How nonendemic brands and retail media networks should partner

Retail media has been buoyed by consumer packaged goods companies and grocery brands looking to get their products in front of shoppers closer to the point of purchase. But now, other categories are looking to join the party: nonendemic advertisers.

Though these brands aren’t traditionally found at specific retailers, partnering with retail media networks (RMNs) gives them access to retail customer data. Here are three pieces of advice for both nonendemic brands and retailers as they explore this new territory.

1. Use data and strategy to inform your campaigns

A successful partnership between a retailer and a nonendemic brand relies on identifying and leveraging the overlap. Just because consumers can’t purchase a nonendemic brand’s product straight from the retailer doesn’t mean ad campaigns should feel out of place.

For example, it would make sense for an Amazon customer shopping for bathing suits and snorkeling gear to be served an ad from a cruise line. It may be a little more confusing if they were served an ad for life insurance.

But the connection doesn’t have to be so obvious, as long as there’s data behind it.

When Best Buy and digital marketing agency PMG teamed up to drive sales of a client’s holiday-themed pajamas, the agency created an in-store video campaign, which played via TV and PC monitor walls at Best Buy locations close to retail stores carrying the pajamas.

While consumer electronics and sleepwear don’t seem to have much in common, because of its geotargeted content, the campaign generated 21 million impressions and a 42% increase in purchase intent, according to Best Buy. In addition, 81% of Best Buy customers who saw the ad said they were more likely to buy the holiday pajamas.

2. Determine the right level of partnership

There are a few ways that a nonendemic advertiser may get involved with a RMN.

• To start, many brands may seek out a traditional programmatic ad experience, choosing keywords or categories they want to target.
• If that goes well, nonendemic advertisers may move to the next level, using the RMN’s customer data to create targeted audiences or segmented campaigns (similar to how Gopuff is working with brands like Hulu and diet app Noom).
• From there, retailers and nonendemic brands can deepen their relationship, using data clean rooms to boost targeting capabilities or creating fully integrated campaigns that expand beyond the retailer’s website or stores (like Amazon and Buick’s 2020 campaign to promote Amazon’s Alexa being built into Buick vehicles).

At the moment, most nonendemic brands and retailers are just beginning to partner. But as the channel evolves and more nonendemic brands get involved, we expect the partnerships to grow and mature.

3. Get going

Now is the right moment for nonendemic brands to move into retail media because a lot of brands haven’t made the plunge yet, Kristi Argyilan, senior vice president of retail media at Albertsons Companies, told The Current.

“Those who move first will actually have a headstart on the rest of the marketplace and will have an opportunity to test and learn and to try new things just because of the higher fidelity of the data,” she said.

Albertsons is working on its strategy to bring in nonendemic brands, focusing on three things, said Argyilan, per MediaPost.

“First, self-service access to decoupled insights, audiences, and other assets. Second, alternative ways of measuring success. Third and finally, real customer data is getting harder to access, but RMNs may not tell the complete story for nonendemics. We partner with these industries to add value where needed and step back when necessary.”