🚶‍♂️ Meet me where I'm goin'...

Been thinking a lot about hyper-relevance in the digital ad space. In other words, how can we:

Digging in to my own experiences, I have identified some companies that do this incredibly well. And I’m not talking about big, broad awareness campaigns with lofty scope, which often serve ads at irrelevant times or to irrelevant people; rather, I’m talking about how some platforms hit the proverbial nail on the head during the buying process.

But first, let’s brush up on our marketing funnel:

🥙 Ordering Kabab on DoorDash

Although I think the DoorDash model doesn’t translate directly to cannabis retail, they offer some insanely great up-sell advertising at the right times.

To illustrate this for you, I made a unilateral decision to order kabab for my whole family for dinner yesterday. At 2:20pm. It was an odd choice, but I was excited to collect screenshots. I kept it in the fridge until later.

Here’s how the journey went:

I know I want Greek food, so I search “Greek” and, after the obligatory browse, end up at my favorite kabab place. It is aptly named. I see all the particulars - reviews, distance, price point, fees, timeframe, special offers, and - voila - the menu.

I place my order. I see the usual tracker. BUT WAIT! What’s this? A call-to-action to order 7/11, along with a countdown to make it feasible, logistics-wise.

What happens when you click it?

I’m directed to a new menu for 7/11; I can build a new cart, along with my kabab cart, and both orders will be delivered simultaneously!

I add 7-Select Loco Rollers Chili Lime, and a Snack Trio with pepperoni and mozzarella bread sticks. Because I like heartburn, and I love eCommerce.

🤨 So what happened there?

Well, DoorDash and 7/11 have identified, with common sense and probably data, that customers placing an order on DoorDash are often in the market for other sundries as well. Beverages, snacks, maybe some beer - and 7/11 can provide all of those.

Again, this 7/11 up-sell occurred at the skinny end of the funnel, when I had already shown intent (opening DoorDash), finished my evaluation (perusing restaurants), and made a purchase.

Does it satisfy our definition for hyper-relevance?

• serve relevant content? (yes, a call-to-action for convenience items)

• to relevant people? (yes, customers who are likely in the market for c-store items and who have just made a purchase)

• at relevant times? (yes, during my post-purchase wait)

• to encourage a relevant purchase? (yep, more snacks)

I imagine 7/11 is paying DoorDash a lot for every instance of that little pop-up, for the privilege of accessing hungry eyes - hungry eyes attached to an active purchaser.

🔦 Google and Amazon

This kind of intent-based advertising is not new, of course. Google “bike for sale near me” and see what happens.

The entire view at first load is: you guessed it. Bike ads. Those are valuable keywords because I’m telling Google that my intent to purchase a bicycle is quite high.

Let’s do Amazon. When I search for a “phish t-shirt for men,” what do you think pops up?

Phish t-shirts, yes. Also ads for men’s shirts, because I’m telling Amazon I want a shirt.

⭐️ How relevant? How actionable?

Ensuring relevance can be based in context (like the 7/11 up-sell during my kabab purchase) or it can be based on individual preferences (personalization based on my history and habits on Google or Amazon), or a little of both.

The tighter the context, and the more these systems know about me, the more relevant the content will be.

🌱 Bring it home to cannabis

Intent-based advertising is possible in cannabis. Hyper relevance is attainable in cannabis.

• serve relevant content? (products that are available to purchase)

• to relevant people? (cannabis shoppers who have navigated to a dispensary menu)

• at relevant times? (while they are actively shopping for cannabis)

• to encourage a relevant purchase? (yep, key brands based on their affinities)

📚 tl;dr

• Hyper relevance is serving relevant content to relevant people at relevant times, to encourage a relevant purchase

• Intent-based advertising focuses on the bottom of the funnel, when shoppers have already told you what they’re planning on doing

• DoorDash offers up-sells for 7/11 items when you order from certain restaurants

• Hyper relevance is possible in cannabis

• It is Wednesday