Women's Apparel Advertising Landscape - WhatRunsWhere

WhatRunsWhere Insights & Analysis:

Women’s Apparel Advertising Landscape

WhatRunsWhere Insights & Analysis: Women’s Apparel Advertising Landscape Introduction

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Desktop

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Share of Voice

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Channel Mix

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Top Performing Ads

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Mobile Share of Voice Channel Mix Top Performing Ads Conclusion

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Introduction In considering the ever growing and highly competitive e-commerce industry, WhatRunsWhere has tracked the online advertising performances of four major women’s retailers: NastyGal, ASOS, ModCloth and LuLu’s. By collecting data spanning 180 days of activity up until June 30th, 2014 in the United States, we have successfully tracked 588 unique ads on nearly 9000 publishers across desktop and mobile platforms (Fig. 1). Research reveals that industry leaders prefer advertising on desktop since 569 distinct creatives, out of a total of 587, or nearly 97% were placed on this platform (Fig. 3). Advertisers also preferred use of image based creatives over text based creatives as 91% of all ads placed were image banners . (Fig. 2) Although there were fewer ad placements on mobile overall, it is clear that competition among advertisers on this platform has already become exceptionally challenging. Each industry leader examined in this study has a quantifiable mobile presence and Share of Voice. This suggests that the e-commerce industry, in particular online retailers of women’s apparel, is shifting their attention towards the mobile arena as a space that presents viable media placement strategies that may lead to long-term increases in sales.

Total Publishers Tracked (Fig. 1) 37

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Ad Types Used - Desktop (Fig. 2)

Desktop Mobile

9%

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Banner Text/Hybrid

91%

8885

Ad Type Breakdown (Fig. 3)

19 49

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Mobile Desktop

520

Banner

Text/Hybrid

WhatRunsWhere Insights & Analysis: Women’s Apparel Advertising Landscape

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Share of Voice - Desktop Share of Voice (SOV) is a value given to each company derived from their presence across their industry specific competitive display advertising landscape. The higher the Share of Voice value, the "louder" the advertiser's "voice" is among competitors in the same industry, as determined by the parameters of the recorded search. Among the four online retailers examined, research reveals their respective desktop display SOV is quite varied. ModCloth, which is an American company that specializes in vintage and vintage-inspired clothing and accessories, possesses the largest SOV at 75%. LuLu’s and then NastyGal, both online retailers based in the United States, holds the next largest SOV at 15% and 6%, respectively. Finally ASOS, the United Kingdom’s largest online retailer and the only non-U.S. advertiser in this study, holds a SOV of only 4% in the American market (Fig. 4). The data therefore indicates that the U.S. e-commerce industry is a highly competitive market. ModCloth likely holds the largest SOV due to the sheer number of ad placements made throughout the 180 day period of recorded activity. 63% of all banner ads placements were made by ModCloth. Likewise, nearly 92% of all text or hybrid ads were also placed by this online retailer (Fig. 5). The sheer volume of ModCloth’s placements, in addition to its diverse creatives, are likely major contributing factors to its sizeable SOV.

Desktop SOV (Fig. 4) 7% 15%

75%

20%

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Percentage of Ad Types (Fig. 5) 2.04%

NastyGal ASOS ModCloth LuLu’s

17.5%

63.08%

91.84%

7.88% 11.54%

6.12%

Banner

Text/Hybrid

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Overall SOV Breakdown (Fig. 6) 3.64% 14.94%

75.76% 75.14%

6.36% 4.07% 5.85%

14.24%

Desktop SOV

Mobile SOV

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Channel Mix - Desktop Analysis of these advertisers’ channel mixes show that although the majority of placements, 64%, were made through ad networks, 36% were made through direct media buys (Fig. 7). Media buying strategies among these advertisers are therefore quite varied and diverse. Placements by advertiser are broken down as follows:

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NastyGal, 74.65% network placements vs. 25.35% direct buys ASOS, 8.75% network placements vs. 91.07% direct buys ModCloth, 65.14% network placements vs. 34.86% direct buy LuLu’s, 71.26% network placements vs. 28.74% direct buys (Fig. 8)

The Google Display Network (GDN) was the most popular ad network employed comprising 58% of all placements, although 5% of placements were also made through BlogAds, and 1% through Burst Media (Fig. 9).

