Kroger partners with Disney for latest retail media enhancement

This article was written with the assistance of ChatGPT.

The news: Disney Advertising is partnering with Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) and PepsiCo for a beta test that allows consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers to target audiences using shopper data on select Disney platforms, starting with Hulu, per Ad Age.

• The capabilities will eventually be rolled out more broadly to CPG marketers in the second half of the year.

How it works: The partnership relies on the data Kroger collects from the over 60 million households that shop with the grocer annually, as well as deeper insights from its loyalty program.

• KPM employs AI to pinpoint household segments for ad targeting and links them to Disney's inventory, leveraging LiveRamp to evaluate ad exposure in relation to the brand's selected KPIs, such as sales or brand lift.
• Pepsi already experienced a “statistically significant” increase in sales and household penetration in early tests, KPM SVP Cara Pratt told AdExchanger.
• While the handful of CPG brands involved in the beta test will be able to buy inventory only across Hulu, there are plans to eventually expand the targeting capabilities to ESPN+ and Disney+.

The big takeaway: The partnership is aimed at solving key retail media pain points—namely, giving marketers more granular targeting abilities and improving their capabilities to measure ROI.

• While ad budgets have poured into retail media networks (RMNs) as marketers test alternatives to cookie-led advertising, many brands are ambivalent: Forty-two percent of advertisers are unsure whether RMNs are a valuable tool, or simply a cost of doing business, per a January survey by the ANA.
• Part of the uncertainty is due to the sheer number of RMNs out there, as well as differing measurement and reporting standards.
• The enhanced measurement and targeting capabilities, coupled with Kroger’s data and Disney’s scale, should help their retail media partnership stand out from the crowd.

Go further: Check out our latest Retail Media Ad Spending Forecast.