

Digital transformation A large part of understanding the needs and preferences of the senior population is knowing where they are active online. Research from the Pew Research Center shows that 67% of seniors aged 65+ use the Internet and 4 in 10 seniors own smartphones1.

With this increased use of technology, we have more opportunity, as marketers, to engage directly with the consumer in a fluid and personal experience.

It is important for brands to evolve how they engage with current and prospective consumers, investing more heavily in digital platforms and digital marketing.

We know that visual digital aspects that emphasize personal journeys and lived experiences resonate well with seniors. At Amica, we have developed a series of video content, entirely for our

online communication strategy, that paints a picture of what senior living is within our residences.

While leveraging impactful digital content is important, we also need to understand where our online audience is spending its time. Seniors, even those who are familiar with and use technology, aren’t spending as much of their time online or in the same places as the Millennial generation that grew up with the digital world at its fingertips.

Take Facebook as an example.

We know that Facebook is the most popular social media platform for seniors: 46% of seniors 65 and older have a Facebook account2 using it to keep up with and engage with friends and family.

By observing how a person engages with Facebook and their interests and affinities, we can reach the consumer in a more personalized and targeted way. We can design targeted ads to meet their unique needs, including links to white papers and Amicaproduced articles that are relevant to the individual, addressing their concerns and answering their questions about senior living.

With the rise of digital and technological use and the evolving desires and expectations of the senior population, marketing to seniors is constantly changing.

Understanding the expectations and preferences of this diverse group is important in order to develop an impactful product offering that will resonate with key consumers. Personalization ensures we are marketing this offering in a way that is reflective of lived experience and expected lifestyle, allowing our audience to picture the ways in which our offering can benefit their lives.

Sean Taggart is chief marketing officer, Amica

Senior Lifestyles (www.amica.ca).

1 Monica Anderson and Andrew Perrin, “Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults”, Pew Research Center, report, May 17, 2017.

2 Andrew Perrin and Monica Anderson, “Share of U.S. adults using social media, including Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018”, Pew Research Center, article, April 10, 2019.

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Customer segmentation

The different approaches to segmentation

By Richard Boire

Business rules The simplest approach assignment is based on business rules where there is some pre-determined learning. For example, a marketing analysis might reveal that males are more likely to purchase a certain product than females. In this simple case, we then decide to create segments based on gender.

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Profiling

customers that look like high-value customers.

In other words, what are the demographics of these customers?

Are they, for example, high income, female and young? With the profile comprising demographics, the marketer can act on this information by targeting this segment who are currently low value.

Cluster segmentation But the most common form of segmentation is cluster segmentation, which has been used by businesses for decades.

The mathematics behind the cluster segmentation approach is essentially based on variation from the mean. In simplistic terms, the algorithm attempts to identify those variables where the variation or difference between a given variable’s values within that cluster and the variable mean of that cluster is minimized. Yet the variation of these same variables is maximized across or between the cluster group variable means.

See schematic below:

Businesses can use these unique segment insights and tailor their marketing efforts around them.

Not only can these segments can be used for targeted marketing efforts, the more important advantage is one of communication as marketers can frame their messaging around unique groups of customers.

The earliest form of segmentation used by many businesses were the PRIZM-based geographical clusters (currently 68), which were developed in the 1980s and pioneered by Environics Analytics. These geographical segments were, and continue to be, very useful in identifying unique segments of the Canadian population. Listed in the next column is a sample of four such cluster segments:

Segmentation and the development of customized cluster segments has become very attractive to businesses due to the strategic outcomes of this process.

Traditionally, organizational structure and alignment was product-silo based. Departments and divisions were based on products. During the early days of my career, at Reader’s Digest we had separate departments related to books, magazines and

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records, while at American Express, the structure was aligned based on card type (personal, gold, platinum) and ancillary products, such as insurance and merchandise.

But in today’s environment, as organizations strive to be more customer-focused, the thinking is that the organizational structure should be more aligned toward unique customer segments.

As opposed to managing products and service departments or divisions, organizations are now managing customer segments as a fundamental component of their overall corporate strategy.

Courtesy Boire Analytics

I

n many of the seminars and courses in data mining and data science that I have delivered segmentation is always considered a core topic. But what does it really mean and how should be used in the context of delivering business value?

The first task is always the definition of segmentation, which again is very simple as it is the assignment of records, or in this case customers, into different groups.

However, it is how this assignment occurs where the concept of segmentation can comprise several different approaches.

Cluster approach limits Despite the attractiveness of the cluster segment approach and its

October 2019

Courtesy Boire Analytics

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Another common form of segmentation is the notion of the profile. In this approach, we are essentially trying to identify look-alike type customers. This form of segmentation attempts to look at potential segments.

