Chris Stoyles
Last Yard
As retailers continue to digitize their stores and expand their retail media networks into the aisle, new opportunities exist for brands to connect the digital and physical experience for their customers. With these new opportunities come new challenges. In this article, we explore some of those opportunities and how to adapt existing digital out-of-home (DOOH) concepts to deliver more personalized in-store experiences.
What does in-store media look like today?
Most of the advertising you’ll see in-store today is video, often very similar to the ads being run on other platforms like YouTube, Instagram and on billboards. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this content, however, it does miss a key opportunity in-store to localize and personalize the content, and in turn increase the ROI for your advertisers.
Opportunity #1
The untapped opportunity we see is to inspire & inform your shopper while helping them navigate the store. Imagine an ad playing on your front of store screens. This ad is for a particular brand of chocolate bar, playing the same creative your shopper has seen on YouTube – with one small addition. A dynamic creative element sitting on top of the ad that says “Find me in aisle 3”. This data injected dynamically based on planogram immediately improves the customer experience. We call this giving your screens “utility”. In the mind of your shopper, the screen changes from a passive experience to a useful part of their shopping experience.
Opportunity #2
Now you’ve got them to the aisle, there’s an opportunity to highlight the promotions and offers on products nearby. Leveraging planogram data eliminates the need to manually schedule this content. In addition, dynamic creative can leverage real-time price and promotion data to inform the shopper on key promotions, what they can save and exclusive members-only offers available in the aisle. This turns simple video into personalized content that informs the shopper, and captures those impulse purchases that might otherwise have been missed.
Opportunity #3
There is one final missed opportunity to consider. Digitization of the store creates a more connected store, allowing you to reach your shoppers on their journey regardless of where they are at any point in time. For example, let’s say it’s 3pm and roast chickens have just been marked down for clearance. Historically in-store radio has helped retailers communicate with shoppers throughout the store to alert them to time specific offers available elsewhere in-store. A data-driven approach to retail media unlocks the ability to connect your in-store radio, just-in-time promotions and the shopper. As shoppers hear the announcement for the markdown of roast chickens in the deli section, they also see their nearest screen showing the 50% off offer, and that there are only 10 left. Again, the screens have gone from being disconnected and passive, to providing value to the shopper and creating a genuine experience of personalization.
We hope you found these ideas useful. If you would like to discuss how Last Yard can help create a connected store, enhance your retail media offering and deliver a higher ROI to your advertisers, get in touch today.
If you would like to see these strategies in action, book a discovery call and we’ll give you a quick 15 minute demo, containing real-world examples that you can record and share with your team.