Tag: retail media

New Zealand – MarketMedia, the retail media network of The Warehouse Group, has teamed up with tech giant Meta to launch ‘Meta Managed Partner Ads’ (MPA), allowing MarketMedia clients and brands to run highly targeted Meta campaigns at scale.

The technology works by applying insights captured from on-site, off-site, and in-store data from The Warehouse Group’s online stores, apps, and millions of weekly visits to The Warehouse, Noel Leeming, TheMarket, Warehouse Stationery and Torpedo7.

Moreover, Meta’s MPA delivers unprecedented capabilities for retailers and brand partners to track and measure off-site video and image ad performance down to the SKU level, while safeguarding user data, and helping brands navigate the impending death of the cookie. The offering is also available through MarketMedia’s self-service platform Zitcha.

Blaine Hudson, head of product, platforms and data at MarketMedia, said, “The transformative power of MPA will revolutionise the effectiveness of ad campaigns, and we’re excited to be the first retail media partner in the world who can offer it. We can now help our clients and brands execute world-class marketing across all points of the marketing funnel, both on and off network.”

She added, “We can reach audience groups beyond our own channels, optimise our reach and help brands talk to the right audiences, in the right moment when they’re scrolling their social feeds – it’s cutting-edge retail innovation designed to maximise return on investment, and we’re really proud of the difference it will make for Kiwi businesses.”

Meanwhile, Troy Townsend, CEO at Zitcha, says, “Meta’s MPA is a game changer for retailers and brand partners to leverage Meta’s channels for their off-site retail media networks. We are seeing massive demand from brands to move marketing dollars from traditional channels into retailers with off-site capabilities that show, in real-time, the return on advertising spend.”

He added, “Our strong relationship with Meta has enabled Zitcha to effectively leverage MPA for forward- thinking retail media networks such as MarketMedia that want to extend and capitalise on their off-site media channels quickly and at scale.”

Singapore – Integral Ad Science (IAS) has announced a new partnership with commerce media platform Criteo to enable a first-to-market product for measuring onsite quality metrics for retail media. 

Through this new integration, IAS will enable viewability and invalid traffic (IVT) measurement for Criteo’s network of retail media partners, ensuring that marketers are reaching real users and maximizing engagement across this critical channel.

Powered by Criteo’s predictive AI, Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform solutions enable retailers and brands to seamlessly reach shoppers throughout their entire journey, executing efficiently and at scale on both unique retail media inventory from category-leading retailers and scaled, open web supply while offering real-time, closed-loop sales measurement. 

Through this new integration with IAS, advertisers can be confident in verifying the quality of their digital media investments.

Yannis Dosios, chief commercial officer at IAS, said, “We are excited to extend our presence in the fast-growing retail media space to meet increased demand from advertisers. Through our upcoming integration with Criteo, we can enable marketers to maximize their return on ad spend through third-party measurement across the powerful retail media networks working with Criteo. IAS has long been a major player in the retail media network space, and today’s announcement reinforces our leadership in this crucial area.”

Meanwhile, Brian Gleason, chief revenue officer at Criteo, commented, “Criteo has been a leader in the retail media space since 2016 and we are thrilled to partner with IAS to be the first to provide advertisers with transparency into their retail media campaigns via our ‘Commerce Media Platform’.”

He added, “As more industry players realize the tremendous opportunity of retail media, we remain committed to standardization that reconciles media spend with performance and building an ecosystem that drives marketers’ and retailers’ business forward.”

Singapore – Global media company IPG Mediabrands has announced the launch of ‘Unified Retail Media Solution’, a dedicated business unit that will enable brands to intelligently manage their investment performance seamlessly across all retail media network.

Through the new business unit, IPG Mediabrands aims to bring transparency and trust to the space — powered by a unique tech platform focusing on unified audience, measurement, optimisation and intelligence. 

The solution also empowers brands with a holistic view of their performance, automated cross-retailer activation and optimization, maximizing sales and profitability.

