Dive Brief:
- Jet.com it is putting 90% of it $5 million weekly ad budget into building brand awareness on digital, TV, outdoor, and direct mail, founder Mark Lore said during an Advertising Week panel Monday.
- While the company appeals to millennials, who are most likely to respond to mobile ads, Lore says that mobile is just a part of the Jet experience.
- Jet recently did a “home page takeover” on Yahoo, presenting streaming video of the savings the site was delivering in real time.
Dive Insight:
Jet founder Marc Lore said that while his company appeals to millennials, it has concentrated most of its initial ad spend on building brand awareness in other channels including television and direct mail. Jet.com will increase mobile spending in the months ahead, but Lore says it’s just one piece of the retail experience.
Jet is going up against Amazon and its Prime membership service by offering discounted goods with a $50 annual membership. The company is spending almost half of its startup capital on advertising in an effort to achieve ubiquity and continuity across platforms, Lore said yesterday in “Designing a Business for the New Consumer.”
Awareness is the primary concern for Jet, since unlike Amazon, it is starting from scratch in the general retail market. The company needs to ramp up trial and membership quickly in order to prove itself, and that means it can’t ignore traditional advertising outlets and their “long-tail” effects.