MARCO ISLAND, FL – As retailers evolve into media outlets, their relationships with consumer packaged goods companies that fill stores with products also are changing. Brands are demanding that retailers show results in the same way that traditional publishers do.
“Retail media from a brand perspective…they are our biggest partners, our biggest customers. They are the ones who actually are our endgame,” Vinny Rinaldi, head of media and analytics at confectionery maker The Hershey Co., said in this interview at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting. “Their ability to actually drive my business to a whole ‘nother level from a media perspective is going to be really important in the future.”
Many retailers have developed more sophisticated ways to capture first-party data from their customers by using loyalty programs, online logins and purchase-card data. They have rich troves of purchase-history data that brands want to harness more effectively for their media plans.
“As partners, I think there’s tremendous opportunity to unlock measurement capabilities, targeting a much richer data set,” Rinaldi said. “It’s just how we sit down together as an industry and create those standard practices.”
Now that millions of households have connected their televisions to the internet, there are more opportunities to drive transactions through remote controls, smartphones and smart speakers equipped with virtual assistants. With support from delivery services such as DoorDash, Uber Eats or Instacart, Hershey has the possibility to drive impulse purchases. Shoppable video also can be used to help consumers make their grocery-shopping lists.
“That creative lens — what you say in your messaging and the ability to drive somebody to the ability to buy in that moment — is going to be so important in the future,” Rinaldi said. “The way it’s being set up right now is actually in a really good place.”
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