Cross-Moments: One precise step ahead

In recent years, Post Advertising has built up a unique advertising inventory. The acquisition of Livesystems has added the new digital business Digital out of Home to the traditional, analog core business of direct marketing. Whether in public spaces, at petrol stations, in parking lots, at Swiss Post branches or on public transport - with 13,000 screens, Post Advertising now reaches target groups not only at home but also on the move. Post Advertising's range of channels and touchpoints now also includes display advertising, e-mail marketing and in-app marketing on the Post's own apps Profital, Bring! and PostCard Creator. One of the undisputed strengths of this exclusive inventory is the possibility of highly flexible geographical playout. Advertisers can place their messages locally, regionally and throughout Switzerland.

"Post advertising places advertising messages at the heart of consumers' lives."

So far, however, little attention has been paid to the time at which the advertising messages reach the target groups of postal advertising. As a rule, these are moments of full attention and little distraction: the recipient of a mailing is sitting at the kitchen table and devoting herself to the mail she has just taken out of the letterbox. A driver's gaze is drawn to the movement on the Livesystems screen when filling up and commuters in the Postbus also keep looking at the mounted screens during their journey to work. In other words: Post Advertising places advertising messages right in the middle of consumers' lives.

Data brings relevance

Post Advertising relies on its own data universe and efficient analysis methods to increase the impact of its channels and place relevant content with target groups at the right moment. In addition to analyses of existing customers, this also includes target group targeting (data-based using lookalikes or standardized with the help of characteristics or affinities) and the determination of performance.

In fact, Post Advertising has a universe of first-class data at its disposal. This is first-party data that has been collected with the consent of customers. Such data is particularly valuable in the post-cookie era, because it not only complies with data protection regulations, but also reflects specific advertising preferences. In obtaining this data, Post Advertising benefits from the trust that Swiss Post has always enjoyed among the population. In fact, the security and protection of customer data is a top priority at Swiss Post. The company is ISO-207001:2013-certified and Swiss Post's specialists have also been awarded the Data Fairness Label for their data and analysis solutions. This is awarded to organizations that are committed to transparent and responsible handling when processing and analysing large volumes of data.

The moment as the key to impact

With the orchestrated combination of attention-grabbing, analog and digital channels and data-supported information, Post Advertising succeeds in optimally coordinating message, target group, channel and time and creating unique advertising moments.

"TBWA\Zurich designed a multi-stage campaign for Post Advertising - playful, memorable and with a clear message."

Cross-moments advertising, as Post Advertising calls this new approach, focuses on the decisive moment in order to achieve maximum advertising impact: Attracting attention, triggering emotions or leading directly to a purchase decision. Above all, however, cross-moments advertising means decisively turning away from thinking in terms of reach and flooding consumers with information according to the "spray and pray" principle. Instead, cross-moments advertising focuses on quality and precision.

Advertising for cross-moments advertising

TBWA\Zurich has designed a multi-stage campaign for Post Advertising - playful, memorable and with a clear message - to make cross-moments advertising and the smart and efficient way of advertising known among marketing and communication professionals (Markt-kom.com reported). It follows the creative idea of a quiz and asks a question about advertising and media planning in the first phase. The correct answer among the three possible answers is (of course) the one that shows the advantages of cross-moments advertising. In the second phase, the campaign works out the offers of cross-moments advertising and brings them to life with photographs. For example, the presentation of a petrol station screen is preceded by the question of where people look while filling up. The answer comes from a multiple choice of photos. Finally, in the third phase, Post Advertising uses a concrete example to show how the whole thing works in practice.

REQUESTED

"It's high time for relevant advertising"

Oliver Egger, Managing Director of Post Advertising, on unique advertising moments with cross-
Moments advertising, the exclusive advertising ecosystem and Swiss Post's high-quality data.

m&k: Mr. Egger, why is Post Advertising realigning its strategy?

Oliver Egger: All advertising providers - and therefore advertisers - face the same challenge today: they have to attract the attention of customers - in an advertising world that is increasingly flooded with messages. In addition, third-party cookies will disappear as the basis of online marketing. This means that advertising can no longer be scattered widely and randomly. It is high time for a new, more relevant type of advertising.

What does this relevant Advertising from Post Advertising?

What is needed today are strategies that allow you to reach your target groups precisely and efficiently. In other words, at a moment when they are open and receptive to advertising messages. With cross-moments advertising, we create precisely such attention-grabbing moments and thus emphasize what makes Post Advertising unique in the market. To achieve this, we combine the quality of our comprehensive digital and analog advertising inventory with Swiss Post's high-quality proprietary data.

What does that mean in concrete terms?

The basic prerequisite for advertising success is and remains consumer attention. This is where the strength of our Swiss Post ecosystem comes into play, with which we offer our customers exclusive placements online, offline and cross-media - for example on public transport, in public places, at petrol stations, in post offices, in letterboxes, but also within the high-reach digital environments of Swiss Post and its partners. With this cross-moments advertising, our experts find the right channels for every campaign.

You have also heard from the high-quality data of the Post spoken ...

Exactly, because our ecosystem alone is not enough to reach people with advertising messages that appeal to them, touch them and trigger an action. They have to be relevant. Thanks to our high-quality data, we can combine our unique touchpoints with targeted playout and targeting. In doing so, we rely on first-party data that we have received with the consent of our target groups in accordance with data protection regulations. This allows us to optimally coordinate the message, target group, channel and time for the perfect moment.

How will advertising in five years?

I am convinced that the trend towards greater quality will continue to intensify. By this I mean precision instead of quantity and efficiency instead of coincidence. Thanks to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence and data analysis, advertising will be able to be tailored even more specifically to individual people, especially in the digital space. At the same time, offline advertising will retain its importance and outdoor advertising in particular will gain in significance. The increasing digitalization of these channels will also make it possible to play out context-dependent content. We are thus moving towards genuine cross-moment advertising, where it will be crucial to orchestrate all channels in such a way that
customers are addressed at the right moment, via the right channel and with the relevant message. Those who master this will be ahead in the future.

This article first appeared in the m&k print edition 2/2025.