In-store digital media’s promise has never been in doubt—what’s been lacking is proof. As brands weighed how much, if any, of their retail media budgets to devote to brick-and-mortar stores, the nagging question lingered: How much of that spend actually moves product?
Now Albertsons has revealed hard numbers to provide proof of performance. At CES 2026, the U.S. grocery chain’s media arm, Albertsons Media Collective, unveiled results from a test campaign with global snack giant Mondelēz International. Its in-store measurement framework found a 14% sales lift solely attributable to digital ad exposure.
The case study is the fruit of a pilot program Albertsons first announced at Cannes Lions in June 2025. Partnering with global technology provider STRATACACHE, last summer the retailer deployed in-store digital displays across 116 stores to promote Mondelēz’s Sargento Cheese Bakes snack crackers.
“What these results show, and what our other STRATACACHE retail partners are confirming, is that in-store digital media delivers verifiable ROI and ROAS,” said Ben Reynolds, Vice President of Business Development at STRATACACHE. “This case study also clearly shows that real-time, actionable measurement of the impact of in-store digital advertising is now within reach.”
Closing the Credibility Gap
For years, in-store media has lagged in measuring sales impact compared to digital channels, which leveraged third-party cookies to directly link ad impressions to incremental sales.
That measurement gap has created a trust deficit between retailers and brand partners. According to EMARKETER, nearly half of retail buyers—49%—cite lack of measurement and reporting as a primary barrier to investment. Research from the Path to Purchase Institute found 88% of brands want to see proof of sales lift and ROI before committing to in-store campaigns, with more than half ranking it as their top priority.
With recent advances in privacy-safe sensor technology and AI-driven analytics, that measurement proof is finally within reach. Retailers can now surface granular data on in-store behavior—from cart entry to checkout—that directly ties exposure to digital ads to incremental product sales.
“For too long, in-store media has been measured with tools that confuse correlation for impact,” said Liz Roche, Vice President of Media and Measurement at Albertsons Media Collective. “Our matched market incrementality approach cuts through that noise. By isolating causal lift at the store level, we’re showing brands the actual impact of in-store media activation—and giving them confidence that their investment is driving net-new sales.”
Insights from the Mondelēz Test Case
Albertsons’ measurement framework for the test case adopted a matched market methodology at the store level. Sales from test stores running in-store campaigns were compared with those from control stores with no media exposure. It used nearly 60 variables for store matching to reduce bias and statistical noise to deliver a validated measure of true lift in sales, orders and units.
For the Sargento Cheese Bakes campaign, Albertsons and Mondelēz used in-store screens across 116 banner stores. Tracking 5.5 million ad impressions, they were able to isolate a 14% sales lift caused directly by in-store media exposure. Beyond the double-digit sales bump, the campaign delivered $2.41 ROI on ad spend and a 1.5% boost in conversion rate.
“In-store is one of the most influential moments in the path to purchase, but historically it’s been difficult to measure with precision,” said Melissa Pitmon, Customer Director for Omnichannel at Mondelēz. “Albertsons Media Collective’s matched market measurement gave us clear, causal insight into how in-store media drove incremental sales, helping us optimize with confidence and validate the true impact of our investment.”
Mondelēz may be the first to optimize their in-store ad strategies based on Albertsons’ verifiable measurement insights, but it won’t be the last. The grocery giant is currently working with more than 50 advertising partners who are poised to benefit from its new in-store measurement framework and tech stack.
In-Store Insights in Real Time
Buoyed by stellar results from the Mondelēz campaign, Albertsons is rapidly scaling up its in-store measurement capabilities. In 2026, in partnership with STRATACACHE, it will add 800 stores to its retail media network.
The goal: Immediate insights from inside stores that can enable brands to fine-tune ad campaign strategy on the fly, rather than retrospective data delivered weeks after a campaign ends.
“As we continue to work with STRATACACHE and Walkbase and leverage their technology, we’re developing ways to optimize in-store media in near real-time,” explains Roche. “Brands are leaning in to learn with us because many of them recognize the arbitrage opportunities that exist with new channels.”
With hard numbers showing double-digit incremental sales lift from in-store digital advertising, those opportunities are crystal clear. Simply put, Mondelēz’s test case is more than a bellwether. It significantly moves the needle from promise to proof.
