In this joint project between MMA Global and Neustar, we used return on ad spend (ROAS), a widely used measure of marketing success, to develop an innovative framework to help brands target a new group of consumers: the ‘movable middles.’

The movable middles are open-minded consumers defined by their mid-range probability of buying the brand. They’re not people who purchase the brand’s products at every turn, but they don’t have anything against the brand either. They’re different for every brand, and on the spectrum between never-buying to always-buying the brand, they’re in the middle: yes, they may buy the brand some of the time (and even buy it a lot), but many of their purchases go to the brand’s competitors as well.

We’ve developed a new methodology to identify and target these most valuable consumers and put it to the test for a brand of frozen pizza in the U.S. market. We found that the movable middles for that brand were 5X more responsive to the brand’s advertising. We developed a movable middles plan to target that group, and it outperformed a traditional reach plan by more than 50% on ROAS. It even improved reach across the board.

We believe that this work paves the way for an exciting new framework in marketing strategy.