‘Unified Retail Media Solution’ is led by Glen Conybeare, executive lead and global president for Reprise Commerce and Retail Media at IPG Mediabrands, and has been beta tested by IPG Mediabrands clients in the CPG, gaming and over-the-counter (OTC) sectors, and already has hundreds of bespoke audiences built out with a roadmap to hit over 10,000 by year-end.

“Retail Media Networks offer a huge opportunity for marketers. However, each network operates as a closed-loop system which makes it really difficult to drive ROI effectively. With dozens of retail channels as part of many clients’ investment strategies, it has been difficult to compare their relative performance. With our Unified Retail Media Platform, we have standardized a key part of the process,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eileen Kiernan, global CEO at IPG Mediabrands, commented, “Brands activating in retail media face the challenge of navigating through multiple closed garden networks, each with their own data approach, metrics and ROI methods. This complexity is amplified for brands that also sell their products through these retailers.”

She added, “Therefore, it is crucial for brands seeking to maximize their investment to leverage data and insight across networks with an ability to make intelligent decisions in real time about what’s working and not.”

Australia – Local cinema brand Village Cinemas has partnered with Zitcha, an independent retail media company. To launch an automated retail media network and drive increased revenue from and for commerce partners. Said partnership aims to increase revenue creation for Village Cinemas and its business partners.

Through the partnership, advertisers can utilise the Zitcha platform by using the loyalty data acquired from Village Cinemas’ Vrewards program. They can access Village Cinemas’ off-site social media platforms, which are branded with the Village Cinemas logo, such as Facebook and Instagram. Advertisers can segment, target, and interact with consumers because of this integration.

Nic Robin, chief commercial officer, Village Entertainment, said, “Village Cinemas is a retailer, arguably not in the traditional sense but our team recognises the value of a large first party data set. The opportunity to further optimize media for advertisers by effectively connecting with cinema goers is exciting. The combination of a robust loyalty program, digital share of ticket sales and high guest affiliation with blockbuster movies enables efficient ROI for partners via digital channels.”

He added, “Village Cinemas values long lasting relationships with a number of commercial partners, the Zitcha platform will supercharge the landscape enabling incremental value for the current and new partner base. Initially Zitcha will activate our offsite Meta and Google channels.”

Meanwhile, Nick Hinsley, chief revenue officer at Zitcha, said, “Commerce media remains an untapped opportunity for many retailers in Australia. That’s additional revenue not being realised by retailers and missed chances for brands to connect and convert with the right audiences.” 

He added, “Village Cinemas were one of the first major entertainment companies to launch a loyalty program in Australia and are now one of the first to make a significant retail media play. These decisions will pay significant dividends not only for its business but the partners that use the Zitcha platform. We look forward to building a strong relationship with them to further innovate their retail media strategy.”

Australia – XPO: The Mars Agency, a shopper and activations firm, has revealed the opening of its retail media division in Australia as part of its growing connected commerce offering. Jeremy Hagnere has been appointed as the agency’s retail media director, and adds insight gained from his prior position at Cartology as director of client partnerships and sales.

The retail and search media management product from XPO: The Mars Agency offers capabilities to the Australian market by fusing their expertise in shopper marketing with 20 years of experience in global retail media and data-driven measurement.

XPO:TMA partnered with their brand partners to identify a market gap and highlight the need for trade media and shopper expertise in a single solution after realising the expanding significance of retail media in Australia.

The industry’s first Commerce Marketing Measurement platform, Marilyn®, became available in Australia as a result of XPO: The Mars Agency’s division launch. The ambiguity that hinders the assessment of Commerce Marketing within standard ATL Marketing Mix Models is solved by Marilyn®’s total transparency into the performance of retailer-focused operations.

Don Smallgoods of George Weston Foods is the foundational client for The Mars Agency’s Retail Media solution following its Australian debut. The management of their trade advertising funds will be managed by XPO across the top retail media networks, including Cartology (Woolworths Group), Coles 360, and Citrus Ad Search Media. Improving measuring capabilities and boosting profits are the goals across retailer media networks. Through this effort, XPO will continue to support George Weston Foods’ customer development and shopper marketing initiatives.

