The Surprising Value of Targeting the Solo Consumer. An Interview with Canvas’ Mark O'Leary & Stephanie Viganego

I am always intrigued by research that mines the data to form surprising insights. In the case of Canvas, a media marketing agency, it was their ability to delve more deeply into single person households, which they refer to as Solos, to form compelling and original insights into their motivations and behaviors. Such insights can offer advertisers a new way to market for a cohort that represents a not inconsequential population of 36 million Americans.

According to Mark O’Leary, Canvas’ Vice President of Consumer Insights, “Part of our job is looking at the big trends and what's going on in the world. We know things that we're seeing could impact all of our clients or specific clients so we've been doing a lot of target work recently.” As part of this effort, Stephanie Viganego, Strategist Consumer Insights, “happened to find this nugget in terms of thinking about what we do on a normal day to day and how it intersects with our personal life,” he explained.

For a strategist like Viganego, Solos data offers an opportunity to more deeply explore an often overlooked group. “These are things that I think about on a daily basis and I also realized how much I had in common with other Solos who were in completely different life stages than me,” Viganego noted and added, “For example, during the pandemic, I started talking to my grandma more often and it felt like we had a similar type of experience living alone, wanting to socialize. I realized that we had so much more in common than we thought because of our living arrangements. I thought it would be an interesting topic to do research on and write about. A lot of interesting insights came out of the research that we did.”

What Viganego found was that Solos have both commonalities and differences that transcend demographics. “This group could either be single, could be partnered, could it could be widowed, could be divorced or separated. What brings them closer together, what they have in common is that they all live alone. They have a similar living arrangement, lifestyle and the attitudes from the things they experience on a daily basis,” she stated and added, “We really wanted to bring light to this growing audience that we tend to overlook. We wanted to inspire marketers and advertisers to see things from the perspective of a one person household, how to think about this audience when developing marketing strategy and developing product design.”

Opportunities for advertisers span many product categories and product designs. Viganego stated that, “Having the right portions,” is one area to explore. “It's challenging to buy bread when you're not going to finish it and it's going to get moldy. When it comes to household products like toilet paper, there's not enough space. Having products that help with saving space,” would help connect with this cohort.

Solos, according to Viganego, treasure, “independence and autonomy. They are able to choose when to eat, what to watch on TV, how to design their space, how to organize their space, when to socialize. It's a lot of freedom, a lot of autonomy and they also tend to be more social and join different social communities like Meetup, for example. They can also be more spontaneous than other target groups because of fewer commitments, more opportunities to socialize and more flexibility with schedules and planning.” But, she warned, “There are some things that can be seen as challenges for this particular audience compared to other targets. Cost of living expenses, having to pay double for everything. Also, there are some categories that could discriminate based on policies that are that are in place that benefit people that are in more traditional family relationships.”

The pandemic has impacted Solos although the long term impact is still playing out. “The pandemic has pushed people in this group to be more involved with community groups because initially during the pandemic, everything was on zoom. Looking at some of the data, we saw a spike in people joining and hosting Meetup groups. Maybe, potentially, people started enjoying their solitude more and embracing it more,” Viganego noted. While O’Leary believed that, “As it relates to going back to work versus working remotely, I don't think we're ever going to go back to the office full time, or at least not in the foreseeable future, so I think it will continue to strengthen some of those characteristics of Solos because coming out of it, feeling stronger about your choices and how you've survived the pandemic is only going to reinforce some of these beliefs.”

Study results were culled from, “A lot of third party research and looking at annual American time study and  work that's been done by authors like Bella Paolo who has done a lot of specific research about singles in particular,” Viganego stated. Next steps will include further segmentation of Solos. “It would be great to go into more detail with segmenting this group out, celebrating this group and empowering those who live alone by acknowledging how rewarding and liberating it can be and removing that negative stigma associated with living alone,” she stated.

“I would add to that understanding how male and females or how different life stages intersect in terms of the purchase cycle. We're talking about doing a third version of this proprietary study. It's certainly sparked a lot of discussion at the Agency and we're all very proud of it,” O’Leary concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

Canvas’ Kevin Stafford Offers Advice on Acing the Agency Audit

In this competitive media environment, merely passing an audit is not enough. Agencies need to demonstrate true excellence for their clients. 

For Kevin Stafford, Senior Vice President, Client Director,  McDonalds co-ops account, Canvas, the importance of acing the annual audit is pivotal to the reputation of the agency. “In a time where agencies have been dominated by the holding companies, the goal of Canvas was simple,” he explained, “Create a scaled independent, best-in-class agency.” 

This mission has paid off. Canvas has been recognized by AdWeek as Breakthrough Agency of the Year in 2020 and AdAge Creativity awards and Most Innovative Agency by Campaign US.

What Does an Audit Entail?

The frequency of an audit can vary by agency and by client. “With some of our clients, we actually get audited quarterly,” he noted. “They send the goals that were input by strategy and the exact times for the spots that ran for each of the audited markets to the audit company who uses that data, along with Kantar date to evaluate the buys vs. a panel of other similar clients, vs. ourselves in previous quarters and vs. the averages.”

But in unusual times, such as during the pandemic, there were other considerations involving the audit including different parameters for client success. “While the overall audit process did not change,” Stafford said, “there were some glaring changes in the media marketplace. But communication with our clients really allowed us to make the changes that continued to focus on the clients business objectives.”

Preparing the agency technologically also helped save the day for Canvas during Covid. “We had a very opportunistic transition just weeks before the pandemic that allowed us to go into Monday, March 16, 2020 with limited interruption in our communication,” and this helped solve for what would otherwise have been a hectic and error-prone pandemic adjustment.

Audit Preparation is Vital

Canvas, as with other agencies, has a standard protocol for preparing for an audit, Stafford explained. The agency calculates the post buy and sends the data to the audit company which then returns a preview of the analysis so the agency can respond with any additional commentary to the findings.  “At the end of the day, our audit score is a number on our report card for how well we performed,” he noted, “However, it is just one part of that, and to me, it’s actually come to be about pride and being able to show, in numbers, versus the competition how well we have done.”

Ultimately, audit success is based upon trust. “We are lucky enough to have support from all of those partners in the good times, and a willingness to take chances in the challenging times.  The trust our clients have in our work, both on the strategy and investment teams is something we are fortunate to have and I think it comes off in our work and the results we have seen over the last few years, with great media audit results,” he stated.

Preparing For a Future Audit

Stafford’s advice for future audits is to start early. “The reality is that the audit starts with our teams working together early. Even as we are finalizing our plans for 2022 now, our strategy teams are talking to our investment teams to make sure we have the right daypart mixes and what the market has seen changing over the last few weeks/months/year.  We are looking to ensure we have the right overall strategy and that is aligns with our clients goals and objectives for the coming year.” 

Building relationships both internally and externally is the key to ongoing success as is the ability to be strategic in an extremely fluid and transformative media ecosystem. “It’s the flexibility and willingness to challenge the status quo in each region, each market and with each client that has helped make Canvas so amazing.  You add that to the world-class group of people in every department who really do love working together and it’s pretty hard for this team to not succeed,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com