A MEASUREMENT RUCKUS: OMNICHANNEL PUSH TOWARDS RETAIL MEDIA & PERSONALIZATION

The Retail Media Ruckus

I noted last year after attending Groceryshop that retailers are truly looking toward an integrated store and digital future, the true vision of what omnichannel was meant to be. Not everyone agreed, specifically because operations are yet to catch up; however, omnichannel is the push for how consumers and shoppers are going to be reached.

Tactics such as personalization, and specifically retail media, aim to fuse the online and in-store shopping experiences. Retail media and personalization goals both relate to consumer journeys and first-party data. This becomes not just retail media, but omnichannel marketing. The online, in-store, and at-home strategy for the trifecta of ecommerce, shopper, and brand dollars.

Today, let’s dig deeper into retail media and its measurement ruckus. I’ll touch on personalization in my next write-up.

Amazon Ads notes this case for omnichannel marketing for grocery shoppers:

“As an example of how to implement an omnichannel strategy, let’s look at grocery brands as a use case. To start, since grocery customers often mix both online and in-person shopping, it’s beneficial to use an omnichannel strategy to make sure their experience is seamless. Next, this should also include a connected home strategy, to ensure ads are reaching customers where they are. Finally, it’s important to measure the performance analytics of your strategy, to find both overperforming areas and where there’s room for improvement.”

Amazon has made a splash with its Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) which enables attribution analytics across Amazon media assets. One of the most popular analyses in AMC is the connection between Sponsored Products and DSP. In multiple case studies, AMC shows that the high reach of DSP ads and the onsite conversion nature of Sponsored Products work together to drive the highest sales conversion on Amazon. Although Amazon wants to expand attribution to offline sales too, it has consistently used DSP and Sponsored Ads in its impact on online sales. Where does the credit for that outcome belong?

Sales teams need to understand how retail media impacts their sales with retailers while brand teams want audience, while increasingly leaning toward performance media. Sponsored Products and DSP may not always be purchased with linked goals or by the same teams.

Now, this gets messy if retail media is just media, which means brand media. KPIs and use cases are divided across the marketing funnel and business.

Take this example I came across. A display ad for a new Oreo on People.com. At first glance, this could be any standard display ad. Nevertheless, it is an ad that links to Oreo's brand store on Amazon. It is an Amazon ad. Does this provide total brand impact or sales conversion on Amazon? It is likely both, given the reach of People.com.

Now when similar ad content appears as a Sponsored Brand, Products, or Video on Amazon search results, the total brand reach is effectively smaller depending on your category's maturity of online sales. In the US, food and beverage sales still have low online sales penetration compared to other categories. Reach has been a big driver of brand-led media which may be tricky for onsite retail media assets for some brands.

As AMC shows, the online sales impact is the easiest to prove. Total brand impact without larger retail media network aggregation may not work in some measurements. If your online penetration is low, your impression level for onsite placements and total sales volume impact will be low compared to the collective brand or shopper media pie. Brand media departments ignored onsite tactics until audiences through DSP emerged.

I have heard multiple times that retail media is like local TV buying. According to Nielsen, local TV buying should answer critical questions like:

? Which programs are most likely to reach my buyers?

? How can I compare my advertising performance across local markets?

? How can I optimize my cross-channel mix to drive ROI?

In essence, this may be the view of brand media effectiveness as retail media networks beyond Amazon mature. Next in line for maturity would be Walmart.

However, this does not solve the problem of accounting for retailer sales for retail account teams.

In my friend Kiri Masters 's podcast Ecommerce Brainstrust, she spoke with Paulo Cesar Bacarin Filho, eCommerce team leader at the personal care brand Tom’s of Maine about retail media . Paulo articulates well where KPI goals and ownership may diverge, and yet knows that customer and brand teams must come together on retail media. In his goals with Amazon, measurement of consumption is the focus, looking at traffic, ASP (avg. selling price), conversion rate, SOV (share of voice), advertising sales, and ROAS. While not mentioned on the podcast, but noted in recent posts, is the metric New-to-Brand. I would also shift toward iROAS/ROI.

The KPIs noted above are different from typical brand media. Even with a push towards performance marketing, credit for performance has multiple goals, KPIs, and outcomes. And not to forget, SOV onsite also impacts the digital shelf. If DSP and Sponsored products become tied, you may assume that SOV will have a larger brand extension. Retail media will also continue to be part of retailer Joint Business Planning (JBP) conversations, which brand teams have largely stayed away from.

The one thing still pending in all this ruckus is in-store retail media. It is not widely available yet as store displays need to be digitized to take advantage of the full opportunity. However, it is on the horizon and will be another cog in the measurement wheel. If in-store media becomes brand-led and personalized, is that a retail or brand conversion? It will also create another divide in KPIs and another shift in the JBP.

Getting back to measurement, is this MMM (marketing mix modeling), is this attribution, is it one source of measurement, is it one set of KPIs? Perhaps it is all of the above, which is why this is a ruckus to figure out. Some other fun synonyms for ruckus to try are HULLABALOO, KERFUFFLE, RUMPUS, and TUMULT.

However, like anything in ecommerce or business, cross-functional collaboration is the key to going from ruckus to kumbaya.??

#amazon #retail #ecommerce #media #retailmedia #brandbuilding