RMN Trend Report: September 20
Welcome back to Chicory’s Retail Media Trend Report! The boom of retail media has made industry news, especially for grocers, hard to follow. Our bi-weekly recap aims to help you navigate this ever-growing world.
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Industry Happenings
1. Publicis Acquires Mars United Commerce
In a major announcement yesterday on the 19th, Publicis Groupe revealed its acquisition of Mars United Commerce, one of the largest independent retail media agencies.
Known for its work with over 100 clients including retailers like Walmart and Target, Mars United Commerce will only strengthen Publicis’ already vast end-to-end suite of commerce capabilities.
Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun touched on the importance of Mars United’s proprietary solutions in strengthening the company’s commerce services in a statement, and how it could even help reach consumers on new platforms. “Publicis is uniquely positioned to help our clients understand both existing consumers and future prospects and connect that knowledge at an individual level to the new media channels that work hardest for their business: connected TV, commerce, and creators,” he said.
“All of this, in clients’ own ecosystems, giving them control over their customer relationships and transparency in their investments and outcomes.”
Publicis already has made a number of investments to strengthen its retail media abilities - and it’s not alone. Omnicom’s acquisition of Flywheel Digital, as well as Dentsu and WPP’s efforts in building out internal commerce expertise tools point to a larger trend of retail media growth that’s might not slow down anytime soon.
2. In-Store Retail Media Standards Introduced
This week, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) introduced standards for in-store retail media. This marks the first industry-wide effort to ensure transparency and consistency across retailers, brands and CPGs, as well as provide guidelines for ad formats and store zones.
Announced during the Connected Commerce Summit, these guidelines aim to standardize metrics such as impressions, ad serving, and sales lift. Beyond that, the standards cover a variety of digital ad formats, like in-store media and connected shopping experiences.
These measurement guidelines build on IAB’s initial draft from last year. Kroger seems to already be ramping up to release an updated measurement model of its own that’s directly influenced by IAB’s standards, set to launch in Q4.
This updated measurement model will utilize first-party data to help brands understand how media budgets are working for them. Christine Foster, Kroger Precision Marketing’s VP of product strategy and media operations, said "[It's] a hybrid approach that will continue to deconstruct sales and layer in exposure data so that brands can really get a better picture of their full-funnel impact."
Ultimately, these standards can help brands better understand their overall media efficiency and how their ad dollars are being put to work. As retail media continues to grow and evolve, that’s critical.
3. Thrive Market Partners With Instacart
Thrive Market announced last week that it has launched a new retail media network in partnership with Instacart, one of the largest grocery technology companies in North America.
This move comes after Thrive Market grew to more than 1.5 million members - the digital retailer is looking to leverage Instacart’s Carrot Ads solution to create a more personalized member experience, and drive value for the high-quality and sustainable brands on its platform. The integration with Instacart’s proprietary solutions also allows Thrive Market to offer valuable insights and analytics to brand partners, driving media efficiency.
“Retail media has emerged as one of the ad industry’s fastest growing media channels because of its performance for advertisers and personalization for consumers. We’re proud to extend our ad technology to Thrive Market and bring their vision for a retail media network to life with Carrot Ads. Our new partnership will offer brands of all sizes a powerful, scaled ad platform to connect directly with Thrive Market’s engaged audience,” said Instacart’s Chief Business Officer, Chris Rogers in last week’s statement.
Want to learn more about how retailers are driving off-platform impact with contextual commerce media? Read here about Chicory’s innovative ad suite for retail media networks.