Home Depot and Lowe’s are the undisputed giants of the U.S. hardware vertical, but Ace Hardware is ready to take its shot on the retail media battleground. This week TWIRM asks if a franchise-model “David” like Ace can compete with two Goliaths for advertising dollars.
TWIRM, as in-the-know retail media leaders know, is the This Week in Retail Media podcast, where Kate Dickson, Head of Marketing and Communications, Retail Media, STRATACACHE, and Jonathan Rosen, STRATACACHE’s Global EVP of Retail Media Strategy at PRN, reach across the Atlantic to discuss three retail media news stories that catch their eye, pique their curiosity, and sometimes, even ring their proverbial “bells.”
The first story Kate and Jonathan chime in on is Ace Hardware’s new Red Vest Media network, which promises to bring targeted ads to over 5,100 locations and 73 million loyalty members. Unlike the corporate-controlled chains run by Home Depot and Lowe’s, Ace operates on a more local, Mom-’n-Pop franchise model. But, says Jonathan, “I think Ace has that solved,” noting that Ace seems to have retained enough corporate authority to launch a unified retail media network across its operations. Will Ace’s retail media network take off? “Watch this space,” advises Jonathan.
After tooling around the hardware vertical’s retail media aisles, Kate and Jonathan roll into to Dick’s Sporting Goods’ new storytelling studio, Cookie Jar and a Dream, which aims to create sports documentaries that feel authentically woven into the brand’s DNA. Lastly, they swing over to survey Amazon’s massive same-day grocery delivery expansion—now reaching over 1,000 U.S. cities with ambitious plans to double that by year’s end.
Click here to listen to Kate and Jonathan nail down Ace’s David versus Goliath strategy on the hardware battlefield.