Sally Tobin, XPO: The Mars Agency Managing Director, said, “XPO has a deep understanding of the retailer space and award-winning credentials in shopper marketing; The Mars Agency has two decades of global expertise in Retail & Search Media Management. That combination makes us perfectly positioned to help clients bridge the gap across brand, trade and retailer and meet their complex needs across the ever-expanding Commerce Marketing ecosystem,”

Meanwhile Hagnere commented, “Traditional media agencies have struggled to understand the sweet spot in which retail media plays. It’s a delicate balance of trade and customer relationships, overlaid with an understanding of shopper needs as well as media management. Having worked with both brand and retailer clients across Customer Development and Shopper Marketing locally for the last 10 years, XPO: The Mars Agency is uniquely placed to solve this emerging need. We’re exceptionally excited for what lies ahead for our new Retail and Search Media Management offering, and the business more broadly.”

Australia – Regional food company Goodman Fielder has expanded the remit of media agency Initiative to now include retail marketing business, traditionally the domain of the business’ sales division.

Previously, Initiative was the media agency of record for Goodman Fielder, where it focused on the company’s above the line (ATL) media, including strategy, planning, buying, implementing and reporting. 

Work on the retail marketing side of Goodman Fielder’s media account commences immediately with first campaigns expected in market by the middle of the second quarter.

Jo McAlister, managing director at Initiative Sydney said the fundamental shift in the way Goodman Fielder is approaching its brand and retail trade marketing is a gamechanger; and Initiative’s team is thrilled to have the ability to take a more universal approach to investment, allowing best practice of having ATL, at-shelf and at-home to seamlessly work together.

“Combining brand and retail has been proven to provide Goodman Fielder with the strongest integrated media product possible. The work we collectively delivered for the widely recognised ‘Wonder Recycling Rewards’ campaign shows the closer these two worlds are, the stronger the results,” he explained.

McAlister also commented that it has also astounded them that less than 5% of retail media investment is managed via media agencies, a statistic Australia is lagging behind mature markets, and they feel it’s an untapped opportunity for brands to create an unfair advantage.

“We will harness the full capabilities of Cartology, Coles 360 and others, while leveraging our ATL media partners, to create a true consumer-first end-to-end solutions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Christine Fung, chief marketing officer at Goodman Fielder, commented, “Taking a holistic approach to our media and retail investment strategy has proven to deliver results for us, and we are delighted Initiative is our partner on the next stage of our growth journey as we accelerate our approach. We can’t wait to see what amazing results we can achieve as a team.”

The pandemic pushed the e-commerce and recommerce industries to greater heights due to the digital shift in consumers’ shopping behaviours. Thus, the rise of retail media became more evident in the marketing and advertising space — and has since evolved to meet the changing needs of consumers and brands alike.

In the new instalment of ‘What’s NEXT 2023: Interview Series’, MARKETECH APAC sat with JJ Eastwood, managing director at Carousell Media Group, to delve deeper into the retail media space. In the conversation, Eastwood provided his insights on how retail media has evolved, what’s next in advertising, and Carousell Group’s role in it. 

Beginning the conversation, Eastwood shared that the company was made to make it easier for people to sell things faster and vice versa, for buyers to have a more seamless purchasing experience. To this, Carousell’s founders found the solution: bringing best-in-class features in e-commerce into the secondhand or recommerce space. 

After almost a decade, Carousell Media Group was established – the marketplace’s advertising arm – which was targeted at connecting brands and advertisers to tens of millions of active users across Carousell Group’s family of brands.

Watch the full interview with Carousell Media Group’s JJ Eastwood here.

Speaking about the role of retail media in the marketing and advertising industry, Eastwood said that the former’s number one goal is to help brands acquire new customers and increase sales. 

