Advertima's Director Business Development, Alison Dunham, explains how retail giants are using retail media networks to effectively target in-store shoppers and grow revenue
Over the course of 2019 to 2021, retail and advertising news outlets reported on retail giants such as Amazon and Walmart, who are adopting retail media networks as a new business model. In Criteo’s 2021 'State of Digital Advertising' survey of marketers, 87% stated that they were planning to increase their spending on retail websites and apps in 2021, and 43% planned to spend more on retail media in 2021 than they did in 2020. Additionally, more than 58% of worldwide ad spend (as shown in the figure below) has been directed at online, digital, and mobile platforms, projected to rise over 72% by the end of 2025 (source: eMarketer). With the exponential growth in digital advertising, it’s not surprising that retail media has become a hot topic amongst grocery retailers. In particular, how they can adapt their overall media offerings to steal a more significant share of ad spend. Most importantly, the vast opportunity in-store retail media provides in enabling this to happen.
What is a retail media network?
A retail media network consists of both online and offline media. For the retailer, a retail media network presents a valuable source of incremental revenue, not just from suppliers and third-party advertisers but also from the additional awareness they generate for their own business, which leads to a profit increase.
Online retail media networks include on-site media (most commonly the retailer's mobile app or website) and offsite media (mainly social media channels) that offer media space to advertisers.
Traditional in-store retail media networks consist of a variety of media touch points strategically placed throughout the store - such as on-shelf barkers, shelf stripping, gondola end headers, in-store radio, floor stickers, trolley panels, coupons, and even till screens, or digital signage screens located either in the foyer or on-site at the front of each store.
The digitisation of shoppers in-store enables retail media networks to combine the performance capabilities that have underpinned the success seen in the online digital advertising space, alongside the clear benefits of being able to influence customers at the point of purchase or consideration. Additionally, the digitisation of shoppers and in-store retail media networks allows retailers to collect proprietary first-party data that improves shopper targeting and personalisation and provides better reporting on campaigns' ROAS / campaigns sales impact for continual optimisation.
What does the rise in digital retail media networks mean for grocery retailers?
The rise of digital retail media networks has significant implications for grocery retail. Traditionally, retail media is a means for retailers to offer suppliers the opportunity to communicate with their consumers along the shopper journey - either in-store at the point of sale or externally (coupons, direct mail, and so forth) - priming shoppers for their next visit.
The rapid growth of new in-store ad tech solutions has led to a wealth of new shopper insights and audience performance data. As a result, a new means of customer engagement is emerging with the addition of in-store performance media networks into the retail media channel mix.
The next generation of in-store performance media networks as a channel in the retail media ecosystem allows the retailer, its suppliers, and external advertisers to target all the +80% of in-store shoppers that are 90% anonymous till now. Another way of putting it is that this new technology allows retailers to lift the veil on shoppers and influence their purch ase behaviour like never before.
The process of audience creation is possible with the technology that visually digitises in-store shoppers and transforms them into relevant retail media audiences whilst fully respecting and maintaining their privacy and anonymity.
What does a performance media network do vs a traditional digital signage network?
As stated above, one of the main driving forces in the world of performance media has been the rapid evolution of digital ad tech solutions online. Without getting too much into the nitty-gritty details of technology, in the case of Advertima, it has been in the fields of Computer Vision and machine learning that have enabled us to turn in-store media ‘smart’, as defined below.
With smart targeting, targeted content can be delivered in real-time to the right audiences in the store, allowing the advertising goal to be achieved with fewer plays; this increases the efficiency of the campaign and the network and, therefore, their value.
Campaign Analytics (Advertima's data platform) provides access to comprehensive campaign performance data, which you can integrate into your retail media platform to display important insights, create easy A/B testings, and make audience predictions for the campaign duration just as advertisers are used to in the online world.
Incorporating an in-store performance media network into a retail media strategy offers the following benefits:
- Larger margins because the retailer becomes the media owner
- Higher revenues because they can charge higher CPMs
- More sellable inventory through more effective media campaigns
- Additional revenue through data packages
Increase your in-store performance media ROI with Advertima
Now that you have a clearer view of what a performance media network can do vs a traditional digital signage network, it is time to leverage Advertima's in-store performance media capabilities to your advantage and transform your physical store network into a highly valuable media channel. Get in touch with us and learn more from our experts.
Download our free highlights report and get a bird’s eye view of the retail media landscape and a fuller sense of the potential business opportunity that it offers.
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Posted on: Friday 9 June 2023