In-store screens, pickup sampling, delivery, oh my. There’s lots of new innovations happening around retail grocery which often leaves brands wondering – where do I invest? While it can be scary to try something that’s new and not-yet-proven, pioneering new CPG marketing tactics into your strategy can have advantages like early adopter pricing, PR opportunities, or just getting into a space before it’s crowded.
As we plot out strategies for 2025, here are 6 CPG marketing tactics we have our eyes on to give brands an edge in retail.
In-Store Digital Media
Successful CPG marketing campaigns follow a shopper from first impression through to purchase, which means connecting off-site activations with in-store presence. While there is still a strong place for physical displays, in-store digital media allows for quicker activation and visibility for more brands using a smaller physical footprint.
The audiences in grocery stores also have a lot of untapped potential. In-store audiences are as large or larger than some major TV networks – and they’re watching in a purchase mindset.
To get the most impact from in-store media, brands need to make sure their in-store messaging matches what consumers see from them out-of-store and also consider how messaging can align with different locations in the store. For example, an entry screen is a great spot to advertise impulse purchases, instant consumables, or store navigation (i.e. Find In Aisle 4). You can also think of it as cross-merchandising. Share a recipe in a relevant food aisle, or health benefit information near the pharmacy.
It’s also important to note that in-store activations shouldn’t be measured the same way as online activations. While there is technology to track real impressions (via sensors), there is other valuable data for in-store placements. Consider asking, what is the shopper demographic for the store? What is that retailer’s traffic like? And ideally – did the placements provide lift?
Influencer Campaigns
We know what you’re thinking – influencer’s aren’t new. While they have been around for a while, media providers are continuing to find new ways to utilize them. Take TikTok for example. Last year, they launched TikTok Creative Challenge (TTCC), where brands could submit a brief for influencers to create content for their promotion. This year, they announced TTCC Lite which lowered the price qualification for brands, making it more accessible. Kroger has also been leading the way with influencer campaigns, closing the loop between social and retail by utilizing first-party customer data.
In our own activations, we’ve seen as much as 3x higher results when utilizing influencers in ad campaigns compared to standard branded ad content. We anticipate more retailer networks and media providers will provide their own solutions for influencer campaigns to make it more accessible and more connected for retail brands.
Delivery + Pickup Placement
We all saw the rise of grocery delivery and pickup with the-year-that-shall-not-be-named. But many of us wondered where the dust would settle. Would shoppers return to the store? Or would pickup and delivery be the new norm? The answer is both. 74% of grocery shopping still occurs in the store, but delivery and curbside have grown significantly, even post-pandemic.
Since 2022, grocery delivery is up 56% and pickup has increased 100%.
This is why we’re continuing to see more integration of these convenient shopping methods with media providers. AdAdapted recently announced a partnership with GoPuff to create a new bridge between shoppable ads and grocery delivery. Ibotta has added Instacart to their partner network, giving Instacart shoppers more opportunities for savings. Walmart also offers sampling bags for pickup shoppers as a way for brands to sample at scale.
AI Integration
You’ve likely been hearing a lot about AI and like it or not, it’s the way forward. Like many other platforms and technologies, it’s all about how you use it. AI provides opportunities for personalization, robust analytics, and streamlined processes. Shoppers know we’re collecting data, and they want it to be used in a way that makes their experience more intuitive and frictionless.
So let’s hear it straight from the source. We gave ChatGPT the following prompt: “I am a condiment sauce brand that sells my product in grocery stores. Provide a list of 5 examples of how I can use AI in my retail marketing strategy to improve sales in grocery stores.”
Here is what it said:
Personalized Promotions: Use AI algorithms to analyze customer purchasing behavior and preferences. Create targeted promotions based on individual buying patterns, such as discounts on complementary products (like meats or breads) when customers purchase your sauces.
Inventory Optimization: Implement AI-driven demand forecasting to ensure optimal stock levels. By analyzing sales data, seasonal trends, and regional preferences, you can reduce stockouts and overstocks, ensuring that your products are always available when customers want them.
Visual Recognition for Shelf Placement: Use AI-powered visual recognition technology to monitor shelf placement in real-time. This can help you ensure that your products are always well-displayed, in-stock, and visible to customers, enhancing the likelihood of impulse buys.
Customer Engagement through Chatbots: Deploy AI chatbots on your website or social media platforms to engage with customers. These bots can provide recipe suggestions, cooking tips, and usage ideas for your sauces, driving interest and prompting customers to look for your products in stores.
Sentiment Analysis for Product Development: Utilize AI to analyze customer reviews and social media sentiment regarding your sauces. This can provide insights into what flavors or features customers love or dislike, guiding future product development and marketing strategies to better align with consumer preferences.
Integrating AI into your strategy won’t be as easy as typing in a chat prompt. It will require finding the right tech partners and leveraging their specific model for your needs. The best way to get started is to find the biggest gap in your strategy that AI can help improve and start there. Build your experience and expertise, then over time incorporate AI into other areas of your business.
Leveraging Independent Retailers
Don’t count the small guys out – local, independent retailers have high brand affinity and very loyal shoppers. They make up roughly one third of total grocery sales, and shoppers are willing to pay more to shop at their favorite local store. However, this market has been difficult to tap into because independent grocers are by their nature disconnected, making it challenging to scale a campaign. Brands needed a way to activate 1 campaign across multiple small retailers, instead of trying to activate around them one at a time.
The solution is dynamic media. Media partners like ShopLiftr or Ideal House have solutions to deliver personalized experiences at scale. Using location data and weekly circulars, you can let shoppers know that they can find your brand at their favorite local grocer.
As we know here in St. Louis, local loyalty can run deep. This new opportunity could be a game changer for brands to scale their messaging and leverage local affinity.
Store Events
The COVID-19 pandemic put a hard stop to in-person events, and even as the world opened back up, it took several years for those events to become available again, or to populate how they once did. For retail marketing, this gave a huge push toward digital activations, and the acceleration of retail media.
Now, it’s time to bring physical activations back to the store in full swing. It’s not that these opportunities haven’t been available in the last few years, but it was metered. Brands have had to take time to shift and re-shift their focus and strategies around the Pandemic, retailers only offered events in select stores, etc. But now, retailers are more open to these opportunities, and brands have a stronger understanding of their digital performance and can really make an impact by layering tactics together.
That being said, one often prohibitive aspect of physical activations is the price point. One way that brands are combating this is by partnering up with other brands for co-branded events. It’s a great way to expand your audience while reducing your cost.
Where Do You Start?
Activating all of these tactics won’t be accessible for all brands, and you might be feeling a bit of whiplash trying to figure out where to turn your attention. But as the saying goes, you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. Start by aligning on your larger business objectives, optimize where you already are, and look for opportunities to fill gaps in your current strategy. Above all, focus on your shopper. Where they are, what they’re planning, how to personalize their experience, and how to make shopping easy.
Whether you’re starting your retail media journey or looking to push to the next level, having a strategic partner can help. At Cliffedge Marketing, we’ve worked in and around the grocery space for over 20 years, successfully launching products, boosting shopper engagement, and of course, optimizing retail media strategies.
Schedule a free consultation with us to see how we can accelerate your brand in retail.
