Taxiportation: how personalization affects the increase in sales

— At the FuturEcommerce conference by Mail.Ru Group, we were united in the City Mobility category along with our indirect competitors – car sharing services and a number of other services. This category allows the user to move around the city mobile. Perhaps in the future, taxis and car sharing will be joined by other modes of transport or solutions that will solve the issue of mobility in a big city.

— I think that the development of digital in our industry will be the same as in other projects operating in the field of e-commerce infrastructure. Especially in those projects whose users are similar to taxi users — customers who buy a product or service at least once a week and more often. We have similar laws of media consumption, which means that the channels of communication with such users are approximately the same, but, of course, it all depends on the business strategy of the project. If we talk about the structure of Citymobil's media costs, we spend about 60% of the budget on digital, including performance, the rest goes to classic communications.

— There are already tools that measure the effectiveness of offline channels with online tools and, if they don't build end-to-end attribution, then they make the measurements as accurate as possible. Then integration takes place at the level of measurements, but if we talk about the existence of these channels themselves, then I don't think that there will be any critical shifts in the next 4-5 years. Yes, TV viewing is falling, yes, media consumption is changing, especially in large cities, but so far TV remains the leader in terms of traffic.

— Perhaps everything will just go online or there will be strong integration. Like, for example, YouTube — they measure who watches this or that video, they allow us to connect our split TV channels and YouTube views. In order to achieve maximum synergy, we send our colleagues from YouTube the time of the release of commercials on TV so that they can make a media plan using econometrics. This is the optimal synergy between online and offline communications that can be achieved right now.

— Since we are a startup, our planning horizon does not exceed 3 months. There are strategic communications, such as TV, which we book a year in advance. That is, we already know what kind of campaign we will have in 2019. We do this for a good split and discounts. But there are campaigns that we adjust depending on the market situation, as we are in an aggressive market with strong competitors. That is, if they have even some minimal adjustment in price or product, this will also affect our plan.

— We work with large media agencies, with in-house purchases, CPL and Mail.ru, as this gives us very good discounts. But it all depends on the channels and our goals — what and where to change, and how it will affect our current traffic.

— Personalization is a global brand, but now, it seems to me, it is considered in the wrong vectors. Personalization, from our point of view, is when we launch a project, create a creative layout, and then personalize it for each target audience. The idea is one, but it will be delivered in a different language, in other channels that are characteristic of a particular audience. For example, we recently integrated into eSports. We used the "Taxiportation" campaign with players' slang in the mailing list, merchandise, etc. This is how we encoded our philosophy by speaking the same language with users. The audience outside of esports will not even understand this slang, and this is just the story that each audience has its own approach.

We go everywhere with our creative frame. It is very important for us to convey the philosophy of the company. Everyone knows what "taxiportation" is, only it is presented in different ways. It is very important for us that the audience understands the idea of the brand.

— Firstly, intent-to-use conversion is a metric that we track through numerous studies. For example, Brand Health Tracking and ad tracking, which we do regularly. According to the data that we see in them, the conversion from intent is stable and expected, and, moreover, exceeds our planned expectations. Of course, we are still far from the benchmarks, but for a new brand this is an absolutely normal situation.

— We have a standard story. The user sees ads on TV, searches for information on the Internet, where performance begins. That, in turn, gives specific offers, like a promotional code. For example, if the weather is bad outside, we turn on the creative "It's cold and damp, use a taxi and get a promo code." Performance allows you to track a direct funnel: the user's journey from viewing to LTV. Our metrics allow us to see which user viewed ads and how much money they spent over time.

— Don't be afraid to experiment and do lots of tests. For example, now we were experimenting with the classic BTL — we went to retail. I can say that 70% of the test failed. When we entered BTL, we focused on specific CPA indicators. We came out with leaflets with an offer — our task was to achieve CPA indicators, as in performance. From this story, two channels performed well, and the other performed three times worse than our regular CPA purchase. We experimented on very small budgets, realizing that we can take risks in this way, we must try.

— The presence of our competitors is important for me. If they are stably present, then this indirectly indicates that something useful for him is happening there. Another important criterion is the target audience. Before integrating with other brands, we first study information and its intersections, calculate econometrics, and only after that make a decision on integration. The third factor is professional intuition. For example, our case with eSports. Experience should tell you where to go, help you see trends. I wrote an article about this case on RusBase and I think that next year we will repeat this integration.

— The team is very important to me.

The selection criterion, of course, is professional skills and talent. I believe that a talented person is talented in everything. For example, now I don't have a single person in my team who previously worked in a taxi. But we have a big friendly family. We sometimes argue with each other, get offended, but still consider each other family.

I am very lucky because I love my job. My mission as a leader is like a conductor who cannot play all the instruments of his orchestra. But he knows how to set up work so that team members can communicate with each other and interact with other departments.

— There is a lot of creativity in advertising. I am also extremely interested in what drives people when they order a taxi. As well as interacting with people. Marketing is the craziest department of the company. And for me, communication with colleagues is a very important part of the process.

— I believe that marketing director is a creative profession. He must be a visionary: see trends, feel where consumers are moving, keep his nose to the wind. I read online publications, such as vc.ru, cossa, Vedomosti, Kommersant, Medium and others, so that with their help I understand on an intuitive level where society will go next. And trends in marketing are equal to social trends. For example, conscious consumption and care for the environment are popular today, which are already used in campaigns by Western brands. For me, success is when I love my job. But it is important to maintain life balance. The best rest is a change of activity. That's why I don't have a special recipe.