The retail media explosion will continue to be driven by the trend in first-party data as tracking cookies gradually fade away — but retail media networks will still need to carefully manage their customers’ data.
CVS Media Exchange (CMX) is a retail media platform designed to allow brands and advertisers to place their products within CVS Pharmacy’s digital touchpoints. This includes online channels, such as CVS.com, and in-store digital media. CMX leverages customer insights and data analytics to facilitate targeted advertising.
Despite the data, however, CMX is keen to reach shoppers offline, too, said Paul Lentz, Executive Director, Head of Strategic Development at CVS Media Exchange (CMX), in this video interview with Beet.TV.
The Retail Media Footprint
CVS’ large physical retail footprint of 9,000 stores allows it to reach consumers on their path to purchase in-store. “Our ability to reach consumers in their path to purchase in store has also been a lot of what our focus is on and our growth,” Lentz said.
Retail media networks are helping consumers discover new products through precision marketing. CVS has granular data on the purchase behavior, brand interests and category preferences of its 74 million Extra Care loyalty card members.
“That just enables us to be so much more relevant in messaging to them and meeting them wherever they may be shopping or wherever they may be doing their research on products,” Lentz said. “We help suppliers get the message to buy that product at CVS in front of them in that native environment.”
Privacy and Offline Important
CVS customers have plenty of data. The average tenure of an Extra Care card membership is 10 to 11 years.
“We are very cognizant of their privacy and very clear about how their data is leveraged,” Lentz said. “We have to be very good stewards of that data and the Extra Care card members because, if we can’t deliver on that promise, we can’t deliver on the other promises that we have, which is getting relevant creative messaging about products in front of the right consumer at the right time.”
Unlike many retail media networks which are e-commerce operators, the bulk of CVS’ transactions happen in physical stores. “Because those transactions are happening in store, we care a lot about that entire customer journey,” said Lentz.
You’re watching “The Retail Media Revolution: Powering Performance and Driving Trust,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by DoubleVerify. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
