Contextual Commerce as Integrated, Useful Media

It’s been an overwhelming year for the digital media industry. From conversations around third-party cookie deprecation taking a shocking turn, to growing concerns around brand safety surrounding the election, there has been a lot of noise around the shifting landscape of media.

One topic that should always take center stage, though, is the consumer experience. With two thirds (66%) of consumers saying the majority of the digital ads they see are irrelevant to their interests or needs - and 39% going as far as to label these ads as “excessive” - it’s time to have a conversation about why it’s critical for advertisers to serve helpful media to their consumer base.

The Issue with Intrusive Ads

Take a look at these numbers:

Disruptive media doesn’t just miss the mark - they erode trust and actively hurt the consumer experience. 

Trust and perception towards digital media continues to drop. This means that the core consideration behind any campaign should really start with the mindset of the consumer.

In other words, beyond the products you’re looking to promote, is your media genuinely meeting consumers in a helpful, useful manner? If not, you’re risking wasted impressions and, at worst, downright annoying your consumer base.

 
 

Contextual Commerce: An Integrated Alternative

Traditional programmatic advertising’s mass reach has come at a cost. Higher impression counts have come at the expense of audience intent, reaching shoppers at different moments in their browsing experience, and sometimes even resulting in ads being served in questionable inventory. 

Contextual commerce media takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of interrupting the consumer journey, it enables it by aligning products with moments of natural discovery and inspiration.

This is particularly powerful in recipe content. Over the last year, online recipe usage has grown to 91% of consumers. More than 80% of those consumers see online recipes as key points of inspiration for purchasing new items and ingredients.

 That means that when a brand appears within recipe content, the media served is not interrupting the user's browsing experience - it’s instead supporting their meal planning process.

 

Premium In-line ad (left) and Premium Pairings ad (right)

 

Take, for example. Chicory’s two Premium ad formats, In-lines and Pairings. These are contextually targeted to align with specific ingredients and recipe categories. Delivered within the recipe card, these ad formats help influence shoppers along the buying journey by driving awareness and creating seamless opportunities to buy. 

By seamlessly integrating contextually relevant ads into the recipe card, Chicory Premium not only serves the user experience with relevant, more useful product recommendations - but also drives meaningful engagement at the exact moment when shoppers are most likely to make a purchase.

Contextual commerce media serves as a bridge between inspiration and action. Almost two thirds of consumers (65%) report they’ve added grocery products to an online cart after seeing those products listed in an online recipe. When consumers encounter products in contextually relevant environments, they're more likely to see them as solutions rather than interruptions.

 
 

Examples: Meeting Consumers Where They Are

Leveraging contextually relevant media drives noticeable impact:

  • Chicory’s contextual campaigns average a median 3X incremental Return on Ad Spend (iROAS)

  • Brand safety is enabled through relevant content placement - especially important with the rise of made-for-advertising websites

  • Wasted impressions are limited by meeting consumers at intentional moments, putting ad dollars to strategic use

Consider a consumer browsing recipes for game day entertainment. Recent survey data shows 61.5% of consumers are cooking more at home to manage costs. If they encounter relevant product suggestions within these recipes - like a snack brand showcasing its variety of chips - it reads less like a typically irrelevant advertisement and more like an actual suggestion for their gathering.

This is powerful during key shopping moments. Whether it's healthy meal planning in January (where 67% of shoppers adjust their grocery habits) or budget-conscious meal prep (where 45% of shoppers are actively seeking the best deals), contextual commerce meets consumers with relevant solutions at the right time.

Conclusion

With 91% of consumers now using digital recipes and over 80% discovering and purchasing new products through recipe content, it's clear that contextually relevant media drives both engagement and action. 

But the solution isn’t just about finding new methods of targeting consumers - it's about delivering genuine value in intentional, engaging moments.

Contextual commerce media shows us that advertising doesn't have to be irrelevant to be effective. By integrating with a consumer’s purchasing journey and meeting their mindset in contextually relevant environments, brands can meet consumers in a genuinely useful manner. In this way, your brand can cut through the evergrowing fog of intrusive media.

Chicory