For example, one exercise might be to identify those low-value customers who most look like high-value customers. However, one must be careful in creating the profile of potential high-value customers when analyzing the data.

Without really thinking through the data, an analyst will delve into the data and determine that a high-value customer has had essentially high activity with the company, such as high spending and a high number of transactions.

But for the marketer this information is meaningless since they want to look at low-activity

potential to derive new business strategies, in many cases, this approach is not relevant, given the current data environment.

What do I mean by this? Because of the mathematics involved in clustering, these techniques work best when the data environment is somewhat stable.

For example, assume that we are asked to develop a new segmentation system for loyalty card customers that was launched DMN.ca ❰

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Customer segmentation determined, we then create a window of time whereby we look at purchase behaviour in this pre-purchase period and then look at purchase behaviour in the post-purchase period. Change in behaviour between the prepurchase period and the postpurchase period then determine the behavioural segments.

For example, the following behavioural segments are as follows: ❯❯ Reactivators: no activity in the pre-purchase period and activity in the post-purchase period; ❯❯ Defectors: activity in the pre-

❯❯

❯❯

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period; Decliners: Significant decrease in activity in the post-purchase period versus the pre-purchase period; and Stables: No significant change in activity between the prepurchase and post-purchase periods.

At the end of this exercise, we end up producing the following segmentation matrix where segments are classified according to the two dimensions of value and change in behaviour. See below:

Behaviour Segments Value Segments

Reactivators

Defectors

Growers

Stables

Defectors

High Value Medium Value Low Value

This necessitates that we first determine what is the appropriate purchase window for a given customer regarding this particular product or service. Once this is

❯❯

purchase period and no activity in the post-purchase period; Growers: Significant increase in activity in the post-purchase period versus the pre-purchase

Courtesy Boire Analytics

The value of VBS Enter the value-based segmentation (VBS) or valuebehaviour-based approach. With it, customers are segmented on two dimensions: value and change in behaviour.

Within this first dimension of value our initial task is to identify what the customer value is for that specific company. This involves extensive collaboration amongst the different stakeholders, so that consensus on defining customer value is attained.

With this consensus, the next task is the actual assignment of value to the customer. These customers are then sorted by value into deciles, which look as follows:

From that chart we then see how customer value distributes across all the deciles. The top two deciles represent the high value segment, while deciles 3-6 represent the medium value segment and deciles 7-10 represent the low value segment. Note the negative value in Decile 10 indicates that there is a credit component in that decile, implying that this group of customers represent customers with significant credit losses.

The second dimension of VBS deals with change of behaviour, where we look at how customers are changing over time.

Courtesy Boire Analytics

six months ago. Any marketer would understand that trying to apply any statistical insights of customers from a six-month programme to customers after 12 months is going to be very nebulous. The organization is in heavy acquisition growth mode as it may expect to double its customer base every six months.

Customer characteristics between six months and 12 months are likely to comprise very different behaviours and demographics, implying a very dynamic data environment.

The robustness of these tools is severely compromised in a data environment that is changing quite dramatically. Another approach is required.

The end deliverable is a segmentation system that operates in a very dynamic data environment where customers can be segmented based on value and change in behaviour.

The above discussion reinforces the notion that segmentation is a not one-size-fits-all option.

Segmentation approaches will depend on the data environment, business objectives and the balance between the degree of complexity versus speed and simplicity in building the appropriate solution.

But whether or not solutions are simple versus complex, customer segmentation is a key requirement for any organization that is in the process of developing “customer experience” type strategies.

Richard Boire is president of Boire Analytics,

an organization that is a leader in data analytics with over 30 years in applied analytics solutions across virtually all industry disciplines. He can be reached at boire@boireanalytics.com or for more information, go to: www.boireanalytics.com.

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Customer segmentation

How Canadians are unique

By Bryan Segal

T

October 2019

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Total Audience, December 2018.

Courtesy Comscore

Canadians have been desktop-heavy This may come as a surprise, given that everyone is so interconnected these days. But Canada, compared to the rest of the world, has trended toward having more desktop users.

This graphic is ranked by mobile-only unique visitor (UV) percentages. As you can see, Canada falls on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to those who access content specifically and only on their mobile devices.

So, for marketers trying to reach Canadian audience segments, a mobile-only campaign will likely miss a large chunk of relevant consumers...at least for now.

But on the other side of the loonie there is a reason for the mobile hype, and marketers need to be paying attention to shifting trends. The growth in this audience is very high, and the average Canadian mobile user spends two times the amount of time accessing online content than the average Canadian desktop user.

The key takeaway here is that Canadians are steadily becoming more multi-platform every year and a significant push is also happening on the mobile-only frontier. What makes sense right now—not overly focusing on mobile-only—will likely be a different story in the future.

