Target Audience Research

Why Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is a CEO’s Big Asset: When I took over as Chairman of Unilever Philippines, I was facing a "fierce competitor" (P&G) in a much more intense market than I had ever seen. I realized that to rally my team, I had to go beyond the language of spreadsheets and PowerPoints. I had to speak the language of the Pinoy spirit. Leading in an "alien" environment requires us to: 1. Listen to the History, Not Just the P&L: Understanding that the Philippines was colonized twice—first by Spain, then by America—explained the unique amalgam of lifestyles. It explained why they value tradition as much as they love the latest global trends. 2. Be an "Immersant," Not a "Tourist": Many expats make the mistake of sticking to their own circles. My wife, Mona, and I made it a point to see the country through the lens of its citizens. When you embrace the local culture, the local team embraces your leadership. 3. Respect the "Invisible Borders": Every country has unwritten rules. In the Philippines, the warmth toward outsiders is matched by a deep sense of national pride. If you don't respect the latter, you will never earn the former. In a market dominated by fierce competitors, understanding the local heartbeat is the difference between satisfactory performance and market leadership. • Resilience: Brands that actively support communities during natural disasters build an emotional bond that transcends price. • Cultural Resonance: Products and campaigns that tap into the pride of Pinoy heritage, their love for fiestas, and their familial values win deeper loyalty. • Relevance: Understanding consumers lifestyle, beliefs and behaviours becomes non-negotiable for relevance. Read more about cultural understanding, competitive battles, leading in an alien environment and much more in my soon to be released book “ A CEO’s BREW”.

After sending over a billion emails for 600+ brands… here are my 7 top tips for selecting the right audience. You can have the best email creative in the world — but if it lands in the wrong inbox, it won’t convert. Audience is everything. Here’s what we’ve learned at esbconnect after years of powering customer acquisition for brands like Tails.com | B Corp , AA Insurance and ASOS.com : 1. Target by behaviour, not just demographics Look for people who open, click, and act. Intent beats age and gender every time. 2. But… don’t always go for the obvious behaviour When Tails.com wanted to reach new pet owners, you'd assume targeting people engaging with pet brands would outperform, right? Wrong. They were being over-targeted. Instead, we found higher conversion by targeting segments engaging with health, home and subscription offers — less crowded and more curious. 3. Test broad, then narrow Start wide to understand what actually performs — then double down. Too niche too soon and you lose scale and surprise wins. 4. Layer in recency Someone who interacted with an email yesterday is more likely to convert than someone who did 3 weeks ago. Recency = relevance. 5. Don’t ignore ‘non-buyers’ Sometimes your best audience is one that’s never bought from the category — yet. Think curious, not converted. 6. Think beyond income — target by contextual wealth We’ve seen clients waste budget by targeting £100k+ earners assuming they’re affluent. But some of the wealthiest people are those on modest incomes with low outgoings — think high equity, long-term property owners with few financial ties. 7. Make it locally relevant A £1m house in London doesn’t signal the same wealth as it does in Scotland or Wales. Tailor your audience selection to geography and cost of living — precision wins. Audience strategy isn’t guesswork. It’s data, nuance, and constant testing. Want help finding your best segments? We’ve got 17 million opted-in UK profiles and years of experience to test with.

Job titles don’t attend events. Real people do. We keep saying events are personal. Yet, our audience definitions aren’t. We default to demographics & titles: - "Our event is designed for senior marketers at B2B firms." - "We cater to IT leaders at Fortune 500 companies." - "This experience targets founders raising Series B funding." The best event marketers I’ve met start differently. They zero in on what's actually driving their audience’s decisions: - How will this event advance their career or their business? - What conversations aren’t being had elsewhere? - Why is this event the trusted source for information and advancement? Titles and demographics help build attendee lists. But they're not enough. Great events aren't built by targeting generic profiles. They happen when you deeply understand, and speak directly to, the struggles your audience can't afford to ignore. Targeting demographics won't make your event stand out. What will? Understanding the problem your event addresses.