To give an example, he said, “We want to show our consumers who come to Carousell this really nice blend between preloved items and brand new items and give them the choice. And we do that by showing the ads from our advertisers.” He also added that Carousell Media Group helps brands amplify their first-party data strategies.

But amidst all these, Eastwood said that there’s much more to look forward to from the company to trailblaze a continuous evolution in the retail media advertising space – which includes enhancing existing advertising products with machine learning capabilities.

Hear more about Carousell Media Group and retail media by watching the full interview HERE.

Singapore – As the pandemic thrust consumers to rely more on digital consumption, brands had to recalibrate their presence and leverage online channels to ensure they continued to reach their target consumers. This pandemic-induced reality is what gave way to the third wave of Digital Advertising — prompted by Retail Media. 

In the recently concluded conference ‘What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific’ by MARKETECH APAC, JJ Eastwood, managing director at Carousell Media Group, dug deeper into retail media and how it became the way to activate digital advertising’s now ‘third big wave’.

Watch the full presentation of Carousell Media Group’s JJ Eastwood here.

If we’re now in the third, where can we date back the earlier ripples? The study by Interactive Advertising Bureau Southeast Asia and India (IAB SEA+India) and Carousell Media Group revealed that the first wave, in fact, started with the search era in the 2000s and then followed by the social era in the 2010s when social media networks took part in digital advertising. Fast forward to 2020 — retail media networks finally took over. 

Retail media networks are classified into digital marketplaces, mass merchant retailers, and commerce intermediaries or delivery providers. To name a few, some known retail media networks are Amazon and Walmart in the US and in Asia, there are Carousell, Grab ads and panda ads.

In his presentation, Eastwood emphasised that five factors are driving the growth of retail media. This includes first-party data, which enables retail media networks to serve customers with relevant advertisements; closed-loop attribution, which helps in better understanding of ads; contextually relevant ads to the consumer; ability to reach relevant audiences at scale; and capability to run full-funnel campaigns. 

However, in particular, the growth of retail media was propelled by sponsored search ads which make up almost 80% of retail media networks’ revenue. 

Eastwood explained, “Those sponsored search ads are as relevant as organic search listings. This is what is at the core of every retail media network, what delivers results and meaningful insights for brands.”

The existence of retail media fills the needs of the brands since there has been a decline in television advertisements and the loss of third-party identifiers, whilst the stores are starting to shift into the digital world.

With this, Eastwood emphasised the retail media trends that emerged, particularly in Asia, where 99% of the brands and agencies plan to increase their retail media spending over the next 12 months. Moreover, according to Eastwood, 70% of advertisers are seeing an improvement in performance from retail media networks over other channels, whilst brands say that they will advertise on a retail media network despite not listing products in that marketplace.

Marketers face many challenges when advertising, such as measuring marketing outcomes, optimising cross-channel campaigns, and removing third-party identifiers, particularly cookies. Eastwood shared how retail media can solve these challenges. 

What’s next for retail media in Asia? Concluding his presentation, Eastwood said, “I think what is gonna happen for the next six to 12 months, particularly in Asia, are more data collaborations. Retailers and brands can come together and enrich each other’s data upon what they know about certain consumer profiles.”

He added, “Through the use of DSPs, Retail media is moving up the funnel into video and digital out-of-home formats. However, through the likes of shoppable videos, retail media will blur the lines between traditional branding campaigns and direct response.”

What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific is the inaugural 2-day hybrid industry conference of MARKETECH APAC which was launched last February 28 and March 1 as a culminating event under What’s NEXT 2023. 

More than 200 in-person participants and more than 100 virtual attendees participated in the conference to know more about what’s next in the different marketing disciplines including growth marketing, marketing and technology, retail media, public relations, travel marketing, influencer marketing, customer experience, and many more.

In the virtual conference held on the second day, Eastwood was joined by other marketing leaders from panda ads, Boost, CARSOME, and Hubilo, PrimeCredit Limited and Rentokil Initial amongst others, who also shared their insights about various marketing facets.