Courtesy Comscore

oday there is a wealth of advanced audience segmentation available that allows marketers to zero in on the most relevant potential customers.

Utilizing advanced data leads to insights on your audiences and being able to bring those to fruition in your actual campaigns only drives success at a better rate.

Understanding segments and your audience is fundamental in driving successes in activating your audience. And Comscore’s research reveals several notable differences between Canadian audiences and those in the rest of the world. Below are several examples that illustrate the unique nature of the Canadian market.

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Total Audience, March 2019 versus March 2017, Canada.

The increasingly interconnected marketplace means that marketers need to understand the underlying metrics, and where the shifts are occurring specifically with their relevant audience segments.

Niche is nice To achieve effective audience targeting, marketers need to find

their niches amid the noise. Let’s look at sports in Canada as an example. To the casual observer, sports in North America is largely a competition between major leagues that are locked in a frenetic race to innovate, promote, attract eyeballs and maximize their commercial value. However, the long tail of the Internet effect

favours those that finely segment and target their audiences.

While some of the more popular sports in Canada (hockey, football and baseball) feature near the top in terms of population reach, wrestling takes a lion’s share of total video streaming time.

Wrestling in Canada enjoys the second highest streaming time: DMN.ca ❰

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Courtesy Comscore

Customer segmentation

Courtesy Comscore

Source: Comscore Video Metrix® Multi-Platform and Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Total Audience, 2018 Monthly Average (January – December), Canada.

Source: Comscore Plan Metrix® Multi-Platform Powered by Vividata, Total Audience, December 2018, Canada. Note: Auto Intender classification is defined as respondents indicating household will likely to acquire a vehicle/ motorcycle in the next 12 months. Millennials are defined as those born 1982-2001, Generation X: 1965-1981, Baby Boomers: 1945-1965.

while reaching just 2% of Canadian digital audiences. This means marketers have an opportunity to use careful segmentation to cultivate a strong and engaged fan base by crafting tailored content and experiences. And your segment doesn’t have to be big to reap the rewards.

Crafting genuine experiences The key to crafting messages that resonate with your customers, rather than those that come off as disingenuous, is understanding audience traits, such as behaviours, lifestyles and attitudes, at the individual level. This is the power of moving beyond age and gender: being able to glean insights by studying characteristics and consumer mindset or propensities.

Through advanced audiences we can understand behaviours, like purchase intent, and pair this up with online engagement. ❱ DMN.ca

For example, as an automotive manufacturer you may seek to engage Canadians who intend to buy a car or motorcycle in the next 12 months. To help target your campaigns, you can further break down this segment by age groups to understand generational differences.

Millennials tend to have many more touchpoints with an automotive manufacturer’s web site than other generations, and will search online for product and brand information after seeing an ad. On the other hand, Gen Xers tends to talk about the product or brand with others after seeing an ad and Baby Boomers tend to visit a physical location.

Conclusion As the composition of Canadian consumers becomes more multiplatform and mobile, marketers should respond by seeking to

understand the lifestyle and behavioural elements that drive or result from this change. This means going beyond mobile and desktop campaigns to understanding deeper insights, such as how a consumer might shift between devices throughout the day as they go about their activities.

And this brings home the point of why it is so important to measure data at the unique, individual person level, as opposed to aggregated macro-level visits and frequency: which may give misleading insights about how to support your marketing strategies.

Marketing is becoming more sophisticated. Understanding all the phases of planning, transacting and evaluating is critically important to successfully connect with consumers. In addition to traditional brand metrics, digital media has allowed for supercharged activation opportunities.

At the end of the day, all of this advertising sophistication will enable marketers to drive more product off the shelves. I expect savvy marketing executives to leverage this functionality in greater fashion moving forward.

To learn more about our insights, or for more information on how Comscore can help you make business decisions with confidence, contact us at (www.comscore.com/Request/ Contact/Contact-Us) or email canada@comscore.com.

Bryan Segal is the senior vice president, Canada

at Comscore and has a long history with the company, starting as a research analyst and account manager in 2000. Over Bryan’s career he has helped Comscore to become the single standard in digital measurement in Canada.

He is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences across Canada and proudly serves as a board member of the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada.

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Customer segmentation

Making travel connections

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he importance of the tourism sector to the Canadian economy cannot be overstated. According to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada it generates over $100 billion in total economic activity and nearly 2 million jobs.

As impressive as those numbers are, the sector has plenty of room to grow. The challenge, however, will be to determine where that growth is going to come from and what type of investment will be needed to attract those visitors.

One of the main challenges for the travel and tourism industry is it lacks the proper data to compile a robust and comprehensive profile of their guests. Without these data, the sector lacks a clear idea of where visitors are going, how long they are staying or what types of travel experience they’re looking for. As an example, while airlines, hotels and car rental companies have rich information about their customers, they have a limited view of the visitors to their markets who are not using their products or services.