"What’s the ideal audience size for LinkedIn ads?"   ↑ An important question I get every few weeks, and it recently surfaced in the Fibbler community. Without the right audience, advertising is pointless. So what is the answer? For years, I defaulted to the classic rule of thumb: ~50,000 per audience segment, but 3 years ago, I stopped as it's misleading. I've been in and around over 1,000+ accounts now and have seen audiences from 1,000 people to 12m (y𝘦𝘴, 12 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯) achieve top 1% results. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 - your audience size is your audience size, it's just tactic dependent. The question people 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 be asking is "how do I know I've targeted the right audience?" The variables in targeting the right audience are: → Strategy (why this audience) → Segmentation (can you split it up) → Penetration (do you want new reach or to be frequent) → Tactics (brand tactics require looser audiences than activation) When thinking about 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲, the questions you need to ask are: → Who is this offer for? → Who is actually going to care? As LinkedIn is mainly B2B, I match the answer to these questions to targeting and I ALWAYS first start with the company. The 3 options: ↳ Company list (most accurate) ↳ Company size + industry (next best) ↳ Company size (for those with industry-agnostic solutions) Then I work on defining who the people we need to target are. Some variations we often use (there is no right answer here): Functions + Seniority + Skills + JT Exclusions Supertitles + JT Exclusions Functions + JT Exclusions Supertitles + Skills + Excl Function + Groups + Excl 𝐒𝐞𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 is the next thing to consider. The reasons you should segment: → Geography i.e. do you advertise to different time zones? → Internal structure i.e. having priority companies based on size? → Buying committee i.e. is MQL:SQL rate higher for certain functions? If the answer to any of these is yes, you should consider segmenting your audience pool by that variable. If you have a mass market product, then I'd suggest staying with as large an audience as possible. 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 is achieved only by a very simple ratio Budget:Audience The higher the budget and narrower the audience, the higher the frequency. The lower the budget and wider the audience, the lower the frequency. You can control this by ↳ How many targeting variables you add ↳ How many AND layers you apply ↳ How many exclusions you appy ↳ How much budget you spend Finally, you need to consider 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜 - in short, the most important point is how tight or loose you WANT to be with this targeting. Be looser with roles for brand awareness and tighter if you have say an incentivised offer. — Bottom line: Only segment for logic and understanding, not to satisfy a rule-of-thumb number. Your audience should be exactly as big (or small) for your company/goal - nothing more, nothing less.

Most teams think of predictive models as answer machines. You ask a question, you get a score. Will this customer churn? How likely is this lead to convert? That's valuable. But it's only half the story. The real gold sits in the SHAP values behind each prediction. SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) breaks down exactly which variables pushed a prediction in each direction, for every single customer or record. Not just "this customer is likely to churn," but why. Was it their purchase frequency? The channel they came from? How much revenue they've generated? Think of it as doing BI on AI. When you analyze SHAP values with a business lens, you stop looking at individual predictions and start seeing patterns. You can identify entire segments that share the same risk drivers. Maybe your high-revenue customers from one acquisition channel are three times more likely to leave than those from another. That's not just a prediction. That's a strategy. This is one of the most overlooked benefits of having a strong predictive model in place. The predictions tell you what's coming. The SHAP values tell you what to do about it. Want to go deeper? Here's a solid breakdown of how SHAP values work: https://lnkd.in/dxMMyhFH

Every global brand wants to win new markets. But too often, they bring their well-worn playbook, not their empathy. What travels across borders is not messaging. It’s meaning. And meaning only travels when it’s carried by culture. After two decades of building brands and partnerships across Asia for companies like Unilever, Amazon and Netflix, one lesson has stayed consistent: Global scale without hyperlocal cultural intelligence leads to beautiful (and expensive) failure. 🙃 Because marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum of data and creativity- it exists in living, breathing culture. In the values, humour, rituals, lived experiences and aspirations that define a place and its people. In the Middle East, this is amplified. A region where tradition and transformation coexist so beautifully- where audiences crave brands that both understand their proud heritage and reflect their increasingly modern identity, while staying true to the codes of culture. The future of growth here won’t be built on louder campaigns or larger budgets. It will be built on CULTURAL FLUENCY- on brands that can: 1. Decode the local context, not just translate the copy. 2. Localize emotion and clothe the brand speak with that texture. Execution is easy thereafter. 3. Empower local creators and communities as cultural co-authors. Leaders who invest in deeply understanding the local context before broadcasting will be the ones who build brands that endure- not because they adapt to every market, but because they belong in each one. 😃 Because when brands lead with cultural intelligence, they don’t just drive performance- they drive preference. #BrandStrategy #Leadership #MENAMarketing #GlobalToLocal #MarketingTransformation #CulturalIntelligence

