Most businesses know customer insight is key, but few dig deep. Tom Boxall, Performance Marketing Manager at Naked Wines, swears by incrementality—his secret weapon for uncovering real growth drivers, in the latest episode of MAD//Fest's partner podcast, Shiny New Object.

Most businesses already know that understanding the customer is key to success. But they’re only barely scratching the surface, according to Tom Boxall, the Performance Marketing Manager at Naked Wines. His shiny new object is incrementality, and he scrutinises sources of information keenly to get to the true performance drivers for his marketing endeavours.

"I've always loved finding out the numbers behind why a piece of creative or branding has worked, so letting the data paint the picture, so to speak," he explains. This passion has led him to explore the intricacies of customer segmentation, CRM, and growth marketing, ultimately shaping his approach to performance marketing.

To uncover the deeper insights, Tom employs a multifaceted approach, including post-purchase surveys, Trustpilot reviews, and customer segmentation. Customers, targets, and products all change - which is why marketers need to keep looking for insights. And a new sources is “creative for targeting.”

Tom's belief in the power of creative as a targeting mechanism has been tested with Naked Wines’ scaling of paid social ads: “We've been working tirelessly to build paid social from one of the least invested channels in the business to one of the largest paid channels. And that is no mean feat, and that comes through rigorous creative testing, creative velocity, creative diversity.”

It may sound daunting, but “you probably need to be testing and launching way, way more than you ever thought. You know, 30, 40, 50 creatives a week."

Tom's shiny new object is incrementality: "Essentially, it's finding out which channel is working the hardest, where should we be investing our media spend, and what is driving the most conversions that wouldn't have happened anyway." To achieve this, he uses geo lift tests, mixed media modelling, and multi-touch attribution tools.

The host of the Shiny New Object podcast is Tom Ollerton, founder of Automated Creative.