Channel Mix - Desktop (Fig. 7)

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36%

Ad Network Media Buy

Channel Mix Breakdown (Fig. 8) 71.26%

28.74% 34.86%

65.14% 8.75%

64%

91.07%

74.65%

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25.35%

Ad Network

Media Buy

Display Placement Breakdown (Fig. 9) 1% 5%

36%

58%

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Google Adwords Media Buy Burst Media BlogAds


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Top Performing Ads The following is a selection of top performing desktop ads placed in the United States by the aforementioned industry leaders.


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Share of Voice - Mobile On the mobile-web space ModCloth is still the dominant SOV holder; however, unlike on desktop it is NastyGal that holds the next largest SOV at 14%. ASOS then follows with a SOV of 6% and finally LuLu’s SOV is smallest at 4% (Fig. 10). In total only 18 creatives were placed on mobile web, all of which were image based. When broken down, 52.63% of all banner creatives were placed by ModCloth, followed by LuLu’s at 15.79%. 22.22% of all banner ads placed were by NastyGal while only 5.56% of banner ads were placed by ASOS (Fig. 11).

4% 14% 6%

76%

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Percentage of Ad Types (Fig. 11) NastyGal ASOS ModCloth LuLu’s

16.67%

55.56%

5.56% 22.22%

Banner

No Significant Data

Mobile SOV (Fig. 10)

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Text

Channel Mix - Mobile Within the 180 day period of tracked data, the vast majority of placements, 82%, were made through direct buys whereas ad networks comprised only 18% of all placements (Fig. 12). Although on desktop advertisers preferred to use the GDN and ad networks in general, on mobile there is a somewhat more diverse media buying mix. Direct buys were largely completed by ModCloth – the SOV leader on mobile-web – with 89.6% of its respective placements made directly; and by NastyGal, the second largest mobile SOV holder (14.24%). 97.87% of NastyGal’s placements were made through direct buys. 100% of both ASOS and LuLu’s mobile placements were made through ad networks (Fig. 13). As NastyGal’s media buying strategy on mobile stresses the use of direct buys more so than on desktop, this variance may indicate a strategic move to challenge competing advertiser’s market share on the less saturated mobile space.


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Channel Mix - Mobile (Fig. 12) 18%

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Channel Mix Breakdown (Fig. 13)

Ad Network Media Buy

100%

89.60%

10.40%

82%

97.87%

100%

Banner

Mobile Placement Breakdown (Fig. 14) 2% 16%

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Text/Hybrid

Devices Breakdown (Fig. 15)

Media Buy Google Adwords DFP Mobile

40%

27%

30%

82%

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iPhone iPad Android Tablet Android Phone

3%

Devices Breakdown by Advertiser (Fig. 16) 50%

50% 33.33%

37.5%

29.17% 11.11%

50%

50% 22.22%

44.44%

22.22%

iPhone

iPad

Android Tablet


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Android Phone

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Top Performing Ads The following is a selection of top performing mobile ads placed in the United States by the aforementioned industry leaders.

Conclusion Research demonstrates that the e-commerce industry, specifically involving online retailers of women’s apparels, is especially competitive and placements are difficult to strategically maneuver. Overall, more banner ads were placed than text or hybrid creatives regardless of platform used for ad placements. This may indicate that for advertisers in this industry visually appealing creatives is particularly important to convey meaning and capture audience attention. As a result, there is a large array of diverse and varying image based creatives employed by each advertiser. In particular ModCloth, the largest SOV holder both on desktop and mobile-web, has demonstrated use of the most varied assortment of creatives. This – in addition to their media buying strategy which stresses the use of ad networks (GDN) on desktop and then direct media buys on mobile-web – may be another reason why ModCloth possesses the largest SOV among the four competitors examined. Although media buying strategies on desktop included a large number of placements through ad networks, on mobile the opposite was the case. This indicates that even without the use of the GDN – and of networks more generally – to place ads on mobile-web, advertisers can still increase the value of their SOV. Such was the case for NastyGal whose media buying strategy differed on mobile with an augmented number of placements completed through direct media buys, which is likely what helped increase its mobile SOV to 14% compared to its desktop SOV of just 6%. However though these advertisers have developed some placement activity on mobile, the scales of these campaigns are still limited. Thus there remains a relative lack of competing advertisers on the mobile, and furthermore, on the in-app space. Ultimately, this offers new opportunities for other competing advertisers to take advantage of the lack of competition by diversifying their ad placement strategies and vigorously spreading into the mobile space to get ahead of the competition. WhatRunsWhere Insights & Analysis: Women’s Apparel Advertising Landscape

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