Ibotta (IBTA) Adweek’s Brandweek Conference summary

Key announcements and innovations

• Launch of the first performance marketing platform for CPG, called LiveLearn, enabling real-time ROI measurement of digital rewards and promotions.

• The platform allows for ongoing optimization of campaigns, adjusting promotions based on real-time incremental sales data across multiple retail and digital channels.

• Integration with third-party data providers like Circana ensures independent validation of incremental sales lift.

• AI and machine learning are leveraged to test thousands of promotional hypotheses, optimizing offers for individual consumers and maximizing efficiency.

• The approach shifts CPG marketing from annual or semi-annual planning to agile, monthly, or even real-time budget allocation.

Measurement and incrementality challenges

• Traditional ROAS metrics are criticized as insufficient; focus is shifting to measuring true incremental sales and cost per incremental dollar.

• Real-time incrementality measurement is difficult due to fragmented data across retailers and channels, but new tools are making this more feasible.

• First-party data and clean rooms are used to track customer retention and cross-retailer purchase behavior.

• Third-party validation is essential to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure credibility in performance claims.

• The cost and complexity of acquiring granular sales data from retailers remain significant barriers.

Strategic insights and results

• Promotions are most effective when targeted at new or lapsed buyers, not existing loyal customers, to maximize incremental sales.

• Connected TV (CTV) campaigns using in-category audience data have shown high incrementality.

• Recent pilots demonstrated profitable incremental sales, reduced purchase cycles, and increased buy rates.

• Retention is tracked by monitoring average buy rate and leveraging first-party data to map repeat purchases across channels.

• Growing household penetration requires both acquiring new buyers and reducing churn among existing ones.