To fill this void, some companies occasionally turn to visitor intercept surveys or visitor count data. But these approaches are not only time-consuming and expensive, but they can also leave many important questions unanswered.

Targeting American travellers VisitorView was developed to answer these questions about the most important market to the Canadian tourism industry: the United States. VisitorView identifies which Americans have a high propensity to visit Canada, as well as which tourist regions they are most likely to visit.

By profiling these visitors, the tourism industry can identify their preferences, behaviours and spending capacity. Not only will this allow marketers to target American households that are most likely to visit specific Canadian destinations, but it will also allow tourism operators to reach potential visitors who participate in particular activities, such as skiing, camping or shopping.

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For instance, with these insights, mountain resorts will be able to identify which American skiers are most likely to visit Canada. Not only will this allow those resorts to sharpen their messaging, but it will also enable them to target the best prospects across the U.S. at the neighbourhood level. By targeting their marketing, these reports will allow them to lower their marketing costs because they won’t have to connect with as many people to achieve the desired response.

To ensure those messages reach their target audience, VisitorView can be linked to other databases to describe the media preferences of the major consumer segments by market. This will allow the travel and tourism industry to optimize their media buying strategies.

How it works This innovative solution combines aggregated, anonymous and privacy-compliant mobile location data, which is collected from devices held by Americans, with advanced geodemographic projection techniques and segmentation systems. Our estimates are calibrated using Statistics Canada’s International Travel Survey, as well as the agency’s Frontier Counts of U.S. overnight person trips to Canada.

The result is a dataset of American neighbourhood-level estimates of overnight American visitors to Canada, the provinces and territories or one of Canada’s 85 tourism regions as defined by Destination Canada. In addition to the number of overnight visitors, the dataset contains estimates of overnight trips and the number of nights spent, which help organizations measure the economic impacts of these visitors. VisitorView is updated quarterly to track seasonal effects to help the industry develop strategies to attract more visitors during off-peak periods.

While this resource can serve as a benchmark for the travel and tourism industry, VisitorView can also be linked with additional demographic and behavioural data to help the industry make more informed decisions that will fuel future growth.

Courtesy Environics/iStock

By Larry Filler

Visitor profiles The real power of VisitorView comes from its ability to profile those visitors. When combining VisitorView with Claritas PRIZM® Premier, the leading consumer segmentation system in the U.S., we find a core group of 23 out of a possible 68 segments accounts for 57% of all visitors to Canada. Put another way, one third of the U.S. population accounts for almost 60% of the visitors to Canada.

While these 23 segments share a fondness for Canada, they are quite distinct. More than half of American visitors can be linked to mature or older segments with average to above-average income levels and live in urban, suburban and small towns. These are consumers who load up at Costco and wear clothes from Chico’s and Kohl’s. In their spare time, they enjoy attending live events, like the theatre and cheering on their favourite Major League Baseball team.

More importantly, these mature and older families have an average household income of US$93,976 a year, which allows them to travel.

The Muskokas and Parry Sound region in Ontario is one of the more popular Canadian destinations for these visitors, particularly for those living in the northeastern U.S. Typically, American visitors to the province’s cottage country usually lasts between six and nine days.

At the same time, about 30% of visitors come from more affluent family segments who reside in suburbia. With average household incomes of $101,671, these families gravitate to the large CMAs (census metropolitan areas) like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal at almost twice the rate of the average American visitor. The remaining

20% of this core group of visitors to Canada come from young, urban and upwardly mobile segments.

For improved targeting, VisitorView can further profile these segments based on media consumption habits, as well as the types of activities they like to participate in while visiting Canada. For instance, traditional media continues to be the best way to reach mature or older segments.

These families listen to CBS News radio and recap the week by reading the Sunday New York Times on the weekend.

Canadian tourism destinations looking to raise their profile may want to pay attention to awards season, since this audience over-indexes for the red-carpet spectacles on TV. It’s worth noting that these families don’t commute as much, which makes out-of-home ads less effective for this audience.

Similar insights are available for the other target segments as well. The on-the-go lifestyles of younger consumers, for instance, makes them receptive to outdoor transit ads. As a sign of their love for travel, members of this younger segment flip through Hemispheres, United Airlines’ in-flight magazine at particularly high rates.

Meanwhile, the more affluent of the three target segments read The Wall Street Journal and consume everything sports. They also go to the movies, meaning tourism companies have the chance to wow them on the big screen as they are just starting on their popcorn.

The Canadian tourism industry is alive and well. VisitorView helps make it stronger.

