Bringing you innovative performance marketing and
real-time digital shopper insights.

SIVO strives to be on the forefront of new technology and innovations in the insights industry. That is how we discovered Pear Commerce, a brilliant technology company that is on-pace to be the largest provider of shoppable media by the end of 2022! 

In 2018, Pear Commerce was founded by two talented serial tech entrepreneurs, Eric Martell and Alex Wyler, bringing their tech expertise to the world of retail.   

What is Shoppable Media? 

Shoppable media in retail means connecting any media (e.g. free and paid social, digital display, content, influencer, email, owned webpages, etc) to retailers with add-to-cart (ATC) functionality that is just “a click away”.

What are the benefits to Consumers?

Pear provides an industry-leading technology making shoppers online path to purchase frictionless which has been a leading reservation for consumers to shop online. Whether through a digital ad or your brand’s website, Pear uniquely gives consumers a “where to buy” choice, based on real time stock inventory checks and connects them to over 2,000 retail chains across the U.S. That is a clear point of difference.

What are the benefits to Marketing Teams?

A unique way-in to performance marketing. This revolution of advanced technology provides more data and less work for brand teams with real results. At the foundation, Pear provides full funnel click-to-conversion data which improves digital marketing performance while campaigns are in-market. They help marketers with: 

• Real-Time dashboard access for in-flight media optimizations 
• Retargeting & lookalike audiences built and pushed to ad networks; made from each step of the conversion funnel (page loads, add-to-cart, purchase) 
• Solving for distribution issues: Covid shifts, inventory/supply chain, availability, etc. by optimizing for retailer out-of-stocks across retailer locations 

What are the benefits to Insights Teams?

At this point you might be thinking, “That’s great, but isn’t SIVO an insights company?”  The answer is, “Yes!”  SIVO is all about understanding people and in this case, Pear’s technology helps SIVO and our clients better understand consumer preferences and consumers’ digital shopping behavior through real-time, in-market experimentation, such as: 

• Digital ad effectiveness via A/B testing of multiple campaign variables  
• Early new product post-launch feedback 
• Product attribute preferences, such as, flavors, pack sizes, package forms  
• Retailer and regional product sales strengths and gaps 
• Digital shopper path to purchase mapping, from ad engagement to add-to-cart, to sale 

As an example, Pear was able to help a CPG client create a data-driven approach to managing their digital marketing campaigns while also helping them to understand and optimize the plan based on shopper and retailer behavior.

The results were fantastic!  Pear created custom audiences for the brand using the client’s own 1^st party conversion data and saw 5x add-to-cart (ATC) rates compared to 3^rd party audiences and 20x ATC rates compared to the client’s website visitor audience. During the process, Pear scanned over 2,000 retailer’s digital shelves for real-time inventory to help shoppers purchase at their retailer of choice while also helping them avoid hitting out-of-stocks. The client also received valuable digital path to purchase insights and A/B testing results on different creative options to help optimize their digital campaign along the way. 

Through our partnership with Pear Commerce, SIVO can now help you achieve strong digital marketing results and new insights via performance marketing and real-time digital experimentation. To learn more about Pear Commerce and SIVO Market Intelligence solutions, please contact our SIVO team at Contact@SIVOInsights.com.   

By Julie Rose

As your fiscal year is coming to a close, new questions and challenges can arise as you finalize spending on this year’s budget:

• Wondering how you’ll accomplish your annual goals?
• More workload and pipeline of projects than your team can execute?
• Questioning how to keep saying “Yes” to internal stakeholders? 
• Not enough time or resources to meet multiple requests for actionable insights from leadership, product development, marketing, or strategy? 

SIVO Insights On Demand Talent™ Can Help 

SIVO’s On Demand Talent is a great solution for Insights Professionals and Teams facing the year-end crunch – with more initiatives than bandwidth to get it all done. We leverage our extensive pool of fractional Insights Talent, with years of experience and expertise, to help you achieve your business objectives. 

We recommend three key steps for evaluating and making the case internally for hiring contract Insights talent.

