Topic Digital Media

Retail media networks are on the rise.   

The dawn of another year brings reflections both big and small. Everyone seems to make their own resolutions as they look toward a clean slate: Eat better, give more to charity, dust off the Peloton that’s currently doubling as a coat rack. But resolutions don’t just have to be about bettering ourselves in our personal lives—they can (and should) pour over into our professional ones…

There has been an explosion in retail media networks over the past couple of years, with brands like Walgreens, Ulta, Tesco, CVS, Walmart, Kroger and Best Buy entering the space. What’s driving the rise in popularity?

Retail media networks are on the rise—and they aren’t just for the giants like Amazon anymore. Retailers of all sizes can use their first-party data to drive sales and bring in ad spend from their brand partners. But where do you start??  

Roughly one year ago, I discovered the holy grail of holiday shopping experiences: Buy online, pick up outside store. For those who didn’t experience this brilliant innovation, let me take you back to November 2020. During last year’s holiday season, I remember I wanted to interact with as few humans as possible (as was the case for many). So, I took advantage of a process…

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Visit Omaha wanted to reach visitors during the city’s offseason and attract them to the area. Epsilon helped to evaluate their traditional audience markets and serve eye-catching creative to boost visitation during winter months, resulting in a strong revenue and community impact from over 14,500 new tourists. Let's see how they did it. 

Retail marketers have contended with numerous roadblocks in recent months. Just as eCommerce skyrocketed in the wake of COVID-19, third-party identifiers (3PIDs) like cookies and Apple’s IDFA began deprecating. The effect made it more difficult for marketers to reach targeted consumers, as well as to confirm when—or if—an engagement was achieved for subsequent measurement and insights.

Refining and perfecting a recipe is a baker’s Everest. Working through two, three, four iterations of a recipe take time and dedication—a passion (and ability) shared by few. Auzerais Bellamy, owner of Blondery, is one of the few.

Bar Louie came into 2020 knowing it needed a change. The gastrobar staple, known for its great drinks and community feel, was facing a bankruptcy, and was using the reorganization as a chance to realign its overall company goals with smarter, data-driven marketing strategies focused on targeted messaging for lapsed customers.

The B2B industry saw a bit of a reckoning in 2020. The industry that historically focused on product attributes and lead attribution was forced to reset during a year full of crises. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated new marketing trends, and traditional means of engaging, selling to, retaining customers became further outdated.

Jersey Mike’s, the nation’s leading fast casual sub sandwich franchise, wanted to reconnect with their lapsed customers and acquire new ones. Jeff Hemschoot, Marketing Director at Jersey Mike’s, explains, “Our goal was to test if digital could help us reactivate guests who hadn’t purchased in at least three months. We also wanted to target customers who have dined at competitors.”

PoolHost, an online office pool and sports site, was looking to monetize their traffic on cookieless browsers like Safari. Ready for a new and exciting opportunity, they partnered with Epsilon to pilot our publisher identity solution, Publisher Link. But the initiative had to start somewhere. Here's how Epsilon and PoolHost worked together to create a dynamic solution that increased overall ad fill rate, impression count and earnings. 

Identity resolution was a major challenge for marketers even before they were confronted with the phase-out of third-party cookies and mobile ad IDs. It’s increasingly important to construct a single, coherent, actionable view of customers across online and offline touchpoints, while understanding the barriers to bringing that vision to life. Take away third-party cookies, and it can make an already-difficult situation seem impossible.

On March 3, Google published its position on user-level identifiers, and some likened it to dropping a bomb on the ad-tech community. Google shared that it does not intend to directly use alternative authenticated user-level identifiers after deprecating third-party cookies. And it considers such identifiers non-viable from a privacy perspective.

Retail media has really grown up. An eMarketer report showed that ecommerce site advertising grew 38% YOY in 2020—totaling more than $17 billion. Retail media is a true win-win opportunity for smart retailers looking for a high-growth revenue stream and a path for brands to access their first-party audiences.

Retail media has really grown up. An eMarketer report showed that ecommerce site advertising grew 38% YOY in 2020—totaling more than $17 billion. Retail media is a true win-win opportunity for smart retailers looking for a high-growth revenue stream and a path for brands to access their first-party audiences.

“It all began in the markets of Provence. With nothing but an alembic, a small truck and a solid knowledge of plants…” is L’Occitane’s humble origin story. Since then, the brand has grown to sell luxurious skincare and beauty products in stores across the globe.

“It all began in the markets of Provence. With nothing but an alembic, a small truck and a solid knowledge of plants…” is L’Occitane’s humble origin story. Since then, the brand has grown to sell luxurious skincare and beauty products in stores across the globe.

Not so long ago, "bleisure"—a term coined about a decade ago to describe the combining of business and leisure travel—was hot. Travel marketers everywhere were talking about the trend, and for good reason: Cheaper airfare, increasingly distributed workforces and an era of strong economic performance led to steady growth in business travel spending. Bleisure used to be an easy way to "add on" to a…