TransUnion and MMA Global Study Finds an Audience Targeting Strategy that Drives up to 23x Return on Marketing Investment
New research from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) and MMA Global reveals a successful marketing strategy called 'Movable Middles'. This strategy targets category buyers who are not brand loyal, resulting in superior short- and long-term results. Key findings show that targeting Movable Middles can yield 9.5x more conversions, save over 50% in marketing costs, and produce up to 23x higher returns on marketing investment. Ally Bank applied this approach and saw a 2.2x increase in short-term account openings and a 1.9x increase in long-term customer acquisitions. This strategy, backed by empirical data, offers a roadmap for marketers to maximize their advertising efficiency.
- Movable Middles strategy yields 9.5x more conversions.
- Marketing costs can be reduced by over 50% with Movable Middles.
- Up to 23x higher returns on marketing investment.
- Ally Bank achieved 2.2x increase in short-term account openings targeting Movable Middles.
- Ally Bank saw a 1.9x increase in long-term customer acquisitions.
- Study confirms both short-term and long-term benefits of Movable Middles strategy.
- TransUnion's TruAudience identity graph tracks conversions effectively.
- Reliance on Movable Middles strategy may not be universally applicable across all sectors.
- No financial data disclosed on campaign costs, limiting transparency on actual ROI.
- Success metrics primarily based on Ally Bank's case study, which might not generalize.
Insights
The strategy of targeting 'Movable Middles'—consumers who are neither loyal to the brand nor to its competitors—offers a unique marketing perspective. Unlike traditional methods that focus on loyal customers or conquesting competitors' customers, this audience shows higher responsiveness and is more influenced by advertising. Case studies, including one by Ally Bank, illustrate the efficacy of this approach, reporting a 2.2x increase in short-term account openings and a 1.9x increase in long-term customer acquisitions. This suggests that reallocating marketing budgets to target these 'Movable Middles' could potentially maximize returns and optimize budget performance. However, investors should consider that such findings are based on specific campaigns and may not universally apply. The scalability and consistency of these results across different industries and target demographics remain to be seen. Also, the long-term sustainability of this strategy is still subject to further empirical validation.
From a financial perspective, the study's findings have noteworthy implications. Targeting Movable Middles reportedly yields up to 23x return on marketing investment and cuts marketing costs by
Targeting “Movable Middles” is Proven Effective in both Short-Term and Long-Term
CHICAGO, June 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marketers have experienced the tension between investing for short-term results and long-term growth for decades. Today, new research from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) and MMA Global uncovers a targeting strategy that performs best against both short- and long-term objectives: the Movable Middles.
The Movable Middles audience target is defined as category buyers who are neither loyal to the brand nor to the brand’s competitors. Most marketing campaigns today automatically optimize towards brand loyalists based on their high conversion rate, without recognizing that these consumers are precisely those most likely to convert anyway without advertising. Conquesting campaigns are common, often against an audience committed to a competitor and unreceptive to the brand’s message. Instead, focusing on Movable Middles selects an audience that is both highly responsive and more influenced by advertising, meaningfully increasing the incremental impact of the campaign.
According to nearly a dozen case studies, targeting the Movable Middles can:
- Yields 9.5x the number of conversions when compared to traditional broad reach tactics;
- Saves marketers more than
50% to achieve the same business outcomes as other targeting tactics; - Produce dramatically higher advertising returns, up to 23x.
The new research from TransUnion and MMA Global shows that Movable Middles outperform other popular approaches for driving short-term sales and in acquiring customers over time. As illustrated in the study, Ally Bank achieved 2.2x (
“Marketing budgets are finite and precious, and we don’t want to waste any of it on consumers who won’t engage or respond to advertising,” said Kevin Howard, executive director of growth marketing & innovation, Ally Financial. “Analyzing our existing set up across campaigns, audience targets, placement tactics, and creative helped us find areas of higher concentrated Movable Middles. Then we could adjust and optimize our budget on those consumers who would pay attention and act, which drove significant new account openings and overall customer growth for us in a crowded category.”
The findings are unveiled in a new whitepaper, “Breakthroughs in Audience Strategy: Debunking the Short- and Long-Term Myth of Marketing.” This is the latest data to come out of a multi-year research partnership between TransUnion and MMA Global. In 2021, the partnership first produced research on the Movable Middles as an audience targeting strategy to optimize budget performance.
“We partnered with TransUnion to give marketers empirical tools to improve their marketing effectiveness,” said Vas Bakopoulos, SVP, head of industry research at MMA Global. “In our latest publication with TransUnion, we’ve quantified the impact of targeting Movable Middles and given CMOs a roadmap to replicate the success we’ve seen across all the brands who have used this approach.”
“Though it might seem counterintuitive, we knew from our previous research that marketers leveraging the Movable Middles approach realize significant short-term gains. We now know that these Movable Middles drive growth in the long term as well,” said Michael Schoen, EVP and head of TruAudience marketing solutions at TransUnion. “Now we have a validated system to operationalize these insights and we look forward to working with more brands to identify, reach, and measure the effectiveness of targeting their Movable Middles.”
Click here to read “Breakthroughs in Audience Strategy: Debunking the Short- and Long-Term Myth of Marketing.”
Methodology
Built upon the framework in the previous paper, TransUnion and MMA Global embarked on a study with Ally Bank, which ran a 10-week campaign targeted at audiences rich in Ally’s Movable Middles. Using TransUnion’s TruAudience identity graph to track conversions across 18-months post-campaign, the Movable Middles audiences achieved over 2x return on ad spend and 2x customer growth compared to broad reach tactics in both the short and long terms.
About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
TransUnion is a global information and insights company with over 13,000 associates operating in more than 30 countries. We make trust possible by ensuring each person is reliably represented in the marketplace. We do this with a Tru™ picture of each person: an actionable view of consumers, stewarded with care. Through our acquisitions and technology investments we have developed innovative solutions that extend beyond our strong foundation in core credit into areas such as marketing, fraud, risk and advanced analytics. As a result, consumers and businesses can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good® — and it leads to economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for millions of people around the world. http://www.transunion.com/business
| Contact | Dave Blumberg |
| TransUnion | |
| david.blumberg@transunion.com | |
| Telephone | 312-972-6646 |
FAQ
What is the Movable Middles strategy mentioned in the TransUnion (TRU) press release?
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Which company collaborated with MMA Global to study the Movable Middles strategy?
