Salt XC is a North American agency, headquartered in Toronto. Their agency is built around a unique model – Experiential Commerce™, breaking down the walls between the online and offline worlds using first party data, media and memorable moments to drive an action or transaction for brands. With an approach to marketing that seeks to earn attention and drive action, Salt XC stands out from other agencies thanks to its focus on a hybrid of marketing and tech as opposed to just traditional services.
We sat down with Alex Buckby, Managing Director – Media at Salt XC to discuss how his agency explores DOOH as a digital channel and the role programmatic OOH plays in their media mix. We also learn about his experience working with Campsite to launch CarDoor’s OOH campaign, focused on extending a data-driven digital approach into the real world. Using POI and location-based data to target high-value audiences in environments that could allow the creative treatment to earn attention and drive impact contextually, ultimately creating personalization with their core targets.
Want to learn more about running creative and impactful OOH campaigns?
For the majority of drivers, buying a car (especially secondhand) can be overwhelming and filled with frustration. Enter CarDoor, the Toronto-based company making it easy to buy and trade-in vehicles online. With CarDoor, shoppers can purchase high-quality, certified vehicles from the comfort of their own home – no dealership required. Their mission is simple: to make car shopping an easy, convenient, and enjoyable experience.
What makes CarDoor different from other car buying companies is the extensive inventory they have available thanks to their two-sided marketplace model. The platform can facilitate an entire buy or trade-in process for the consumer while also partnering with dealerships that sell their inventory on the CarDoor website. This allows the company to build a relationship with the customer over time and eventually have them purchase on their own terms.
We sat down with Matt McKenzie, Founder and CEO of CarDoor to discuss everything from CarDoor’s unique car buying platform to launching creative and impactful out-of-home campaigns with Campsite.
Here’s a recap of our discussion. You can also check out the full video here.
The misconceptions of DOOH
In the initial stages of planning CarDoor’s marketing strategy, they were unsure if they could afford to focus on building brand awareness through out-of-home. As Matt explains, there was a misconception that running DOOH campaigns would be too costly and wouldn’t reach the right audience. They initially thought that their marketing budget would be most impactful if spent on targeting high-intent customers, or customers who were very far advanced in the car buying process.
Turning to DOOH for creative and impactful messaging
To help create a marketing strategy that would reach a bigger audience, CarDoor began working with Salt XC agency to run creative and impactful campaigns that focused on building brand awareness. In an effort to reach potential car buyers in the right place and at the right time (when they’re looking for a new car), CarDoor and Salt Xc decided to focus on targeting audiences in a contextual, location-based way.
In doing research, they wanted to figure out how to target potential buyers in high-density areas. They found that people often decide they want a new car when they start to experience problems like noises and warning signals while driving their current vehicle. With this information, the idea of placing DOOH ads with specific creatives in areas near auto repair shops was presented.
Using Campsite to launch CarDoor’s DOOH campaigns
Going a step beyond placing ads close to repair shops, CarDoor and Salt XC then decided to buy DOOH space in very close proximity to traditional dealerships – sometimes even buying space on their rooftops.
Using Campsite, they were able to locate the radius of billboards and target audiences with creative and impactful messaging. These large, strategically placed billboards helped the company focus on building brand awareness while reaching the right people to convey their message of ‘car shopping made easy.’
They were also able to use Campsite to purchase ad inventory in test centers as a way to target Gen Zs waiting to take their driving tests. This strategy of running DOOH ads allowed them to reach an audience who’s already comfortable with shopping online in a contextual location.
For the last 3 years, the Calgary Flames have been managing marketing and advertising in-house, from creative to execution. While going agency-less means taking back the lead on budget and strategies, it also means finding efficient new processes and cost-effective tools to ensure the success of this organizational change. We recently spoke with Ryan Popowich, Director of Marketing and Promotions for the Calgary Flames, one of our most active users since the launch of the platform.
3 major benefits of using Campsite?
Cost-effectiveness
After bringing all of their marketing back in-house three years ago, it quickly became clear that buying and executing OOH was a laborious process when compared with other online strategies. The team opted to dramatically scale back on OOH and focus solely on more efficient options – that is, until Campsite came along. After a few people mentioned Campsite, Ryan and his team decided to try… and it was a perfect match. According to Ryan, the Flames have now increased their original agency spending by 10%! Being able to geo-target and instantly find all the digital screens in the region with one search, directly upload creative and start their campaigns without any delays has allowed the organization to use OOH in a way that’s comparable to social media – frequent, short-term, highly targeted campaigns, in this case, all to promote local events and ticket sales. When looking at results, CPMs, time and effort to book, it is now a no-brainer for them to continue spending in OOH and increase their spending overall.
User-Friendliness
The ease and flexibility offered by Campsite serves the perfect niche for their four brands. Since they manage different promotions and reach different audiences, they’re able to easily keep track of everything in their dashboard. Not only can they access mobile-data-powered insight to build their campaigns, they also have access to real-time data to monitor the course of their operations.
Autonomy
The team loves that the platform is accessible 24/7, and that they can edit any aspect of their campaigns as they are running. They can also decide the exact budget they want to spend or even cherry-pick locations. Basically, as Ryan says, their campaigns happen “the way we want to do it, when we want to do it.”
What’s next?
The recent addition of outdoor inventory completes the Campsite offer for the Flames; Campsite is now the full package deal! They forecast a new increase in their spending of about 20% in the upcoming months. The team is interested in mobile retargeting possibilities, which every screen in the platform can help accomplish.
