Did you know that a pencil can write a straight line of up to 56 km? Do sharks go into a coma if they are upside down? That "anatidaefobia" is the fear that a duck is watching you? Curious? Here's another surprising fact: with smart management of Ads Share, it is possible to significantly boost your brand's market share.
In simple terms, Ads Share represents the market share of a brand's promotional offers within the total ads in the category. For example: if brand A has a 5% Ads Share in the yogurt category in a specific period and region, it means that 5% of all the ads aired in that category were from brand A.
What is the relationship between Ads Share and Market Share? Several factors explain the variations in market share, and one of the main levers is the volume of promotions. This is particularly relevant in the FMCG market or fast-moving consumer goods, such as food, beverages, hygiene products, beauty, and cleaning products.
In this segment, on average, 30% to 35% of retail sales (supermarkets, hypermarkets, and wholesale stores) are through promotions. In other words, almost 1/3 of what is sold through these channels are promoted products. In some chains, this percentage can reach 50% and 60%! They are incredibly relevant numbers.
It is known that efficient offers generate higher store traffic, as well as more additional sales in other categories. It is called "cross elasticity," where the demand quantity of an item/category responds to a change in the price of another item/category.
From a retail perspective, the gain is obvious. From the manufacturer's point of view, this can generate a positive impact, especially for those who have multiple categories in their portfolio.
Generally, negotiations between retailers and suppliers regarding promotional issues occur on a category-by-category basis (and their respective SKUs). But what if I looked at the interrelation between the categories that that manufacturer works with?
With the right information, it is possible to promote a certain category by relating it to another one in your portfolio. In this case, it would not be necessary to sacrifice the margin of both, since very likely when a shopper buys category A, they will also buy category B.
So why lower the price of both? Well, but then you might ask: "Who guarantees that the shopper won't take category B from my competitor and I only sell what I promoted?"
Here's another concept: "Every promotion is an offer, but not every offer needs to be a promotion." But, how so? An offer does not necessarily need to provide a price or quantity advantage (but a promotion does). She needs to be communicated to effectively.
One of the tools is to use promotional mechanics intelligently. If I take, for example, only item A, the price is, let's say, R$ 10. If I also take item B, the price of item A becomes R$ 6. Item B maintains the regular price (but it cannot be much more expensive than the average). Obviously, both items are from the same manufacturer. It is already known that there is a very strong cross elasticity between items A and B.
With this, the manufacturer leverages the sale of two items, potentially increasing market share and still protecting the margin (for both the manufacturer and the retailer). All of this is possible through collaboration between retail and industry, as well as the intensive use of data.
Internal retailer data (through their CRMs, for example) to understand cross-elasticity, market price data (after all, the promotional price of the partner retailer cannot be higher than that of their direct competitors), weather data (if your product is affected by weather/temperature variables), clear definition and knowledge of your target audience to tailor the language and media to be used for promoting the offer/promotion, among other information, are essential.
As Peter Drucker used to say:What is not measured cannot be managedThe Ads Share, therefore, becomes a strategic indicator of promotional performance. It helps brands understand their relative exposure and adjust actions to gain ground against competitors.
In the end, promotion is not just a sales trigger — it is a brand-building tool and a way to gain market share when well thought out, executed intelligently, and measured rigorously.
