Media Mavens: The Innovid Interview with Sigrid Garavito

Editor’s Note: This Q&A is the latest installment in an occasional blog series where Innovid interviews industry thought leaders about their take on the future of advertising and media.

Sigrid Garavito is the CEO of SeraphX, a marketing consultancy. She has broad Fortune 500 experience in various marketing disciplines and helped build programs for Barilla Group and Conagra Brands in shopper and ecommerce marketing. She stays active and spends some of free time watching her sons’ football and soccer games. Innovid sat down with Sigrid to discuss the rise of shoppable advertising on CTV and how brands can leverage this trend. 

Innovid: Shoppable advertising on CTV combines the awareness advertisers can drive on the biggest screen in the house combined with the interactivity of digital. Is this combination what gives this kind of advertising its power? 

Sigrid: I absolutely agree. Shoppable ads are about reducing friction for consumers. You're taking an awareness medium like TV, and combining that with immediate, seamless integration with ecommerce. You’re creating that environment where there's a seamless path for the consumer to go from being exposed to something and then just taking that immediate action and potentially purchasing an item. 

Innovid: So what's the next big thing in shoppable that's not on most people's radar yet? What do you see coming down the pipeline? 

Sigrid: A lot of us are looking forward to seeing the integration, potentially, of AI-driven personalization. That's going to be interesting. From a CTV shoppable standpoint, you could get an actual product in front of you — but what about that very specific and personalized product that is based on your behavior, not only in that streaming environment, but also potentially integrating with some of your online behavior. It will be very interesting to see how that personalization, enabled by AI, could come alive.

Innovid: Is this an example of the scenario you describe above? A sporting goods company is serving a CTV shoppable ad, and this company understands that in your particular household your sons are playing soccer and football. So this company wouldn't be serving up an ad for a baseball glove — there'd be a soccer ball or a football.‍

Exactly. If you think of Amazon, there's a lot of history that Amazon probably has on all of us. And then you have Amazon Prime Video as an example of their many offerings. So, say you’re using Prime on your Roku device. There could be a potential integration through AI that allows a brand to go, “Hey, here’s Sigrid Garavito. She's been purchasing a lot of sports equipment for these two specific sports she's watching her sons play. I’m going to serve her an ad from Amazon that says, ‘Aren’t you ready for new cleats?’”‍

Innovid: What's the best CTV shoppable ad or campaign you've seen? Do you have one that springs to mind? ‍

It was the very first shoppable engagement that I personally had. It was about a year ago, and it seemed very timely. Our family is very active, so we only have a little time together, not as much as we would like. We sometimes try to do a family movie night. It was during one of those instances that I believe it was Roku that served me a DoorDash ad, which I thought was very timely, because, literally at that moment, I was like, ‘What can I cook in less than 30 minutes, so I can just chill and just watch this movie?’ I ended up engaging with the ad. It went straight into my DoorDash app. I think we ordered Panda Express. It was very seamless. It felt very intuitive, very much like what I was thinking.‍

Innovid: What’s your advice for brands regarding shoppable advertising? Do you have any broad, strategic advice or tips and tricks on how the shoppable ads should be constructed? 

Sigrid: As a strategist, I think about two pieces of advice when it comes to shoppable advertising. First and foremost, the great thing about digital marketing — of which shoppable ads are a part — is that you get to do a lot of things on a small scale. I always advise brands, especially if they're new to a space like this, let's start small. The great thing about digital marketing is that even a small effort can have scalable insights. The other piece of advice is to test and test often. At the end of the day, you want to make sure you're leveraging this amazing, effective tool to try a lot of things to get to the right message, the right timing, the right content.‍

Innovid: Do you think shoppable advertising is broadly applicable across sectors, or are there specific vertical industries where it will be more effective? ‍

Sigrid: I know and recognize that retail and the beauty industries have led the pack when it comes to shoppable advertising, and CPG has been right behind them. As technology continues to evolve, every industry, regardless of the size of the business, will inevitably be able to take advantage of shoppable advertising in some shape or form. ‍

Innovid: Are shoppable advertising and retail media a marriage made in heaven? ‍

It’s a perfect marriage, for sure. You're combining two different types of behavior into one seamless experience for the consumer. You're taking marketing, and you're taking sales and putting them together. You're taking someone from being exposed to taking action to purchase.‍

Innovid: How important is the measurable aspect of shoppable to your clients? 

Sigrid: My advice for my clients and in the organizations where I’ve worked is to ask retailers or vendors, how do they measure? How do they formulate attribution? Those are the questions that open up great opportunities to hone in on the right partner. Some retailers have the data all the way from the ad to attribution, but they want to hold it close to their hearts. They have different reasons for that, and I respect that, but the closer you are in alignment with your objective and the way that they measure attribution, the better. At the end of the day, it's asking the right questions of that partner and saying, how would you attribute the sale to this advertising, understanding the methods by which they arrive there, and then deciding, are you comfortable with that. Does it align with the way you want to measure the objective that you're setting in place for this program?‍

Innovid: How is shoppable going to look on CTV in the future? 

Sigrid: CTV is TV, right? It’s the big, engaging, brand-building vehicle that now is shoppable or is becoming shoppable. It has its pros and cons right now, because the technology is still catching up. Social platforms like TikTok and Instagram have evolved over time to become more shoppable. And then, of course, there's the retailer piece, both brick and mortar and online. The retailers used to be lower in the funnel, but now they're building their own retail media entities. Awareness, consideration, and purchase have all converged in these various entities; there is no longer a funnel but an infinity loop where these channels can reach a consumer at every stage of their purchase behavior. From retailers to social platforms, each channel can provide awareness, consideration, and purchase capabilities for brands to engage their consumers.. On social, retail media, and CTV, awareness, consideration, and purchase will become integrated into a seamless experience for the consumer. 
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Learn more about the power of shoppable. Download Innovid’s Holiday Shoppable Advertising Unwrapped guide today.

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