Reach Close to the Point of Purchase
In-store, brands reach shoppers close to the point of purchase, right next to the products themselves. A store network can provide campaigns with broad reach and repetition as part of shoppers’ regular store visits. The timing of that exposure also matters: interest generated by an advertisement can influence product choice during the same visit.
Retailers’ customer insight and purchase data help advertisers target relevant audiences and assess the impact of advertising. Brands can build awareness and support sales in the same environment where the products are available for purchase.
Bringing In-Store Retail Media into Annual Planning
When in-store retail media is included in the planning of objectives and budgets, it can be assigned a role throughout the year. Product launches, seasonal campaigns and always-on brand visibility require different types of execution, but they should be planned as part of the same overall framework.
Collaboration between retailers and suppliers provides a natural starting point. Brand marketing decision-makers and media agencies bring a broader media-planning perspective to the discussion: what should in-store retail media achieve, and how should it work together with other channels?
Interest created in other channels can be reinforced in-store. The brand message can reach the shopper again at the moment when a product choice is being made.
Results Guide Future Investments
Previous campaigns help evaluate the importance of content, timing and the store environment, as well as the value of retail data in targeting. Based on the results, advertisers can decide what should be continued, scaled or changed in future campaigns.
A/B testing can already be built into campaigns during the planning phase. For example, two creative versions can be compared across comparable groups of stores. The objective and metrics are agreed in advance, while the rest of the execution is kept as consistent as possible. This makes it possible to assess which version better supports the campaign objectives. The findings can then be used to improve campaigns that are already part of the wider plan.
Measurement needs to support these decisions. Campaign delivery, estimated audience, purchases and incremental sales generated by advertising all tell us different things. Reach should therefore be assessed alongside what the advertising actually achieved. Evaluating incremental sales also requires comparison with what sales would likely have been without the campaign.
In addition to sales impact, it is important to evaluate how advertising affects brand awareness, brand perception and purchase consideration. These effects can be studied, for example, through surveys. Brand impact measurement should be planned as part of the ongoing collaboration, with methods and timing agreed during annual planning.
When all parties understand what can and cannot be concluded from the results, it becomes easier to refine the annual plan and justify future investments.
Common Practices Make Nordic Planning Easier
In my previous article, “Could In-Store Retail Media Be Standardised Across the Nordics?”, I discussed how international standards could be applied more consistently across the Nordic markets. Shared practices would make it easier to execute campaigns across countries and apply learnings from one market to another.
Imagine, for example, a LEGO product launch in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Media agencies and retail chains would jointly assess which store networks are best positioned to reach the campaign’s target audiences and how the campaign should be timed. By using the store networks of several retailers, the launch could achieve reach across multiple markets, directly in the environments where the products are sold.
The campaigns across the different retail chains would be based on a common creative idea and shared objectives. Content would be produced in local languages, while product assortment and local shopping behaviour would be taken into account in both content and timing.
Each retailer would use the campaign to support its own sales, agree commercial terms independently and retain control of its customer data. Any exclusivity agreements and other commercial commitments would be taken into account during the planning phase. Campaign coordination and metric definitions would be agreed jointly so that results could be evaluated on a comparable basis.
The Launch as Part of the Annual Plan
The brand, media agency and retail chains would plan in advance how the launch, seasonal campaigns and always-on visibility support the brand’s objectives throughout the year. The main campaign themes and schedules would be agreed well in advance, with budgets decided as part of annual planning. Regular reviews of the results would also be scheduled so that new learnings can be applied to upcoming activity.
The results of the launch would help refine the targeting, content and timing of campaigns already included in the plan. Differences between markets, such as distribution, pricing and competitive conditions, would be taken into account when comparing results. The annual plan would provide continuity while still leaving room to make adjustments based on performance.
The reach of store networks, retailers’ customer insight and the opportunity to influence shoppers close to the point of purchase are strong reasons to include in-store retail media in brands’ annual media planning. Experience from previous campaigns helps justify investments and allocate them more effectively. I believe that closer planning between retailers, brands and media agencies will strengthen the role of in-store retail media over the longer term. For brands operating across the Nordics, developing this collaboration across national borders is a natural next step.