Larry Filler is a senior vice president and

leader of the Tourism Practice at Environics Analytics.

DMN.ca ❰

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Feature

Decoding the future Interview with Mitch Joel Mitch Joel is one of Canada’s foremost experts on digital marketing and a renowned podcaster, speaker and author.

J Stephen Shaw is the chief strategy officer

of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in delivering more unified customer experiences. He is also the host of a monthly podcast called Customer First Thinking. Stephen can be reached via email at sshaw@kenna.ca.

ust when most traditional companies are getting used to the idea of doing business digitally, a new wave of technology is coming that will put even more pressure on them to adapt as quickly as they can: what’s been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

No wonder IDC is forecasting an increase of 18% in digital transformation spending this year, as businesses race to upgrade and modernize their infrastructure and systems. But most businesses remain “digitally distraught”, as IDC puts it1. New ways of connecting with customers means new ways of doing business: hard to pull off if the C-suite can’t see past the next earnings report.

Since the number one goal of digital transformation is almost always to improve the customer experience, marketing should be leading the way. Yet, according to Forrester Research, that job is usually handed to the chief information officer (CIO), who’s more likely to be thinking digital-first, not customer-first2. Which is why efforts at digital transformation generally

flame out, doused by a lack of urgency and a lukewarm commitment to change.

Preparing for convulsive change is crucial if businesses want to avoid disruption. Which is exactly what Mitch Joel has been urging businesses to do for almost his entire career, making a name for himself as a digital expert specializing in “decoding the future”, as he puts it.

Mitch built his reputation as a trailblazer in the early days of the digital revolution, dating back to the start-up of his agency Twist Image in 2002. Today he writes a popular blog called Six Pixels of Separation which he started 16 years ago and produces a weekly podcast by that same name. He’s also written a couple of best-selling books, the second of which, Ctrl Alt Delete, was about “the evolution and reboot of business”.

Preparing for convulsive change is crucial if businesses want to avoid disruption.

Q:

You’ve had interesting arc to your career, starting out as a music journalist and publisher. Did your experience in the music business give you an appreciation for the risks of ignoring digital disruption?

At the time, the general attitude of the music business toward digital was “It’s a fad”. But when Napster happened the attitudes became corrosive. Even in those early days, every industry was facing disruption. It was just a question of when.

A:

Q: A:

Are you seeing many companies embracing transformation as a result of digital disruption?

I can tell you that I don’t ever stand up in front of an audience and get off stage and feel amazed at how unaware they are of the disruption. If anything, it’s more a question of how fast they’re able to move.

Do they want to lead? Do they want to fast-follow? Do they want to wait for the industry to change?

Q: A:

How should they answer that question?

Mitch Joel is one of Canada’s foremost experts on digital marketing and a renowned podcaster, speaker and author.

❱ DMN.ca

That is a very strategic question. I think it’s a question of “do we make the investment or do we let others make the investment and adopt their technology?” I don’t think there’s one answer.

October 2019

// 19

Feature

Q: A:

In our business, agency services, what’s the answer?

I left the business in 2018.

So, I’m really looking at it more like anyone else reading the advertising and marketing trade media.

Clients are bringing a lot of stuff in-house and they’re building very strong teams. And now you have the big consultants coming in, like Accenture and Deloitte, that are speaking to the C-suite.

Meanwhile the holding companies are all struggling: “How do we consolidate? How do we optimize?”

These are big $30 billion public companies that need to explain to the marketplace how they’re going to react to the consultants and in-house teams.

We’ve gone from three network TV stations, where if you weren’t on at prime time on a Thursday it was very hard for you to get traction in the marketplace, to today where you have this digital duopoly of Facebook and Google. And now you have Amazon entering the picture, which is going to push brands toward collecting their own first-party data, and that’s a trend that’s not going to go away.

Will the digital ad bubble burst?

Q:

Given what we’ve seen over the last few years—ad fraud, brand safety concerns, the ascendancy of ad blocking, the lack of supply-side transparency, fractional clickthrough rates—is the digital advertising bubble about to burst?

Advertising is a very, very big business. You’re talking over $1 trillion—half of that in the U.S. Advertising is what ultimately pushes sales for every company, no matter what size they are.

Is digital advertising a problem?

Of course, it’s a problem. It’s a problem because the web was never meant to be a media channel. What happened is we cobbled together technologies with chicken wire, duct tape and paper clips.

That isn’t the fault of the publishers; I think it’s a collective problem. It wouldn’t be very hard for publishers and media companies to choose the exact sites and types of pages they want to be on. But they don’t do that.

A:

October 2019

They’re just using programmatic to place ads. On the platform side, is Facebook completely absolved of responsibility? No. When it comes out and say things like, “Thirty percent of your videos may not have been viewed,” that’s a problem.

