Blis launches ad-targeting tool to reach stay-at-home households at scale

Blis, the location analytics company, is launching a product to help brands adapt targeted advertising for households staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

The "Habits to Home Targeting" tool provides brands with an opportunity to reach all consumers living in a household at scale, in order to interpret how their shared habits and historical behaviours can influence buying decisions during social distancing.

It combines Blis' audience-targeting data (collected from the months leading up to and during this year’s health crisis) with a new proprietary technology called Smart Households, which identifies residential internet protocol addresses at scale, and connects them to the set of devices (smartphones, tables, computers) that are being used at these households. 

While Blis’ new product is primarily aimed at media agency executives who would use it to adapt their buying strategies, the wider goal is to help businesses that are vying to keep their brand front of mind at a time when it is not possible to rely on foot traffic into stores to target consumers on the move.  

For example, for an FMCG brand, many people are now restricted to buying items at a supermarket, where shopping is limited to one person for a household. But by limiting advertising to only those who have previously been to the store, marketers might be missing out on those who might be next out to do the shopping – so reaching the entire household is an effective method to advertise.

Or, for a fast-food brand, it might be a family or group decision as to which takeaway a household will order from next, so reaching everyone in the household with the same ad to promote a brand is more likely to influence a purchase decision.

Greg Isbister, chief executive of Blis said: "Foot traffic to stores and leisure destinations worldwide has seen a significant decline, but mobile usage and media consumption at home is increasing at an astounding rate… Using historical behaviours, we can reach whole households at scale and help brands connect with all involved in the decision-making within a home."