REI is more than a store for outdoor enthusiasts; they are a Co-Op, a community devoted to being your adventure partner. For consumers who believe a life lived outdoors is a life well-lived, they want to know REI has their best interests — and their personalized needs — in mind.

With a limited budget and a legion of loyal fans and customers, REI needed to be relevant for consumers searching for the exact right thing at exactly the right moment. Relevance is critical to creating a connection and inciting the desired response, whether it is awareness, engagement or conversion. Precise targeting with efficiency and scale have been key to REI’s success in reaching a niche (but powerful and dedicated) audience that’s passionate about the brand’s products. Using creative tailored to a personal experience, interest and location, REI was able to retain relevance among its consumer base and increase sales.

Partnering with a trusted programmatic adserver, we created literally hundreds of dynamically changing and personalized ads based on a user’s gender, location, local weather conditions, and in-stock inventory. For instance, a woman browsing the Internet on a rainy day in Chicago would see an ad for a red North Face Women’s Rain Jacket, while a young man in sunny Southern California browsing at the same time would see an ad for REI-branded board shorts and a sun shirt. Using this technology to deliver relevant brand creative to individuals precisely when they wanted it added value to their lives, and deepened the brand connection. Taking it a step further we set our parameters to scout not only relevant weather conditions, but we also linked creative to a real-time feed at REI.com to ensure products were in-stock and available for purchase, ensuring no customer would be left disappointed when placing an order.

To date we’ve found that not only did the brand achieve a response rate 6x higher than previous digital ads, but our Dynamic Weather technique delivered an ROI that was 14x higher than REI’s previous year’s campaign, bringing in nearly $9MM in total revenue for the retailer.

As a bonus, the efficiencies created by automating our creative options cut down on overall production costs, allowing us to save funds and reinvest our budget in relevant (and more effective) media, further increasing our ROAS (55% above our campaign goal).

As the campaign continues, revenue has seen steady increase, ultimately leading to REI hitting a weekly revenue record during their highest sales period of the year, the May Anniversary Sale.