The rapid evolution of retail media

The fastest-growing part of retail media is off-site advertising, according to a Kroger executive who explains that brands are using the retailer’s audiences to reach consumers outside of Kroger.com.  

Why it matters

This marks a significant shift in both the value of retailer data and in the partnerships between brands and retailers. Initially, brands tapped into retailers’ first-party data to be able to better understand and target advertising on retailers’ own platforms, but they can now apply that across other online environments, including social media, CTV and programmatic display.

It’s a relatively recent development: The Current notes that “in the past year, more retail networks opened their offerings to programmatic platforms, allowing brands to compare data across retail media networks and control frequency at a consumer level, adjust for overlapping audiences, and ensure they are reaching the right consumers and not spending too much on the same audiences”.

Who’s doing it?

The Coca-Cola Company can access data from search inquiries, banner ads and cart orders from its partnerships with over 25 retail media networks including Kroger. It can then layer on top purchase histories at brick-and-mortar stores and then further layer that data across retail media networks. 

“It has really helped us become more efficient with the way we were buying, but that would have never happened if the retail media networks weren’t willing to venture into data-licensing agreements,” Katie Neil, connected commerce lead, North America, for The Coca-Cola Company, told The Current.    

Key quote

“People are shopping differently today. Incremental brand growth is happening on the digital shelf and retail purchase data is about much more than just retargeting … purchase-based data from retailers results in fewer wasted ad impressions”  – Jill Smith, vice president of sales at Kroger Precision Marketing.

Sourced from The Current