Carousell Media Group, the speaker for the keynote presentation, is a proud bronze sponsor of What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific. Carousell Media Group is the advertising arm of Carousell Group, which helps brands across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong acquire new customers and increase sales. With tens of millions of active shoppers and hundreds of millions of product searches on its marketplaces every month, brands can connect with consumers through full-funnel campaigns, drive conversions and gain valuable marketing insights.

Singapore – Ever since Google unveiled its plans of having third-party cookies deprecated in the Chrome browser in 2021, the digital advertising world has been subject to a frenzy. Two years after – and a number of delays later – the industry is a bit more relaxed owing to an ongoing conversation on the possible workarounds for such a dilemma. 

As we enter 2023 and are presented with a fresh opportunity to answer to emerging opportunities and challenges in the marketing arena, bringing ourselves up to speed on the developments in the cookieless strategy is of utmost importance. 

Last February 28 and March 1, 2023, MARKETECH APAC, the digital media for the marketing and tech industry in APAC, pooled together industry leaders and marketing professionals from top brands in the region to mount its first-ever 2-day hybrid conference, What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific. On Day 2 of the said event, which was held virtually, it touched base on navigating the cookieless world with first-party data strategy. 

With Toni Juhani Ruotanen, panda ads’ director for advertising & partnerships in foodpanda APAC, at the forefront of the conversation, the leader brought us back to the pivotal events that led us to today’s impending loss of the use of third-party cookies, alongside the possible strategies that were put forth, and ultimately — how retail media is showing itself as a viable response to stricter privacy in the digital world. 

First of all, Ruotanen reminds us that the cookieless state of affairs is, in fact, not entirely new for us. Apple’s Safari and Firefox have been there and done that – even way back in 2019. But why still the scare? Aside from the fact that Google Chrome is the top and most widely-used browser, the tech giant joining the crew undeniably augments the limitations of advertisers in targeting its consumers in the digital arena.

Watch the full presentation of panda ads’ Toni Ruotanen here.

Ruotanen walks us through the present lay of the land where third-party cookies, whilst partial to privacy concerns, have been immensely helpful to serve highly relevant and personalised ads to consumers. Cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad-serving are some of the capabilities that third-party cookies have made possible. So how then can brands recuperate once these faculties are foregone?

The marketing leader similarly goes over the top defensive strategies that have been a consensus for the industry for quite some time — Universal IDs, Contextual Advertising, and First-Party Data Strategy. 

The first one allows companies to identify users across different websites and devices and can be created with first-party data, thus, offering targeting whilst respecting privacy. Contextual advertising, meanwhile, is the approach that targets potential customers by relying on context, such as that of a webpage, location, or weather. And of course, needless to say, the first-party data strategy, which is looked to as the ideal of them all. The said approach banks on consent-based advertising by obtaining users’ informed consent before collecting their data. 

Then there comes the burgeoning strength of Retail Media. 

“We know that retail media has been growing aggressively since 2022 and it’s expected to grow further in 2023,” said Ruotanen. 

By entering direct relationships with large publishers and retail media networks such as foodpanda and top e-commerce platforms Lazada and Shopee, brands are able to hop on an opportunity to leverage consent-driven marketing. 

For one, when a consumer lands on a retail platform, the intent to be there at the certain moment, with their data being shared with the website, can signal that there’s consent from the visitor. Aside from this, which could probably be considered as the most advantageous factor of working with such a platform, is that a brand’s ads already have higher chances of driving conversion as consumers that pay them a visit are already pre-conditioned to purchase something.

Higher purchase intent and clear signals of intent, direct response and branding opportunities, and seamless consumer experience are just some of the advantages of drawing consumers already in ‘shopping’ mode. 

How, then, can brands maximise opportunities within a retail media network? Ruotanen offers a three-step strategy. 

