International QSR Chain

CHALLENGE

An international QSR chain sought Viant’s help to drive awareness among heavy QSR consumers ahead of and during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, encouraging repeat visits and in-store purchases.

APPROACH

Viant executed two six-week campaigns leveraging premium cross-device online video (OLV) with a focus on publisher-direct relationships and people-based 1:1 delivery. Leveraging offline sales data to activate purchased-based targeting, Viant was able to unlock a vast pool of heavy QSR shoppers. Proprietary demographic data provided the ability to additionally layer both Hispanic and General Market targeting opportunities, which were prioritized by the chain.

Using foot traffic data for specific restaurant locations as an input, our Omnichannel Planning tool provided the QSR chain with data driven insights to optimize its existing media mix across mobile, desktop and tablet OLV. Viant also informed areas where the QSR chain’s engaged audience could best be reached for extensions into other formats.

The second of the two campaigns launched in February before the height of 2020’s COVID-19 outbreak, and was completed when many communities were shut down by the government. As the QSR chain navigated the pandemic, wee were able to tie ROI to media exposure and provide a better understanding of the shifting dynamics of online purchases vs. brick and mortar purchases. We highlighted the difference between online and offline sales and compared this to the prior campaign for maximum optimization.

Three critical tactics were used to meet campaign goals:

• Maintaining viewability and brand safety with real-time access to IAS metrics at the domain and impression level for optimization
• Utilizing proprietary machine learning and industry-leading supply-path optimization capabilities to confirm quality inventory from verified suppliers
• Accurately managing reach and frequency across individuals and their known devices

RESULTS

Thanks to Viant’s IAS API integration and proprietary machine learning, the Viant team ensured upper-funnel reach and frequency goals were met at an individual and device level, yielding a sales lift three times that of QSR category benchmarks.

Leaning on industry-leading direct-match partnerships with top aggregators of offline sales data to ensure all campaign exposure was tied back to sales effectiveness, the execution was rooted in addressable identifiers. This allowed us to measure actual sales tied to the exposed audience, providing insights around overall lift, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), visit increases, increases in purchase size and more.

Online sales conversions grew 123% from the first to the second campaign, likely based on changes in buying behavior because of stay-at home orders that the teams identified.