Q:

Mark Pritchard complained two years ago that 75% of P&G’s digital ad spend was wasted.

Yeah. I’ve seen those arguments from him and from many other brands. But I felt that was a cop-out. Brands love throwing everybody else under the bus. I just didn’t agree with that comment.

I think that brands have a responsibility to know where they’re putting their ads, and if they feel like it’s not the right place, they have every right to pull it.

Why did they buy it? Because it was cheap, fast and easy to do. All they were looking for is eyeballs and reach. That’s just old school thinking.

A:

Q:

Let’s look at this from the consumer viewpoint.

People today feel they’re bombarded by ads. They feel creeped out by retargeting.

They’re concerned about data surveillance and unauthorized use of their personal data. The web is not a good experience today for the majority of people, at least that’s what the public surveys suggest. Even Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who conceived the World Wide Web, recently said, “It’s at a tipping point.” Is he right? Does the web need a reboot?

I’ve had the pleasure of talking to Tim BernersLee a handful of times. He never favoured the commercialization of the Internet. He’s been saying that from day one. It was always meant to be a decentralized place where people could share information.

But as far as consumers revolting, I’m prepared to call b.s. on that. If you look at Facebook’s Q4 quarterly earnings for 2018, they beat revenue expectations.

We’re talking about 1.5 billion people who are using Facebook every single day. That’s in a quarter where it had the most controversy, the worst news. And on top of that,

A:

you have 3 billion people who are using Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger, all owned by Facebook.

That’s almost half the global population.

In the face of all this negative stuff—privacy concerns, safety issues, scandals, third-party data breaches, fake news, bogus accounts, public outrage— Facebook is doing better than ever.

I think consumers say one thing and do another. Or maybe the only people who are really raising these issues are media pundits and journalists.

Look, I’m not being a Facebook apologist. We’ve seen digital platforms fall out of favour with people and disappear very quickly.

That’s not the case here. I think the fair question is what type of digital economy do we want?

Q:

Platforms like Facebook and Amazon are in full command of their audiences and what they see. Is that going to drive brands toward creating their own platforms?

Some brands will build direct relationships with their consumers, while others will create partnerships or just rely on third parties to help. What I think brands should be saying is, “We just want to make your experience as customized and as personal as possible with your permission, and with your full knowledge of the data we have.” Relationships are built on trust. And data and trust now go hand in hand.

A:

Smart voice and marketing

Q:

Speaking of privacy, I read that more than half of households are going to have a smart speaker by 2022.

What are the implications for marketers of this shift to a conversational interface through smart speakers and devices?

If there’s one thing I’m extremely passionate about right now, it’s the smart voice space. I think that voice is the intuitive and natural user experience everybody wants.

Of course, with it comes challenges. There’s the technological challenge of how accessible it truly is for consumers and how easy it is to operate and

A:

use and we’ve seen challenges with that. Discoverability is a massive challenge. There is no Yahoo yet for it. There is no real Google for it yet. It’s really in the pre-hyperlink stage. You have to know exactly where you’re going to get there. But all of those are hurdles that are going to be overcome. The adoption figures are pretty staggering. You have something like 30% of people who have smart speakers already purchasing through them!

The bigger challenge I think is that unlike the web, which is free and open, this channel is all owned. Amazon owns Alexa.

Microsoft owns Cortana. Google owns Assistant. Apple owns Siri.

With that comes a lot of people who are scared that these devices are listening. It goes back to the privacy problem and challenge. But I think we’ll get over that.

Future of digital publishing

Q:

The layoffs earlier this year at BuzzFeed provoked some debate about the future of digital publishing and where that’s going. The whole industry is still wrestling with what the right business model is. Do you see the “free and now” part disappearing?

It’s very, very clear that subscription models are super attractive. Look no further than Netflix and Spotify. It used to be you subscribed to a physical newspaper that got delivered every day. But today for a nominal monthly fee you can have ondemand access to entire library of content. And that’s a very different model for publishers than the traditional one where the newspaper or magazine showed up on your doorstep or in your mailbox.

I do think we’re at a turning point where people are willing to pay for access. Look at people subscribing to Joe Rogan. Gamers are supporting Twitch. People are subscribing to Peloton. They’re subscribing to Dollar Shave Club. So, we’re finally seeing a maturation of these business models. The future has become a little clearer.

A:

1 Meredith Whalen, “The Digitally Determined Blueprint”, IDC, blog, June 26, 2018.

2 Thomas Husson, Keith Johnston, Alex Sobchuk and Rachel Birrell, “CMOs: Define Your Role In Digital Transformation”, Forrester Research, research, February 4, 2019.

