Unlocking the Power of Design Effectiveness In-Store: A Data-Driven Look at Asda’s Retail Media

In today’s hyper-competitive retail landscape, simply looking good isn’t enough. Your retail media needs to do more than just catch the eye, it must connect with shoppers in a way that drives real-world results.

That’s where our cutting-edge AI-powered design analysis tool comes in. By leveraging behavioural science and AI, it provides expert-backed insights in under four minutes, helping brands optimise their in-store media for maximum impact.

Different retailers are executing in-store media in different ways, take a look at these real world examples, both from a busy Asda store.

We put this tool to the test, analysing retail media executions from Asda. The retailer featured 2 large screens, 1 just before the store entrance and the other in the store entrance lobby. So how did the various brand communications perform?

What is Design Effectiveness?

Before we get into the findings, let’s define what we mean by “design effectiveness.” It’s not about how potentially award winning, or artistic an execution is. It’s about how well the design aligns with shopper psychology, and how effectively it connects with how real people think, feel, and make purchasing decisions in-store.

Our tool analyses over 40,000 data points, distilling them into an effectiveness score that quantifies how well a piece of retail media will perform.

Oreo Just Edges it: The Data Breakdown

When we assessed eight different campaigns, The Oreo, Minecraft campaign emerged as the narrow winner, scoring 60% just 1% higher than the next best campaign (Asda Roses).

But, to put this in perspective, although the global average effectiveness score for a retail media design sits at 46%, designs optimised using psychological principles can reach 70% or higher, meaning there’s plenty of room for improvement across the board.

So, what factors influenced these effectiveness scores? Let’s break it down:

• Visibility & Standout: How well does each design capture attention in a crowded retail environment?
• Appeal: Does the visual and emotional impact of the media resonate with shoppers?
• Engagement: Do they encourage further interaction or interest?
• Purchase Intent: How well does each retail media execution drive actual buying behaviour?

Key Findings: What Worked Best?

Best for Visibility & Standout: Lego ‘Give Love

Among all campaigns tested, the highest visibility score came from the Lego ‘Give Love’, specifically the powerful colours, contrast, and effective use of the emotive ‘heart logo all helped the media execution really stand out

Best for Appeal: Lindt Rollback Offer

The Lindt Rollback offer led the way in terms of visual appeal. Removing the product from the packaging, and a strong psychological price point that activated left digit bias helped drive up appeal. However, there were issues with the way the price data was presented: Font sizes, the '￡' symbol and overall hierarchy could all be easily improved

Best for Engagement: Knorr Date Night Vouchers

The Knorr Date Night activation achieved the highest engagement score, thanks to the good use of a celebrity endorsement and clear image of their face. However, the same execution scored particularly poorly when it came to being easy for passing shoppers to process, too much information, conveyed in too short a time.

Best for Purchase Intent: Asda Roses

When it came to the all-important metric of purchase intent, Asda’s Roses offer scored the highest, reaching an impressive 64% optimisation in driving propensity to purchase.

A clear link to an emotional occasion and an ‘obvious purchase solution, made the roses easy to remember and good value to buy. This was a rarity in that the media could be easily processed in the time it was in direct sightline of passing shoppers (regardless of which few seconds were playing).

The Psychology Behind the Results: System 1 vs System 2 Thinking

To understand why these executions performed as they did, we turn to two key cognitive processing systems:

• System 1: Fast, instinctive, and emotional thinking.
• System 2: Slower, more deliberate, and logical thinking.

Our analysis found that most Asda retail media executions tested were somewhat ineffective at appealing to System 1 thinking. None of the executions we tested scored more than 45% in this regard. Instead, all performed better when assessed from a System 2 perspective, indicating that their messaging required more time and mental effort to process than is optimal. But the messaging was located in areas where shoppers don’t want to stop and spend time.

Given that most shoppers engage with in-store media only fleetingly, this presents a major opportunity for improvement.

A Missed Opportunity: Emotional Engagement

Across all campaigns, emotional engagement scores were well below the 70%+ benchmark seen in highly effective retail media campaigns. This suggests a significant area for growth, as emotionally engaging content is proven to drive stronger recall and purchase behaviour.

What Makes a Design More Effective? Key Takeaways

A deeper dive into the design elements revealed some key factors affecting effectiveness:

• Imagery: On average, imagery effectiveness was low, while product-focused imagery supports brand recall, it could be better leveraged to promote consumption occasions and enhance emotional appeal.
• Typography: For the most part, the different media executions media used clear, legible fonts. However, some brand promotions simply presented shoppers with too much copy to be able to mentally absorb as they passed by.
• Brand Assets: Brand logos and colours were effectively used and the majority would have no doubt been effective from a mental brand awareness perspective to reinforce brand recognition and recall.
• Calls to Action: Some campaigns lacked clear CTAs. For example, although a couple of the executions asked shoppers to scan a QR code, none asked passers-by to purchase any particular brand.
• Movement: Every campaign effectively incorporated movement, an essential factor for attracting attention in-store.

Why Design Effectiveness Analysis is a Game-Changer for Your Brand

This isn’t just about improving one campaign, it’s about fostering a culture of data-driven creativity that transforms your entire retail media strategy. Here’s how our Design Effectiveness tool can help:

• Optimised Impact: Get clear, actionable insights to refine your media for maximum effectiveness.
• Better ROI: Drive stronger engagement and conversions, ensuring your marketing budget works harder.
• Faster Turnaround: Receive detailed AI-powered analysis in minutes, enabling swift optimisation.
• Confidence in Creativity: Take the guesswork out of design by combining creative expertise with data-backed insights.

Ready to Elevate Your Retail Media?

In a world of shrinking attention spans and increasing competition, optimising your in-store media isn’t just important, it’s essential. Our AI-powered tool gives you the insights you need to create retail media that truly resonates with shoppers and drives measurable results.

Want to see how psychologically effective your shopper marketing really is? Our tool can tell you in minutes. Watch this short video to learn more, or get in touch today!

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