TV is becoming the go-to platform for DTCs looking to grow their audience and expand their marketing activity beyond social media. In this Q&A, DTC Daily speaks to Ed Montes, President & GM, TotalTV at dataxu, and Diane Swint, CRO, Lovepop, to discuss the two companies' recent partnership, and how DTCs are leveraging the opportunity of TV. 

DTC Daily: Can you explain what dataxu does?

Ed Montes, president & GM, TotalTV at dataxu: dataxu is a software company that helps marketing professionals use data to improve their advertising – particularly brands who value performance and attribution. We help DTC brands seeking engagement and sales attribution for their marketing investments by leveraging identity and data management software. dataxu focuses on the value of advanced television - specifically connected TV - to enable advertisers to understand and more fully and effectively reach custom audiences across all viewing devices.

Ed Montes, President & GM, TotalTV at dataxu

What was the reason Lovepop partnered with dataxu, what were you looking to achieve / what challenges were you looking to overcome?

Diane Swint, CRO, Lovepop: dataxu offers a platform that allowed us to test our new TV creative with specific audiences and measure the impact.  One of the reasons that we chose dataxu is because their OneView technology gives us the ability to measure the campaign performance just like we would any other digital channel. We can connect a household that saw our CTV ad with an online order on lovepop.com. As a start-up, we are focused on testing and learning before we invest in new acquisition channels.

How did the partnership help meet these objectives?

Diane Swint: Our partnership with dataxu allowed us to execute a multi-channel marketing strategy during our peak season. With this strategy, we optimised our targeting to message across channels and audiences. dataxu allowed us to spend in small increments until we found the right audiences and retargeting strategies to make our spend incredibly efficient. This partnership, with the intense training and support, helped our team learn which audiences met our objectives.

Diane Swint, CRO, Lovepop

Why is connected TV an important channel for Lovepop / DTC brands?

Diane Swint: The number of people watching connected TV grows every year, so we saw a unique opportunity to get into the market and learn how it works before our competitors. Connected TV is an extremely scalable channel that will allow us to introduce our brand to people on a large scale.  At Lovepop, we know that when people see one of our cards being opened, they understand what it means to create a magical moment. TV is an important channel for us because if you have never experienced giving a Lovepop card, it is difficult to appreciate the value proposition until you see it, and TV is a critical channel to help us scale this message.

Ed Montes: Many DTC brands have maxed out on Facebook and Google search.  They are looking for new channels and new opportunities to bring their data-driven planning and buying to the richer palette of video and TV.  What they find appealing are the digital characteristics of connected TV – specifically, the ability to immediately understand who is exposed to an ad and connect that exposure to sales -  and the ability to quickly understand return on ad spend. While other platforms are only able to deliver performance data after a campaign’s completion, dataxu is the only platform that can deliver these insights in real time, allowing brands to optimise their spends while media is in flight.

How do you ensure that these new customers become loyal shoppers with Lovepop?

Diane Swint: The number one way we ensure loyalty is the magical moments each Lovepop creates.  There are two magical moments for every Lovepop card sold, one for the person who hand selects the design for the special person in their life and a second for the recipient when they open it and experience the magic. This experience keeps our customers coming back. In addition, we have a few services for our customers that appreciate assistance with remembering key occasions. We have a reminders service, which sends a reminder for special occasions that our customers could use a Lovepop to celebrate, and we have a subscription service that automatically sends Lovepop cards directly to your home monthly.