DMN.ca ❰

// 20

Resource Directory Data Analytics

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July 4, 2013

AD:

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AM:

Sinclair

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3540

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Contact: Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca

// 21

Events

Fall Retail Council of Canada forums

Retail Flyer Forum October 29, 2019 The Carlu, Toronto, Ont. Link to: www.retailcouncil.org/ events/retail-flyer-forum/ Flyer Power: Canadians continue to love flyers As consumers continue to study digital and print flyers for great deals, retailers continue to explore the “perfect” mix of digital and print flyer initiatives to drive sales and build their brands.

To dig deeper into the newest insights that successful retailers are leveraging in flyer marketing, the Retail Council of Canada is presenting the Retail Flyer Forum on October 29 at The Carlu in Toronto, Ont. This half day event will discuss the evolution of this traditional marketing tactic.

Leading flyer marketers will discuss: ❯❯ The changing role of flyers to reinforce brands’ competitive positioning; ❯❯ Using data to ensure that flyers remain relevant, motivating and effective for driving sales; ❯❯ How inputs from various divisions of a retail organization

For more information, visit RetailFlyerForum.ca or call 1-888-373-8245.

Retail Council of Canada

Retail Council of Canada

❯❯

impact published flyer production; and How the flyer continues to be one of the most power marketing drivers.

Brick & Mortar Retail Forum November 19, 2019 Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, Ont. Link to: www.retailcouncil.org/ events/brick-mortar-retail-forum/ What’s in store for brick-andmortar retail?

The changing landscape of retail has never been more exciting.

Despite the capability to buy almost anything anywhere with the click of a button, consumers continue to shop in physical retail stores to feed their neverending hunger for fresh, enjoyable experiences.

Yes, consumers want to shop and touch merchandise, but they also want to interact with people, have fun, learn and experience something new. Unique amenities, services and one-of-a-kind events have become part of the brick-andmortar retail adventure. In fact, shopping malls are turning into true communities that feature parks, “destination” entertainment

attractions, flexible workspaces, enhanced food and grocery options and even residential complexes.

To discuss the latest developments and opportunities in brick-and-mortar retail, the Retail Council of Canada is hosting a half-day Brick & Mortar Retail Forum at the Toronto Reference Library on November 19.

Leading retailers and retail real estate executives will discuss: ❯❯ Cutting-edge technologies and metrics retailers are currently using to access deeper data on consumer behaviour that was previously only possible through online analytics; ❯❯ The impact on sales and brands of varied, custom-targeted in-store messaging; and ❯❯ Strategies for how modern retailers are approaching experiential store design to drive engagement and build sales.

Also, highlights from the muchanticipated 2019 Canadian Shopping Centre Study will be presented.

For more information, visit BricksAndMortarRetail.ca or call 1-888-373-8245.

Retail Cannabis Forum November 19, 2019 Toronto Reference Library (Toronto, Ont.)

To send press announcements, please direct them to Brendan Read, Editor, at brendan@dmn.ca October 2019

Link to: www.retailcouncil.org/ events/cannabis-in-retail-forum/ Cannabis in retail: one year later Retail has seen many shifts over the past year. Chief among them is the newest business opportunity in Canadian retail: legalized cannabis. As the legal sale of recreational cannabis enters its second year, the Retail Council of Canada is hosting the Retail Cannabis Forum on November 19 at the Toronto Reference Library.

This half-day event will explore what cannabis retailers and industry experts have experienced and the lessons they’ve learned this past year. It will also focus on emerging opportunities as this retail sector expands and introduces the sale of edibles, extracts and topicals.

Discussion topics include: ❯❯ Marketing strategies in this regulated sector; ❯❯ Preparing for Cannabis 2.0; ❯❯ Recruitment and employee training; and ❯❯ Best practices for launching a cannabis business.

For more information visit: CannabisRetailForum.ca or call 1-888-373-8245.

Retail Council of Canada

T

he Retail Council of Canada (www.retailcouncil.org) will be holding three very timely, insight-rich and business-driving forums this fall. Here they are.

Important note: the Brick & Mortar Retail Forum and the Retail Cannabis Forum dovetail each other, at the same venue, making it possible to attend both events. The Brick & Mortar Retail Forum runs from 7:30 am to 11:30 am and the Retail Cannabis Forum begins at 12:00 pm and ends at 5:30 pm.

Check us out online

dmn.ca

DMN.ca ❰

Excellent Execution

// 22

Customer support needs video too T he constantly shifting pace of communication requires companies to regularly explore new and creative ways of transforming their customer service experience. Using video is an absolute must in delivering the kind of service, including support, that customers will latch onto and continue coming back for.

Fortunately, it’s incredibly likely that your business has embraced video for marketing purposes. But video doesn’t have to stop at the marketing department, nor should it.

