While not neglecting the value of consumer pre-tests and survey data, as a digital marketing agency for Germany, we use other methods to get a clear picture of real consumer interest. And the undiscovered interest of consumers will surface only when you are actually communicating with them. 

We encourage our clients to develop and test, via pathfinder marketing campaigns, a variety of use cases to explore their opportunities in the German-speaking markets. Pathfinder marketing campaigns help you achieve your awareness goals and also discover hidden interests among secondary target groups.

We believe in the value of multi-purpose approaches, wherever possible, to deliver on multiple objectives. This reduces your overall marketing investments and enables you to get the best possible return on every single measure. 

Pathfinder Campaigns

GCVB Pathfinder Marketing Campaigns DACH

As a digital marketing agency with an explorative mindset, we can provide the following pathfinder services:

+ campaign configuration

+ potential use cases

+ use case messaging

+ on- and offline element planning

+ campaign development

+ campaign execution

How to effectively explore your German target groups’ interests

Do you have plans for launching a big marketing campaign in Germany or the other German-speaking markets? In that case, you may want to consider running a pathfinder marketing campaign first, to gather the input you need for impact campaigns. Depending on your plans for the big launch, you can run a short pathfinder campaign, or configure a campaign that runs for several months. 

Pathfinder marketing campaigns are a combination of (potential) buyer-group-specific online marketing, including on-site experiences on your website, and physical experiences. In the future, they will also include metaverse elements.

The campaigns are sales-oriented, but their primary objective is to gather intel on buyer groups through discovery activities.

Every activity will deliver the data for your follow-on impact activities.

This approach is particularly useful for companies that:

  • are interested in building a solid market share in the DACH region
  • are interested in identifying and utilizing their full market potential
  • have successfully developed products for niche consumer groups but would like to scale up their sales in the main German market
  • have not succeeded with an initial product, and need solid market intel to perform a pivot

German Content Vienna Berlin has developed a unique approach to developing and implementing pathfinder marketing campaigns in Germany and the other DACH countries. 

We encourage our clients to use our pathfinder marketing concept to test a variety of use cases to explore their opportunities in the German markets. The concept is based on a scaleable approach for acquiring data/market intel through specific elements that are developed together with clients.

This approach is particularly interesting to companies that have successfully developed products for niche consumer groups but would like to scale up their sales by entering the main market. Pathfinder marketing campaigns help to identify the most promising additional target groups.

The beauty of an exploration campaign is that it is meant to trigger hidden desires. While your activities cater to the expectations of your known target groups, you will also try to identify other, hidden desires of different potential buyer groups that have not surfaced yet. Use your imagination and define all potential use cases you can think of. They will be added to your core campaign elements.

With the right project configuration, you can run an online marketing campaign, with offline elements, that helps you generate awareness, while at the same time enabling you to collect valuable data on real consumer interest and insight into the best messaging and channel approaches. 

You may also identify regional demand hot spots if you set up your campaign accordingly. Just as an example: if you sell retro art nouveau jewelry, by launching a pathfinder FB & Instagram ad campaign, you can discover that consumers in the Rhine/Ruhr area in Germany that are not familiar with your offering yet are almost as inspired by it as your “home base” customers in Vienna, Austria (reach and engagement). You will also see that the ads run well on both FB and Instagram, while the performance of the accompanying content posts vary.

Pathfinder marketing campaigns will help you achieve your objectives in terms of awareness and positioning, while also maximizing the value of your data analysis and AI research services. 

Five key success factors of pathfinder marketing:

1

What if? Define ALL possible use cases consumers could be looking for. It's the key to discovering your true buyer groups.

2

Combine marketing and research: Design campaigns to meet both sales and consumer research objectives.

3

The right metrics: To gather actionable market intel, choose the metrics that will give you insight for your follow-on impact campaigns. You have a suite of intel tools to help you understand your market.

4

On- and offline activities: To understand underlying consumer interest you need to be as close as possible to them, on- and offline.

5

Explorative messaging: Choose a messaging that can trigger underlying consumer interest. You have your core target group. But what if other buyer personas would opt for your product if they only knew about it?