In 2025, consumers aren’t collecting things; they’re collecting stories, moments, and cultural experiences. That's why in the new experience economy, aspiration is no longer about what you own, it’s about what you live through. Consumers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, are drifting toward cultural experiences where sneakers, fashion, music, art, and lifestyle converge. Take two such recent collaborations as examples: 1) Pharrell Williams & NIGO × NOT A HOTEL The duo is crafting JAPA VALLEY TOKYO, a cultural complex opening in 2027. The space will feature installations by artists like KAWS, rotating chef pop-ups, sake experiences, limited‑edition drops and performance events. 2) Adidas Originals × Bad Bunny Their partnership moves beyond sneakers with “The Archive: Puerto Rico Para El Mundo”, an exhibition celebrating their journey since 2021. This transforms a sneaker collab into a museum‑style experience, connecting heritage, storytelling, and community. And this isn’t isolated. Luxury, streetwear, and celebrity collaborations are increasingly about cultural immersion over commerce: - Moncler × Mercedes-Benz → Art‑car exhibitions & live music events - Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty → Annual runway‑concert‑film spectacles - Chrome Hearts × Drake → Multi‑city pop‑ups featuring art, cars, and apparel - Louis Vuitton × Takashi Murakami → Two decades of collectible art and global exhibitions But why does this matters strategically? - Deeper emotional resonance → Fans become lifelong advocates - UGC & earned media → Experiences are shared, not just worn - Higher cultural equity → Brands position themselves as lifestyle curators - Multi‑touch revenue streams → Hospitality, exhibitions, merchandise, resale Brands are moving swiftly to design experiences and these will be the ones that will define cultural relevance in the coming years. (image source: Japa Valley Tokyo, Hypebeast, Complex) #ExperienceEconomy #SneakerCulture #LuxuryBranding #GenZMarketing #BrandCollaboration #Pharrell #BadBunny #CulturalMarketing

A Guide to Arts and Culture Opportunities in China A practical guide to China’s fast-changing cultural landscape, offering insights, case studies and recommendations for UK artists and organisations. This Guide is a practical resource for UK artists and cultural organisations interested in engaging with Mainland China. It explains the opportunities and challenges of working in one of the world’s most dynamic cultural sectors, offering evidence, examples and advice drawn from lived experience. China’s cultural industries are growing fast, shaped by powerful national policies, rapid digital innovation, and rising cultural confidence. For UK stakeholders, this presents both opportunities and complexities. Building sustainable collaboration requires market insights, cultural sensitivity and trust developed over time. The report offers sector insights on five key sectors - performing arts, visual arts and heritage, film, music and literature – through sector development timelines, market data, trends and case studies. It also profiles cultural policies and highlights opportunities nationally as well as across major Chinese cities and regions. Insights are drawn from first-hand experiences of UK and Chinese practitioners. Key findings include: Opportunities across sectors: Strong demand for collaboration in digital storytelling, heritage digitisation, creative technologies, and co-production models. Regional diversity: Cities beyond Beijing and Shanghai, such as Chengdu, Xi’an and Hangzhou, are developing distinct cultural brands and creative industries. Policy alignment: National priorities in digitisation, IP protection, rural revitalisation and heritage parks are shaping new spaces for international partnerships. Digital-first culture: Platforms like WeChat, Douyin and RedNote (Xiaohongshu) shape how culture is produced, marketed and consumed in China. Trust before scale: Lasting partnerships often begin with small exchanges -visits, workshops or residencies - before growing into major tours or productions. The Guide is for cultural organisations of all sizes, from freelancers and SMEs to large institutions across all four nations of the UK. https://lnkd.in/eDxGgVu9

