From backpack to shopping cart: how programmatic advertising drives the shopping season

September is not just back to school: it’s the return to routine, recurring expenses, and new goals. While brands compete for attention in a hyper-competitive market, programmatic advertising becomes the perfect ally to reach consumers right at the moment they move from the backpack to the shopping cart. 

Programmatic advertising transforms the shopping season by automating ad buying in real time, allowing advertisers to reach consumers in a more efficient and personalized way. Instead of manually negotiating with publishers, brands use automated platforms to bid for ad spaces on websites, apps, and social networks. This process happens in milliseconds, driving sales from back-to-school shopping all the way through the holiday season. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is programmatic advertising?

• The role of programmatic in back-to-routine season

• Real case: Alcampo and programmatic DOOH

What is programmatic advertising?

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad space. It uses algorithms and data to display relevant ads to the right audience at the right time. This system has largely replaced traditional methods, where advertisers purchased ad space directly from publishers, often through slow, manual processes.

How programmatic advertising boosts the shopping season

Programmatic advertising maximizes shopping seasons like back-to-school and year-end holidays by offering several key benefits:

• Precise targeting: Allows brands to reach specific audiences based on behavioral, demographic, and interest data. For example, a clothing store could show ads for school uniforms to parents with school-age children who have recently searched for related items.
• Personalization at scale: Advertisers can create tailored campaigns that adapt to individual user needs. This means a user who abandoned a cart with a backpack may receive an ad reminding them of the product or offering a discount, increasing the chances of conversion.
• Real-time optimization: Campaigns can be adjusted on the fly. If an ad isn’t performing well, algorithms detect it and reallocate budget to the ads or platforms that are delivering results. This ensures every dollar invested is used as effectively as possible.
• Attribution and measurement: Advertisers can accurately track the customer journey from ad exposure to purchase. This detailed measurement capability helps understand which strategies and channels are most profitable, guiding brands to plan future shopping seasons more successfully.

The role of programmatic in back-to-routine season

Programmatic advertising is not just “putting banners on auto-pilot,” it’s the engine that allows brands to capitalize on every consumer micro-moment in September. Here are its main superpowers:

1. Surgical targeting

In September, consumer profiles shift:

• Parents looking for backpacks, books, or uniforms.
• College students needing new laptops, apps, or fashion.
• Professionals setting new goals (from online courses to fitness).

Programmatic enables audience creation that combines behavioral data, context, geolocation, and first-party data, ensuring you don’t reach just anyone but those on the verge of purchasing.

Why is September key?

• Consumption peak: school supplies, FW (fall/winter) fashion, tech, sports, and food.
• New routines: gym, training courses, new subscriptions (streaming, apps).
• Greater family planning: purchase decisions are more rational, but also more sensitive to relevant promotions.

2. Dynamic and contextual creatives

Forget static creatives:

• Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) delivers different ads depending on the user’s age, time of day, or even weather forecasts.
• Imagine a DOOH billboard at a school entrance switching to “Healthy breakfast pack” at 8:30 a.m. and “Snack offer” at 4:00 p.m.
• Or banners that adjust price/promotion based on real-time stock.
  
  

This isn’t the future: we’ve already done it with clients like Alcampo, where programmatic + dynamic DOOH adapted messaging based on location and weather.

🛒 Real case: Alcampo and programmatic DOOH

When it comes to programmatic applied to back-to-routine campaigns, there’s no better example than Alcampo, which together with Adsmurai and Clear Channel revolutionized outdoor advertising with a campaign based on real-time data.

The challenge was clear: drive foot traffic to physical stores during a key consumption moment, delivering the right message at the right place and time. The solution was to bet on programmatic DOOH, blending the best of data-driven marketing with the visual impact of outdoor advertising.

How did we do it?

• Dynamic creatives that changed depending on weather and location.
• Placement on strategic screens, targeting areas near supermarkets.
• Total automation: if it was hot, promos for soft drinks and ice creams appeared; if it was cold, hot prepared meals or seasonal products were displayed.

The result: a highly contextual campaign, impossible to replicate with traditional buying, that turned outdoor advertising into a channel as measurable and optimizable as digital.

This case shows that programmatic goes beyond display or social, opening up a new universe for retail brands that want to stay top-of-mind (and top-of-cart) right when consumers make purchase decisions.

3. True omnichannel

Programmatic connects channels that previously worked in silos:

• Display + Social + Video + DOOH + Digital Audio + CTV → all under one buying and optimization umbrella.
• You can follow the same user from seeing your ad on connected TV, hearing it on Spotify, and finally being reached with a mobile display when visiting a competitor’s website.
  
  

During back-to-routine season, when screen time skyrockets, this orchestration multiplies brand recall.

4. Real-time optimization

September consumption is a sprint: it lasts weeks, not months.

• Programmatic adjusts bids and budgets every hour based on performance.
• If backpacks sell out, budget is redirected to promoting pencil cases or tablets.
• If one audience segment responds better to CTV than display, investment shifts automatically.

This level of agility is impossible with traditional media buying.

5. AI + Predictive Insights

Modern programmatic doesn’t just react, it predicts:

• Algorithms that anticipate which audiences will have the highest conversion in the coming days.
• Models suggesting which creative will perform better on a rainy Monday versus a sunny Friday.
• Dashboards with insights that allow you to decide your next marketing move based on data, not intuition.

Programmatic is the accelerator that makes September the perfect opportunity to boost sales, because it doesn’t just display ads  it makes them relevant, contextual, omnichannel, and measurable in real time.