First, you must find the right platforms for your brand. According to Ruotanen, you ought to vet the fitness of a platform by asking who the audience of such and the behaviours their consumers are exhibiting. Next, it is also important to assess what type of consumer insights you stand to gain and if you’re able to drive traffic away from the platform. 

Second, you must evaluate whether a certain platform is able to afford you an opportunity to build a full-funnel campaign and allow for a holistic brand synergy. Essential questions to ask are, what stage of the funnel are you trying to address? and what brand assets are available? These then will give you a clearer picture of whether to go for placement with a certain platform. 

And lastly, to discern a platform’s alignment with your brand, you must size it up against whether you’re able to leverage audience-targeting initiatives within it. You must find how diverse the cohort of consumers you are able to attract and determine whether you can maximise your ad placements in such a destination to its full targeting power.

In a digital world that is seeing unprecedented fluidity, it pays to be overprepared for the oncoming drastic shifts that threaten to widen the distance between brands and consumers. With the phase-out of third-party cookies, it would be much more challenging for brands to reach their consumers – but by opening their eyes to the innovation around them – it’s not an impossibility to overcome and even thrive amidst the uncertainty.

“Marketers still have a lot of work to do this year to be able to become ready and prepared for the new cookieless world for marketing in 2024. The question is, [is] your organisation ready for this change?” prompts Ruotanen. 

He concluded, “If you look at the bright side, the coin has always two sides. The death of third-party cookies can also be an opportunity for advertising innovation. Today, there are alternatives for marketers to look at, adopt, and consider.” 

What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific is the inaugural 2-day hybrid industry conference of MARKETECH APAC which was launched last February 28 and March 1 as a culminating event under the multi-platform series, What’s NEXT 2023. 

The conference, which saw an attendance of more than 200 in-person participants and more than 100 virtual attendees, set the stage for future-oriented conversations on different marketing disciplines such as brand engagement, growth marketing, influencer marketing, marketing and technology, digital advertising, and CMO decision-making, amongst many others. 

Aside from Ruotanen, marketing leaders that graced the hybrid conference include those from Boost, Carsome, Colgate-Palmolive, Globe Telecom, Home Credit Philippines, Kaspersky, ShopBack, and many more. 

panda ads is a proud Gold Sponsor of What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Asia Pacific. panda ads is foodpanda’s integrated advertising solution that helps brands connect with foodpanda’s audiences and unlock growth through in-app advertising, digital marketing channels, and partnership programmes.

Singapore – To expand its client capabilities across Asia-Pacific’s retail media market, global commerce media company Criteo has announced its acquisition of Australia-based omnichannel media platform Brandcrush. Through this, Brandcrush aims to offer holistic omnichannel monetization solutions for global retailers whilst helping brands and agencies to discover and acquire omnichannel media from major retailers. 

As retail media provides revenue opportunities, retailers usually rely on emails and spreadsheets to manage packaging, availability, and purchasing of their media inventory. With the acquisition of Brandcrush, global retailers will be given the capability to able to manage a more comprehensive media inventory for both e-commerce and physical retail. 

Furthermore, the acquisition will also serve as support for the advertisers to scale their advertising through the whole omnichannel retail media landscape.

Sherry Smith, general manager of global enterprise at Criteo, said that as marketers prefer investing in retail media, offline is emerging as the new frontier; therefore, brands and agencies must be able to effectively plan, execute, and measure their campaigns in an integrated way.

“Brandcrush directly addresses the current market need for consolidated offline and online advertising management, and our combined solutions will make omnichannel retail media strategies a reality, empowering retailers to own their entire retail media ecosystems,” Smith added.

Teresa Aprile, co-founder and CEO at Brandcrush, commented, “By combining forces, we’re bringing together our platform with Criteo’s best-in-class retail media technology to create the most effective monetization platform for retailers.”

Last year, it can be noted that Criteo announced its plans for its technology and analytics centre to expand its operations across APAC.

Criteo connects marketers with media owners to provide engaging shopping experiences from product discovery to purchase.