As the holiday season approaches, retailers have a significant opportunity to enhance and showcase their retail media network (RMN) offerings. By highlighting their platforms’ unique value and advantages and providing a white-glove support model, retailers can instill confidence in consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs), leading to more sign-ups and securing valuable media dollars. Having a strong focus on the following elements will drive mutual success during this critical period.
Enhance Ad Placement and Personalization with Data and AI
To stand out among the competition, retailers must showcase how they can leverage a wealth of first-party customer data to provide detailed information about customer segments that are interested in CPGs’ products and their specific preferences. This data-driven approach allows CPGs to create ads that resonate with these customer segments, empowering them to make informed advertising decisions. In addition, retailers should demonstrate their ability to provide advanced targeting features that use artificial intelligence to personalize ads for different customer segments.
Retailers should also leverage data to enhance their ability to place ads in highly trafficked spots like the homepage, category pages and product detail pages, which can make a big difference in getting people to notice the products that CPGs want to sell. Capabilities like interactive ads with videos and features that let people buy right from the ad can catch customers’ attention and facilitate the purchase, which will be a massive draw for CPGs during the holiday season.
Emphasize Integrated and Co-Branded Campaigns
Utilizing integrated campaigns across various channels is a strategic necessity in today’s omnichannel landscape. Retailers should emphasize their ability to maintain consistent messaging and branding across in-store, online, mobile and social media platforms. This approach creates a seamless customer experience and amplifies the effectiveness of campaigns that CPGs wish to conduct, making retailers’ RMNs that do this well stand out from the rest.
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Additionally, integrating CPGs’ promotions with the retailer’s loyalty program can provide targeted ad placements to retailers’ high-value customers and exclusive deals to loyal patrons, which can be very appealing to CPGs. Supporting co-branded campaigns and providing dedicated support through account managers or marketing strategists further showcase the partnership approach, which will give CPGs the confidence to sign up with the retailer’s RMN and execute successful holiday campaigns.
Offer Diverse Pricing Options and Comprehensive Reports
Providing pricing models such as cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-impression (CPM) and performance-based pricing, catering to various budget levels and campaign goals and offering performance guarantees to showcase shared accountability and reduce perceived risk can make the retailer’s RMN more attractive to CPGs.
Furthermore, retailers must showcase their ability to provide closed-loop real-time dashboards and comprehensive reporting tools to empower CPGs to monitor their campaign performance and make data-driven decisions. They must see that the promised ROI is being realized or have the ability to correct it as necessary. Detailed reports containing key metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, sales lift and return on ad spend (ROAS) are a must to help demonstrate the effectiveness of the RMN.
Provide Educational Resources and Tools
Finally, offering curated training sessions and workshops to educate CPGs on RMN best practices for the holiday season could further bolster confidence. Providing a resource hub with guides, templates and tools that effectively support CPGs in planning and executing successful campaigns can be a game changer.
Focusing on these key areas will position retailers as essential partners for CPGs in their efforts to have a successful and profitable holiday season. By establishing themselves as partners committed to the success of CPGs, retailers can create a compelling and attractive RMN offering that stands out in a competitive market and drives mutual success during the peak holiday season.
Sudip Mazumder leads Publicis Sapient’s Retail business in the Americas. For over 14 years, he has been a trusted business partner who advises retailers on growth and go-to-market strategies, consumer experiences, technology roadmap and commercial effectiveness programs in the digital business transformation space. At Publicis Sapient, Mazumder focuses on connecting all the capabilities to help clients identify customer and enterprise value, and partners with them on the journey to unlock value. He holds an MBA in General Management from Chicago Booth.