The good news, if you’ve travelled down this route, is that you already have the internal infrastructure to transpose video methods to your customer support teams. All you have to do is apply it. Here’s how.

Sean Gordon is founder of vidREACH.io

(https://vidreach.io) and did so engage candidates, prospects, customers and employees—all on one platform. Sean has created new lines of business, reinvigorated stagnant company cultures and mentored hundreds of employees who have gone on to do great things. Connect with Sean Gordon on LinkedIn.

Video for customer retention Supporting your customers is just as vital as signing up new ones. This should go without saying, but companies time and time again overlook this fact and wonder why they’re faltering.

According to Forbes, businesses lose over $75 billion a year due to customer service not meeting expectations: a number that’s shockingly on the rise.

The article cites an NVM study that points to factors like customers not feeling appreciated or being passed around from rep to rep without getting answers1.

Video is an absolute must in delivering the kind of service that customers will latch onto.

Video’s role in correcting this ongoing battle is readily apparent. To address the first reason, giving customers the opportunity to speak face-to-face whenever possible is an absolute necessity to avoid the “call centre” mentality of dismissiveness and anonymity. By doing so you mitigate these preconceived notions by getting customers comfortable: by giving them the personalization of having faces to the names.

Video chat for support teams is critical in that people are just nicer to one another when they’re looking each other in the face. The recognition for frequent callers, as well as the ease through which we can read body language and better understand one another when we see faces, can help assuage support calls for nagging problems that customers are facing. And thanks to technology like WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) customers can engage in video conversations without leaving the web sites or apps.

As for the second reason, video provides the perfect means to resolve technical issues in the quickest, most efficient way possible. Depending on the size of your support team and client base, it’s the ultimate method to firmly resolving issues in a means that prioritizes ❱ DMN.ca

modelling and learned interaction with products.

One way to approach video support is to bifurcate the customer support team, with call and email screeners dividing tech support into one of two categories: those that are quick fixes that can be handled by phone or email, and tech support that involves multi-step facets.

The former is used for expediency; always defer to the video method whenever possible. But sometimes your tech support will be tied up or customers will simply prefer to just address the problem from their phone on the spot.

For the latter, like an involved take on a tech concern, filter customers towards a video chat mechanism.

There are plenty of affordable platforms out there; find a secure one that fits your costs and needs and integrate it accordingly.

It’s a necessity for your tech teams to use computer screen inputs in the video chat. Using this method, tech support can model the exact fixes for customers on the spot. Say goodbye to the days of support having to explain terminology and all of the myriad of back-and-forth rhetoric that comes in phone troubleshooting; it’s frustrating for everyone involved.

This video method will quickly not only resolve a problem, but it also allows customers to visually learn how to correct it in the future and to also get an insider look at how they should be interacting with your product.

Video knowledgebase Not only can video assistance help on the spot, but there’s an added bonus: it’s really, really easy to capture video, edit and post later through creating a video knowledgebase. What’s the point? When you have frequently asked questions (FAQs) in your support query, and customers would benefit from a quick video, give it to them!

First, solicit approval from customers before recording video conversations. Once you’ve collected that, as well as the footage, you can start piecing together quick tutorials with already-generated content in the video knowledgebase. Using a platform of your choice, you can then host this for your customers and allow them to browse by category to find the answers and strategies to resolve their issues on the spot. Video becomes the ideal mechanism to transcend a support call and turn it into a piece of useful, customer-approved content delivered just for them.

The benefits of video for your customers are clear.

People are so accustomed to turning to video to resolve their problems in their private lives, quickly searching YouTube for a video to see how to change the headlights in a 2004 Acura or to make a world-class bun cake, that it only makes sense for businesses to lean into the trend.

Video is not going away anytime soon, and companies can create a customer-first environment with personalized assistance all through the use of a camera and a little bit of time.

1 Shep Hyken, “Businesses Lose $75 Billion Due To Poor Customer Service”, Forbes, May 17, 2018.

October 2019

Coming November 2019

FOUNDATION The Business &

Nove m be r/Dece

m be r 2019

Spirit of Philan

thropy in Cana da

THE

Celebrity EDGE

How Athletes L i Get (and stay) ke Christine Sinclair Onboard

Foundation Magazine is the Canadian bi-monthly publication and media channel which reaches more than 25,000 individual executives in Canada who represent the full charity and foundation sector and the major donor community, as well as the spectrum of companies which support, supply to, and advise all aspects of the not-for-profit industry.

To advertise or to get more information and a media kit:

Contact Mark Henry for details,

mark.henry@lloydmedia.ca

Foundation Magazine is a Lloydmedia, Inc publication.

Lloydmedia also publishes DM Magazine, Contact Management magazine, Payments Business magazine, and Canadian Equipment Finance magazine.

PM 40 05 08 03