It’s that time of year again: flu season. As you may have read, it’s more important than ever that consumers receive flu shots this year, to avoid being double impacted by the flu and COVID-19.
Widespread adoption of flu shots as well as increased COVID-19 testing are proven public-health measures to mediate the negative health and economic impacts of COVID-19. Pharmacies and retail testing centers can increase foot traffic to retail locations that offer flu shots and COVID-19 testing through targeted advertising campaigns based on consumer behaviors in the offline world.
Reach Consumers With Targeted Messaging
It all starts with reaching the right consumers. With location data, pharmacies can identify specific segments of consumers to target with flu shot or COVID-19 testing messaging.
For example, a pharmacy could use Cuebiq’s Traveler Analysis to identify groups of consumers who are traveling from out-of-state hot spots and are not sheltering in place upon arrival. These segments might be considered “high-risk” for contracting COVID-19, and would make sense to serve with ads promoting COVID-19 testing. Other prime segments for such ad targeting would be frequent bar visitors and essential workers.
Measure and Optimize Campaigns With Incremental Visits
Next, it’s important for pharmacies to be able to tell how effective their targeted advertising is. With offline measurement, they can measure the effectiveness of messaging in driving in-store visits. Then, they can use those insights to fine-tune their campaigns during dynamic crises such as COVID-19. Specifically, they can determine whether their campaigns are driving incremental visits to pharmacies from customers who would not have otherwise visited, and then optimize their campaigns accordingly.
For example, a pharmacy brand could determine whether an ad campaign promoting COVID-19 testing resulted in an uptick of visitors to their pharmacies. Using incrementality at the consumer level, they can also understand whether their campaign was effective in driving new visitors to store. With this information, they can determine how each channel they’re running media on is affecting consumers differently, segment consumers based on campaign influence, allocate their media spend for each segment, and finally target those segments. Over time, these tactics could increase their share of COVID-19 testing and flu vaccinations.
Use Mobility Insights for Campaign Planning
Once a safe COVID-19 vaccine is publicly available, these strategies may also serve as the foundation for driving vaccination adoption. Using Mobility Insights, retail testing centers can monitor consumer mobility and store visit patterns and plan accordingly. Specifically, they can use location data to inform when to send what messaging to whom.
For example, retail testing centers might want to deploy a phased campaign once a COVID-19 vaccine is available. With the first round of vaccinations likely going to essential workers such as teachers, retail testing centers could target this segment with ads for the vaccine in November. In the new year, they could expand their targeting to all demographics, once the vaccine becomes publicly available. With a dynamic rollout, they can better reach the right consumers at the right time with messaging that resonates.
In these ways, location data can drive not only flu vaccinations and COVID-19 testing, but also ultimately COVID-19 vaccination adoption.
To get started, check out Cuebiq’s robust location-based segments available for targeting, or search for Cuebiq audiences on your favorite DSP!
