By: Andy Bryant

All across the USA, the national nightmare is ending. Parents around the country have begun to rejoice, while teachers have begun angrily shaking their collective fists’ at the sky. From Maine to California, theme parks, pools, summer camps, and playgrounds will soon be braced with the eerie absence of the all-too familiar sound of joyful laughter, playful screaming, and the occasional banshee-like cry that has been emanating from the mouths of young boys and girls for the past two months… It’s happening- our kids are going back to school!!

And with the return of the school year comes our second-favorite national pastime- back to school shopping. Students are being assigned to teachers and school shopping lists are going out. Parents everywhere have begun mapping their strategy for ensuring their children show up on that first day of school fully-stocked with every colored pencil within the light spectrum, notebooks ready to be filled with doodles, and, of course, a new outfit or two will ensure kids are dressed to impress!

Have you started mapping your strategy on how to reach these parent shoppers? According to eMarketer, retail sales during July and August reached a record high with an estimated $857.18 billion, accounting for 17% of total retail sales on the year, while back-to-school Ecommerce sales reached $74.03 billion during that same time frame. It has become absolutely necessary for retailers, brands, and marketers alike to reach this audience before they make their purchasing decisions during this crucial time, and an effective digital marketing plan is the best way to do so. Luckily for you, the Basis DSP is fully loaded with a number of ways to reach parents in the back-to-school market:

  • Audience Targeting: Reach Back-To-School Shoppers through data segments like: In Market (Back-to-School Shopping), Parents with Children in School, Seasonal Back-to-School Shoppers, and Back-to-School Custom Categories from BluKai. These segments are often cross-device, and can target users on desktop AND mobile.
  • Contextual Targeting: Reach shoppers by targeting those reading certain content: Shopping, Mobile Shopping Apps, Education, and Parenting.
  • Private Market-Place (PMP): Browse BDSP’s PMP library and find premium inventory and data segments focused around Back-to-School shopping from publishers like BestBuy, Meredith, InMobi, Proper Media, and Hudl.
  • Mobile Location Retargeting: Reach users who have shown they are Back-to-School Shoppers based on their past location. You can also reach users who have recently visited specific stores like OfficeDepot, Staples, American Eagle, Famous Footwear, and Target.
  • Hyperlocal Mobile: Reach users while they are actively shopping by radius targeting around shopping malls, big box stores, and other heavy retail centers. You can even create champions of your brand by targeting students while they are at school.

Programmatic Digital with Basis DSP is the perfect way to reach Back-to-School shoppers. Advertisers can engage with their target market, and effectively put their message in front of shoppers during those crucial moments when they are searching and researching what to buy, and where to shop! www.zp-pdl.com