As workforce talent continues to evolve, there is no shortage of options, including interns, short or long-term contractors, contract-to-hire, or direct hire. Below, we highlight the advantages of On Demand Contract Talent vs. a Full-Time Hire:

Prove the Need for Incremental Resources

Some of our clients have struggled to make the case to their leaders for permanent incremental headcount. Instead, they started with SIVO’s On Demand Talent to show value to the business. This step helped them demonstrate the benefit of having additional resources.  Let SIVO help you get the additional headcount you need in 2024.

Get Expert Consumer Insights with SIVO

We have started ODT engagements in as fast as one week. To discuss your needs and how we can match the talent with the best expertise for quick solutions in your organization, visit SIVO On Demand Talent or email Contact@SIVOInsights.com.

When you read the news these days, regarding women leaving the workforce, the outlook and reality seem bleak. According to the Wall Street Journal,

“Due to challenges created by the COVID-19 crisis, more than 1-in-4 women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely.”

The White House Fact Sheet, April 21, 2021 also reported,

“There are now 3.7 million fewer women working than there were in February 2020, in large part because of the pandemic, eroding more than 30 years of progress in women’s labor force participation.”

Not only are these the facts, but this has been my reality. I have spent the last decade and a half building a business career in a traditional corporate setting, across Consumer-Packaged Goods companies that span from cereal to mascara. I’ve built a rich network of connections, and grown my skillset to span across sales, marketing, research, and innovation. I’ve invested in my career, but COVID-19 made me re-evaluate where my investment was most needed.

Trending

Do customers want to ‘hire’ your product?

Maintaining a Work-Life Balance During Lockdown

When the lockdown hit in March of 2020, I added an entire workstream to my day job: manage childcare and distance learning for my two young children. I also lost my part-time nanny, my relief and respite, due to the pandemic. I did not know how I would stay afloat, deliver against my job’s requirements, while also ensuring that my kids got what they needed.

COVID realities created both unreliable childcare and unreliable school days. One exposure could turn any sense of schedule or order upside down. Some of those months went by in a blur. I recognized something had to give. I had to give. I had to make a change for myself and my family. I chose to leave my corporate job to explore something more sustainable for my life.

Fast forward to early spring 2021 and some of the facts and realities haven’t changed all that much. While the nation is becoming hopeful with relaxing Covid restrictions and rise in vaccinations, women have not as readily returned to the workforce. This year, I shifted to the gig economy and started a new career as a Research Strategy Consultant with SIVO’s On-Demand Talent team, a local women-owned agency that really understands what it looks like to do the work you love while also being present for your family.

Working for a Women-Owned Agency and Getting Support

For me SIVO has been a beacon, offering me a way to continue investing in my career without compromising my family, especially during a pandemic. SIVO is a woman owned and operated business founded on the belief that the world needs more people doing what they love. SIVO recognized 12 years ago there was an overflow of great talent that wanted to work but NEEDED flexibility, especially parents juggling family and childcare demands.

I’ve learned that part of making it ‘work’ as a working mom is to find the type of work that meets your needs. Workplace norms have pivoted to meet marketplace realities. My advice to women is to consider something that fits YOUR lifestyle priorities instead of the other way around.
I love being a part of an organization like SIVO, a company committed to redefining what work looks like. SIVO is helping companies work differently through their On Demand Talent (ODT) practice, which helps fill in resource gaps for short or longer-term engagements. Sometimes a company just needs an extra perspective on a special project, or someone to fill in during a parental leave.

On-Demand Talent with SIVO

SIVO’s ODT can provide the right talent – at the right time – so that companies can keep moving forward without disrupting workflows or putting additional strain on existing staff. I am currently on an ODT assignment and am loving the opportunity to work on unique business problems while, not only continuing to nurture my professional career, but also be the kind of mom I want to be for my family.

 Schedule a Discovery Call Today

Are you curious what working differently looks like? – just ask. SIVO Insights can help you figure out the best path forward for you or your company to get the resources – and talent – you need. Schedule a discovery call today to get started.

