Retail Media was once a “nice-to” for brands – an extra channel that was worth exploring, but wasn’t a necessary addition to their marketing plan. But as shopper journeys became more fragmented and inundated with endless touchpoints, brands have increasingly noted a struggle to connect their message all the way through to purchase. This is what has made Retail Media a “must-have” for today’s brands.
The technology and opportunities within retail media have expanded exponentially in the last few years, which prompted the Path To Purchase Institute to develop their Retail Media Summit. This annual conference brings together the commerce marketing community to help CPG brands and retailers navigate the complicated, rapidly shifting media landscape.
This year’s conference covered topics ranging from AI to in-store media, measurement, and more. These were our top takeaways:
The Shopper Journey has Changed
Throw out the funnels and forget the paths – the new shopper journey is fluid, and even a little unpredictable.
Consider a shopper that sees an ad on social media, clicks through and purchases right away. Their entire path to purchase could be as little as 30 seconds. Or consider a shopper that ordered items for drive up, but forgot a few things and decided to go in store, too – their journey included both online and in-store for a single trip.
The point is that the shopper journey can be incredibly variable, and brands need to be available however their customer wants to shop. By creating an easy, frictionless purchase experience through retail media, shoppers will think favorably of your brand, and you’ll win more conversions.
In-Store Retail Media is a Big New Opportunity
A great way to drive your message through to store level is to…get it in store. There is still a strong place for physical displays, but digital retail media allows 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. But the success of in-store media hinges on retailers and brands working together. Retailers need to ensure a quality experience for their shoppers, and brands want confidence in their media buying decisions.
Retailers need to be careful not to turn their stores into Times Square, but rather place screens thoughtfully in areas that are helpful to the shopper. 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).
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?
Get On the AI Train
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 to do mass marketing while still personalizing the experience for shoppers, which is now more important than ever. Shoppers know we’re collecting data, and they want it to be used in a way that makes their experience more intuitive and frictionless.
Here are some ideas on how brands are using AI with retail media to propel forward:
Content
- Versioning – write an original piece, then have it reworded for different buyer personas
- Newsletters – personalize subject lines, content features, and timing
- Social – create, schedule, and optimize posts
Website Personalization
- Dynamic Media
- Product Recommendations
- Personalized Tips, Reminders, and Navigation
- Dynamic Pricing
Customer Service and Experience
- Message Bots
- Virtual Assistants
- Personalized Loyalty Rewards
- Virtual Try-On (AR)
- In Store Navigation (AR)
Ad Optimization
- Real-time targeting using demographics, past behaviors, location, time of day, season, weather, local events, and more
- Bulk creation and launch of ads
- Constant and robust analysis
- Real-time optimization of ad placements
Leverage the Strength of Independent Retailers
Don’t count the small guys out – local, independent retailers have high brand affinity and very loyal shoppers. They make up roughly a 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.
The good news is that connected solutions are on the horizon. Independent grocers are connected by their wholesalers, who they rely on to deliver new opportunities and value. Those wholesalers and innovative retail media vendors are teaming up to deliver personalized experiences at scale. Using location data and dynamic media, your brand can show up alongside your shopper’s favorite independent 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.
Think Outside the Box with Contextual Commerce
As the threat of a third-party cookie-less world continues to loom over us marketers, it’s past time to consider alternate strategies. This is where the idea of contextual commerce comes in. Commerce media is media that revolves around retail, but isn’t bought directly through the retailer. Contextual commerce means fitting that media into the context of the shopper’s daily life to create a natural shopping experience.
For example, Chicory is a media service that places ads in and around recipes on websites. This is obviously a great connection for food brands, but there are opportunities for brands in other categories, too. If you think about the rituals and occasions that revolve around food, there are holidays and key moments that may apply to your brand, and the audience is already in a planning mindset. For example, a flower company could advertise around recipes for Valentine’s Day, or an office supply brand could advertise around easy Back-To-School recipes.
Another great example of this is GroceryTV – a network of screens inside the store near the entrance, checkout or other key locations. You may be surprised to learn that a majority of their advertisers are non-endemic to the space. Why would brands pay to appear in a place where they aren’t sold? Because they know that their audience goes to the grocery store and they’re in a shopping mindset. It’s a reliable and consistent place to meet your audience where they naturally spend their time.
So think about your shopper – Where do they spend their time? What are they planning? And how can you connect to those moments?
Retail Media Evolution – The Experiential Comeback
The COVID-19 pandemic put a hard stop to in-person events, and even as the world opened back up, it’s taken 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.
It started with sponsored search – an easy and cost-effective way for brands to advertise on-site with 100% attribution. Then it grew to display and video advertising, and other commerce media which allowed for more digital real estate and expanded messaging.
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 may have 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.
It’s the final piece of the omnichannel shopper experience. Imagine a campaign following your audience from offsite ads to onsite shopping, then right to the store parking lot or floor. Those experiential events can even be captured on social media and shared, continuing the cycle even further. This strengthens the total promotion, and has been repeatedly shown to increase overall results in sales and customer lifetime value.
Team Alignment = Success for All
How do you know if you’re on track if you don’t really know where you’re going? It’s easy to get lost in campaign optimization, RoAS, and project-by-project metrics, but how is what your department is doing affecting other departments and the brand overall? Teams need to get talking and get aligned on overall business and brand goals, then translate that into specific metrics applicable to their role.
Does your brand need to reach new households? Capture more market share? Whatever the larger business goal is, every department should be planning their efforts through that lens. Align on common goals and get specific about how your retail media strategies and results can contribute.
Team alignment also applies to partnerships. Jenna Hernandez from General Mills gave a great analogy in relation to leveraging vendor relationships: When learning your first language, you need to know 10,000 words in order to be fluent. But when you learn your second language, you only need to know about 3,000 words in order to properly communicate and be understood by native speakers. In marketing, this translates to meaning that you don’t need to be fluent in everything, you just need to be able to communicate effectively. Let your vendor or media partners be the native speakers and provide their expertise, and work collaboratively to allow them to help you meet your larger business objectives. Leaning on “native speakers” and communicating openly can propel success for your brand.
Where Do You Start?
There are a lot of facets to retail media, and it’s growing exponentially. 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.
