The Retailer Spring Edition 2022

thrive.” ‘‘

4. Is everyone curious about ‘digital’? At leading retailers, curiosity about ‘digital’ technology and data lives beyond the ‘digital’ teams. For example, creative is a critical lever: in research on effectiveness of adverts, Nielsen finds that 50-80% of the return comes from the creative, compared with 5-35% from targeting. Yet creative can be enhanced with data. We’ve worked with one retailer whose creative team has a roadmap of data-driven tests throughout the year in order to learn and scale what cuts through. Another retailer doubled consumer engagement with their ads when they overhauled creative using digital best practice. Finally, underpinning many of these traits, is the sponsorship and focus of the leadership team. While most retailers say it is important to adapt marketing in the light of new shopping behaviour, leaders in the strongest retailers personally drive change and build their own digital knowledge. It used to be that the most senior leaders on the team had the most practical experience - their gut instinct was a great guide for making key decisions. But with machine learning it’s impossible to simply look under the hood to tell what’s working, and rapid change in automation and marketing technology means past experience isn’t always up to date. So strong leaders recognise the limits of their personal knowledge, and instead set up a culture where curiosity and expertise can thrive. For example, leaders at the most successful retailers drive change by asking questions on the progress of digital projects and prioritisation of the data roadmap, personally taking an interest in their business’s marketing measurement approach, or connecting with the expert in the organisation - often someone much more junior - to explore their view and amplify it in the organisation. 5. How does the leadership team drive digital progress?

Strong leaders recognise the limits of their personal knowledge, and instead set up a culture where curiosity and expertise can

Sources Google commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 Tracker, US, CA, UK, FR, DE, IT, AU, JP, IN, CN, BR, MX, ES, ZA, KR ~n=500-1000 online consumers 18+ per market. Mar 10-13, 2022 Nielsen Catalina Research via the Advertising Research Foundation May 2017

Sophie Birshan sophiebirshan@google.com