Pairing CTV & In-store Activation to Win All Stages of the CPG Customer Journey

The traditional consumer packaged goods (CPG) purchase funnel has lost its relevance. For decades,† brand marketers relied on a straight-forward path to purchase, guiding shoppers from brand awareness through linear TV to interest and desire fostered by print media, culminating in conversion at the point of purchase.

Today’s CPG customer journey looks much more like an intricate spiderweb. Shoppers skitter across multiple channels – online, in-store and mobile apps – resulting in a fragmented path to purchase.

Reclaiming the path to purchase

It reminds me of the evolution of streaming services, where consumers were promised infinite choice. In reality, it’s become death by 1,000 micro-subscriptions with no clear path for discovering what, when and where to watch your favorite shows or discover new ones.

Ironically, technology has further complicated the customer experience. While it facilitates access to vast amounts of data on products, pricing and promotion, it also creates tangled paths to purchase and, arguably, extends the journey. While 57% of ad agency execs say shoppable media provides a lightning-fast path to purchase,• it’s not a simple fix.

For AI and Machine Learning to flatten, fine-tune, and accelerate the CPG customer journey, it requires data analytics experts who can extract key insights and distill them into personalized messaging delivered seamlessly across channels.

Cutting through the complexity

Amidst this complexity, Connected TV (CTV) and in-store incentives are poised to become 2025’s power play. Paired together, they streamline the path to purchase and drive conversions by effectively using innovative technologies to replace those spiderwebs with an elegant solution.

Like all good relationships, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Marketers recognize the value of CTV’s advanced targeting and precise measurement capabilities as it gains scale. Its usage surpassed linear TV this year‡ and is projected to exceed $34B next year.2 CTV strategically drives in-store traffic by linking first-party purchase data with a shopper’s viewing habits and product preferences to deliver highly targeted, personalized ad campaigns.

Simultaneously, in-store coupon redemption is on the rise. The resurgence of in-store shopping post-pandemic underscores that it’s still the moment of truth for many shoppers. According to the Path-to-Purchase Institute, consumers still favor brick-and-mortar grocery stores more than any other retail category.ˆ

The ubiquity of smartphones and digital wallets has fueled a surge in digital coupon usage – 60% of US consumers use them – as both brands and retailers embrace their ability to offer targeted promotions and track redemption rates.º But they shouldn’t underestimate the staying power of paper coupons. Inmar found that more than half of shoppers across all age groups continue to use printed coupons regularly.§

Integrating CTV and in-store for maximum results

To effectively navigate your most valuable shoppers toward purchase, look for a platform that cuts through the clutter and delivers personalized offers when they’re ready to buy. The optimal approach seamlessly integrates in-store with CTV, allowing brands to leverage the power of compelling storytelling in a medium where consumers are actively engaged. By partnering with Catalina to monitor the effectiveness of these campaigns in real-time, marketers gain the intelligence to optimize messaging and shift budgets away from ineffective creative, content and media toward those that drive conversions.

Catalina’s strength lies in its 40+ year legacy of harnessing granular data at scale. This allows for rapid identification of consumer segments: Those primed to buy, those at risk of switching to competitors, and those susceptible to price fluctuations. Data experts leverage this understanding to recommend optimal target audiences and tailor compelling brand messages across the most effective media formats.

In cases where brand messaging alone doesn’t secure conversions, marketers’ ability to track purchase behavior—whether a shopper has bought your product, a competitor's product, or remains undecided—becomes invaluable. By linking CTV and in-store data, Catalina can provide that extra nudge towards purchase, strategically offering personalized incentives to seal the deal, rather than defaulting to blanket discounts and promotions.

Catalina's innovative Responsive Marketing adds another layer of sophistication, enabling real-time action. This application makes your marketing dollars work harder to efficiently drive conversion. Catalina’s 1:1 purchase insights from our expansive retailer network help automatically adjust media allocation and messaging based upon purchase behaviors and your desired goals. This means a brand can automatically re-direct media impressions, or promotional offers, from someone who has already bought the promoted brand to another member of the same target audience who has yet to convert. This unique real-time decisioning drives another layer of efficiency to brand campaigns.

Brands can use sequential marketing, retargeting, and suppression to hit multiple business objectives along the path the purchase. These responsive marketing solutions work together across digital and non-digital channels to create seamlessly integrated campaigns that respond inflight to shopper behavior.

For example, our national CTV and in-store program for Applegate Deli Meat demonstrates the power of responsive marketing. By anonymously matching household CTV exposures and purchase behavior, Catalina dynamically responded with the appropriate, personalized in-store incentive – like a high value offer to incent trial and no offer to those that already purchased after seeing the CTV ad. The campaign brought 20% new buyers to the brand and a $2.22 ROAS.

Simplify the evolving CPG customer journey

As complex CPG customer journeys become the norm, the combination of CTV and in-store activation--powered by sophisticated data analysis and tools like Catalina's Responsive Marketing or In-flight Optimization--offers a much-needed pathway back to simplicity and effectiveness.

By understanding and leveraging the nuances of today’s shopper preferences, brands can cut through the noise, delivering personalized messages that resonate and drive conversions. This data-driven approach ensures that marketing dollars are strategically allocated, maximizing impact and performance metrics. As the CPG landscape continues to evolve, embracing these tools will be paramount for brands seeking to stand out in grocery aisles full of choice and competitive offers.

To learn more about Catalina’s In-flight Optimization tool, contact us as results@catalina.com.

† E. St. Elmo Lewis, The Psychology of Selling and Advertising, 1925
• eMarketer, 20243 eMarketer, The Ascent of CTV, 2024
‡ eMarketer, The Ascent of CTV, 2024
ˆ Path to Purchase Institute, Evolution of the In-Store Shopping Experience, 2024
º Statista, US Digital Coupon Report
§ Inmar, Mid-Year Promotion Trends, 2024