Navigating India's Luxury Landscape: Regional and Religious Insights India’s luxury market is as diverse as its culture, shaped by deep-rooted regional and religious influences. To thrive in this dynamic landscape, brands must go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach and tailor their strategies to resonate with distinct consumer preferences. Regional Differences in Luxury Consumption: - North India (Delhi and Punjab): Known for opulence, luxury items here signify status, with high-end fashion and jewelry dominating. - South India (Bengaluru and Chennai): Tech hubs with affluent consumers seeking experiential luxury and high-end real estate. - West India (Mumbai and Gujarat): Mumbai's luxury market thrives on high fashion and real estate. Gujarat's entrepreneurial spirit drives luxury in real estate and vehicles. - East India (Kolkata and Bhubaneswar): Kolkata focuses on fine dining and art. Bhubaneswar sees luxury in traditional crafts and spiritual tourism. Religious Influences on Luxury Consumption: - Hinduism: Luxury spending peaks during festivals like Diwali, focusing on gold jewelry and designer clothing. - Islam: Preferences lean towards modesty, with high-end perfumes and elegant fashion. - Sikhism: Luxury reflects wealth, with a focus on high-end vehicles and designer fashion. - Christianity: Luxury consumption is driven by celebrations, with preferences for fine dining and luxury travel. Key Strategies for Luxury Brands: - Localized Offerings: Tailor your communication to regional preferences and languages, as luxury consumption varies across India. - Cultural Sensitivity: Align brand messaging with religious and cultural values to build trust. - Strategic Collaborations: Partner with local influencers and retailers for market insights and penetration. - Digital Personalization: Engage tech-savvy consumers through tailored online experiences. India's luxury market is a blend of culture, tradition, and modern aspirations. Brands that respect these nuances will succeed in this dynamic market. #LuxuryMarket #India #ConsumerBehavior #LuxuryBrands #MarketStrategy #CulturalInsights

Predict, Personalize & Perform : From Leads to Loyalty Let’s be honest—customer lifecycle marketing (CLM) in B2B used to be a fancy word for “email nurture” and “CRM segmentation. But today, with AI, machine learning, and predictive data models, CLM is becoming something much more powerful: ➡️ A living, learning ecosystem that adapts to each buyer journey in real time. Here’s how we’re seeing AI and ML revolutionize CLM in B2B: 🔍 1. Predictive Journey Mapping Machine learning algorithms are helping identify where an account or contact actually is in the funnel—not just where your CRM says they are. ✅ No more generic MQL > SQL flows ✅ Dynamic scoring based on behavior, content engagement, and intent signals ✅ Real-time stage shifts based on predictive fit and readiness — 📈 2. Hyper-Personalized Nurturing (at Scale) AI models now create content clusters matched to personas, industries, and even buying committee behavior. 🎯 Email sequences, LinkedIn ads, and landing pages are personalized based on: Buyer role Past touchpoints Predicted product interest ICP match + firmographic data It’s not just segmentation—it’s micro-personalization powered by behavioral AI. — 🔁 3. Intelligent Retargeting & Re-Engagement Using ML-powered intent data and anomaly detection, you can now: Spot churn risks before they happen Trigger re-engagement sequences based on drop-off patterns Retarget accounts that show subtle buying signals across web, search, and social Retention is no longer reactive. It's predictive. — 📊 4. Revenue Forecasting + Attribution Modeling Thanks to data science, we can model: Which touchpoints actually move pipeline Which leads are likely to convert within a time window How to attribute revenue across full-funnel programs—not just the last touch This gives marketing the credibility and confidence we’ve needed for years. — 💡 The CLM Stack of a Modern B2B Org Should Include: ✔️ Customer Data Platform (CDP) ✔️ AI-powered segmentation + scoring ✔️ Predictive content engines (LLMs + RAG) ✔️ Lifecycle orchestration tools (e.g. Ortto, HubSpot, Marketo w/ ML layers) ✔️ Analytics + BI layer for optimization 🧠 Final Thought: In 2025, CLM isn’t just “marketing automation” with better templates. It’s about building an AI-powered engine that understands, anticipates, and activates each step of the buyer journey. You don’t need more content. You need smarter orchestration. 💬 Curious to hear from other B2B leaders: How are you bringing AI into your lifecycle marketing stack?