Through the SIVO, Inc. “Modern Ways of Working” Mini Chat series, we spoke with a strategic consumer insights leader, Helen Kurtz, Chief Marketing Officer. In this conversation with Marilyn Weiss, Helen discusses her experience with SIVO’s On Demand Talent solution.  She has hired SIVO’s fractional Insights talent in two different companies that she has led, with the intention of introducing consumer insights to the organization, working with the marketing team to prove out the value of insights.  Watch this insightful video or read through the transcript below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDTSN-vB8jA

Video Transcript: 

DOING MORE WITH FEWER PEOPLE:

I mean, for sure, budgets are getting squeezed and I think it's more and more the case that headcount is getting squeezed and there's a desire to do more with fewer people and to be really smart about what choices we're making on staffing.

BRING IT IN AND PROVE IT OUT:

I left General Mills and went to a sort of billion dollar company, Foster Farms and it was clear to me as I came in as CMO that we needed to absolutely elevate our sort of consumer touch points and I needed to get that consumer insight function established at the company but I didn't have the headcount to do that and so that's where I reached out to you Marilyn and we dreamed up this idea of this fractional support. 

I left the company, I'm now CMO at another company, and very quickly brought Sevo in with me again for the same reason. It wasn't a function that was established in the company, again about a billion dollars in revenue.  And so it was a real opportunity to bring in and prove out the capabilities of consumer insights at the same time knowing I was going to get a fantastic,  no questions asked, I was going to get the best talent at the right time. 

CONCENTRATED EFFORT & TEAM INTEGRATION:

I think what you're getting with this fractional talent, because SIVO is the best at weeding it out. You guys are the experts themselves. It's like you’re going to a great college. You've already been filtered through.  You're picking out the best talent. 

I think there's also a little bit of a mindset of a fractional talent that's really important that who we've brought in doesn't need to be pitching in front of the C -suite.

They can, but they don't need that recognition. They they're not gunning for promotions within. They're really just there to do a job. They integrate really well with my team. But again, there I can have them sort of play in the background or bring them to the forefront. It's just a much lower lift for me and my team.  I would say they're really there to do the job. And in many cases to educate my team on what consumer insights excellence looks like because that was not a function that was in either of the two companies.

So I guess, again, to be more succinct, this combination of excellence and expertise in their field, as well as this ability to work very seamlessly with the team and again, not being in it to win it for promotions. They're really there to do the job. So it's just sort of very concentrated effort. 

CONSUMER-CENTRIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP:  

I think it's just thought leadership first and foremost.  I think most companies are, if not there already, are wising up to consumer-first and consumer-led and that's sort of like in their DNA.  So if you have a declaration like that happening in your company, it's like well, what do I do with that? and who helps me execute that? So I think you know both of the individuals I've worked with have really brought that to the fore helping educate on what that looks like.  How to get close to the consumer, driving education, training, and facilitating.   

Again, it's not just like executing the research, but interrogating:

• Does that research need to be done even?  
• Do we know this?  
• What do we already have on hand?
• How can we be creative or scrappy about thinking differently about getting to the consumer and getting to insight?

THE ECONOMICS ARE FANTASTIC:  

Like just the economics have been really fantastic. I didn't hire a full -time person. I use a fractional person at 30 hours a week.   So like, that's worked out really well. I have no turnover because this person is here and they're very committed to us. I don't have to worry about them leaving.  I've got a great backup from SIVO in that, you know, the resources are there. The thought leadership is there behind my individual. I know that she consults with SIVO on questions that are beyond her scope.

Then, just this sort of seamlessness of having someone who works well with a team. You filter out for people who are really exceptional at what they do and are used to an experience with working on a team.   When you're out there interviewing, you don't really know what you're gonna get. So it's just like, it's almost like a stamp of approval, I think, coming from SIVO.  I have found that through and through.

TALENT CURATION & INSIGHTS EXPERTISE:

I think the biggest compliment to SIVO is that my team doesn't really know about SIVO. Like they just know Jill. They know the person with whom they work. I am the behind the scenes working with SIVO and I've found that to be extraordinarily easy.  I think that the team at SIVO like really listens to what I need. When I start a project or when I moved companies, they were quick to sort of like curate who would be a good match. They get to know me as a client and what my demands are. 

My team would say it's a godsend.  I think my team loves in both places, loves working with this talent, and would sacrifice a lot of other things before they would give up this talent, which happily we didn't have to do.