RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In honor of Black Friday, MaxPoint Interactive, the company that helps retailers and brands drive local in-store sales with its innovative Digital Zip® technology, today revealed the results of its Interest Index identifying the 10 U.S. cities most interested in holiday shopping bargains. While Erie, Pennsylvania topped the list, the types of deals residents are interested in differed within each neighborhood. With $586.1 billion in holiday sales up for grabs this year (source: NRF), it’s more important than ever for brands and retailers to reach the right shoppers online – with the right type of deal – before they head to the store.
For this Interest Index, MaxPoint analyzed offline and online data points—including point-of-sale data and consumption of social media, videos, music, local Web pages and online magazines—to identify the top 10 cost-conscious cities in the U.S. Shoppers in these cities are most likely to watch their budgets and stick to sale items when checking gifts off their holiday shopping lists.
The list of top bargain-hunting cities in the U.S. includes:
1. Erie, PA
2. Leesburg, VA
3. Rochester, NY
4. Athens, OH
5. Greenville, SC
6. Lakeland, FL
7. Waco, TX
8. Pine City, MN
9. Richmond, MI
10. Hattiesburg, MS
The index data reveals discrepancies between neighborhoods within each city when it comes to the products they are interested in this holiday season. In Erie, residents of the Glenwood, Weber Hills and Eaglehurst neighborhoods are most interested in receiving deals on tech gadgets like tablets and digital cameras, while residents of the Edinboro, Cambridge Springs and North East Township neighborhoods prefer to receive deals on gaming devices like Xbox and PlayStation.
Shopper Profile
Across cities, the data from the index found that these bargain hunters had many similar attributes, the most important being their shared interest in long-term savings. These cost-conscious shoppers tend to have children, own their homes, make between $40,000 and $60,000 per year and have a college education. Retailers and brands can reach these “savers” on Black Friday with targeted digital campaigns promoting coupons, discounts and other bargains.
Interest Data in Action
Using the data pulled from the Interest Index, MaxPoint implemented hyperlocal digital advertising campaigns to reach bargain shoppers:
- For one of the largest and fastest-growing employee-owned supermarket chains in the U.S., MaxPoint created a digital advertising campaign that targeted cost-conscious neighborhoods within a 10-mile radius of select locations. The “buy theirs, get ours free” campaign offered consumers a free supermarket brand product with the purchase of a national brand’s equivalent. The campaign drove traffic to store locations and increased consumers’ perception of the generic brand’s value.
- For a supermarket chain with more than 200 stores in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, MaxPoint implemented a digital advertising campaign targeting shoppers most interested in holiday bargains. The chain offered savings on gas when its customers purchased $50 in holiday gift cards from their choice of more than 150 retailers.
“Black Friday and the four-day weekend create a huge opportunity for consumers to do some holiday shopping, but also present a challenge for retailers and brands attempting to break through the clutter,” said MaxPoint Interactive COO Gretchen Joyce. “With our hyperlocal digital advertising solution, we help retailers and brands pinpoint the right customers at the right time to offer deals for a specific type of product or service. This helps advertisers break through the noise and entice consumers to head into the physical store to take advantage of special and highly relevant deals.”
To see MaxPoint Interactive’s complete “2012 Guide to Holiday Advertising”, please visit: http://maxpointinteractive.com/holiday-advertising-2012/.
About the MaxPoint Interactive Interest Index
Using its unique Digital Zip technology, MaxPoint Interactive analyzes billions of data points consumed by neighborhoods across the U.S. such as: offline point-of-sale data, social media, videos, music, local Web pages and online magazines. For the November Interest Index, the company scored each neighborhood across hundreds of online topics related to consumers interested in holiday bargains, including those looking for deals on various tech gadgets and gaming products (e.g., TVs, tablets, smartphones, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, gaming controllers).
About MaxPoint Interactive
MaxPoint Interactive’s retail advertising platform drives in-store traffic for retailers and brands. The company’s Digital Zip® technology delivers the most effective and scalable neighborhood-level online campaigns. MaxPoint can pinpoint qualified customers interested in purchasing a product with more precision than using traditional zip codes, ultimately offering accurate neighborhood-level targeting with national reach and local results. Founded in 2007, MaxPoint has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Bentonville, Austin and Raleigh-Durham. For more information visit: www.maxpointinteractive.com, follow us on Twitter @maxpoint_int and subscribe to the OnPoint blog.