Albertsons Media Collective (AMC), the retail media arm for Albertsons Cos., has unveiled a partnership with Stratacache, a global leader in interactive, intelligent shopper engagement experiences and analytic tools, to launch an in-store digital display network.
The payoff for Albertson’s tens of millions of weekly shoppers? A dynamic, context-rich experience to inspire their menu planning. For brands, the reward may be even better, offering them unprecedented measurement of where, when and how their in-store ads impact customers’ shopping behavior.
AMC introduced its pilot program during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The initiative, the company announced, will feature a fleet of Stratacache’s digital display screens, strategically placed in high-traffic areas — such as store entrances and produce departments — across select Albertsons stores in two key regions, its Northern California and Jewel-Osco divisions, starting this summer.
Liz Roche, Albertsons Media Collective’s VP of media and measurement, says the grocery giant chose to partner with Stratacache because its technology enables “closed-loop measurement,” letting brand partners measure their ads’ impact across the shopping experience from entry to checkout, including direct sales attribution and in-store sales lift.
“Measurement is where we’re laser focused right now,” says Roche. “Albertsons has 35 million shoppers every week, so the store for us is a massive canvas to paint a full-funnel experience. You can drive discovery, you can create affinity, and then you’re bringing people through checkout. Being able to measure the efficacy of in-store media and give our partners insight into where they need to be and when, is a massive priority.”
In-Store Media Pays Off—but Where to Spend?
Albertsons is launching its pilot at a time when research shows that brick-and-mortar shoppers are increasingly attentive to in-store advertising.
According to Emarketer, in-store shoppers are highly attentive to in-store advertising, with 75% of adults likely to notice advertising. And advertisers are recognizing the huge potential of in-store ads, with Emarketer projecting that in-store retail media spending will exceed $1 billion by 2029.
But reliable data measurement has long been the missing piece of the retail media strategy puzzle. “Media buyers are often forced to compare apples to oranges,” says Marie-Clare Puffett, IAB Europe’s industry development and insights director. “This lack of clarity frustrates buyers who need reliable data to make informed decisions about where to allocate budgets.”
By combining real-time digital displays with advanced sensor technology and analytics, Albertsons’s pilot will bring digital media measurement sophistication to the physical shelf.
The Power of Granular Data
For the launch of its digital display network pilot, Albertsons will partner with Oreos maker Mondelez International. The partnership builds on Mondelez’s previous retail media integration initiative with Albertsons and Fetch last year.
Mondelez can expect to glean granular data insights from the interactive display screens, says Ben Reynolds, vice president of business development at Stratacache who leads the business of the measurement and analytics technology specialist, Walkbase, a member of the Stratacache family of companies.
“The potential for measurement in a large-reach store like Albertsons is huge,” Reynolds explains. “You can collect several million observation points a day in just one store. The value comes from how you make sense of the data. Once retailers get the data flowing, the insights they’ll be able to share with brand partners will be revelatory.”
With Walkbase’s privacy-centered in-store analytic tools, Albertsons will be able to gather measurement data down to less than one meter. “For a retailer like Albertsons with a 120,000 feet per store, you can get granular data on how much time a customer spends at every end cap in the store, what product ends up in their cart, and where they go next,” Reynolds says.
Roche expects that this rigorous, reliable measurement data will inform how brands justify their in-store investment moving forward. But it will be a learning process where retailers like Albertsons and brands collaboratively engage in together.
“This is new. Once we start getting within a reasonable margin of error, we’ll lean in with a brand partner who’s eager to test and learn,” she says, noting, “We’re painting the horizon with this type of measurement and we’ll need partner feedback on how it’s being received within their organizations. This will let us triangulate together on a holistic strategy, not just trip to trip, or campaign to campaign.”
