The Power of Creativity in Retail Media

Instore, Marketing, Retail Media

Using your creative canvas effectively

Whilst starting with the customer has been a common theme in marketing for a while, it’s often been challenging for brands to get their message across in a way that cuts through the noise.

For those campaigns that find a way to connect and resonate with their customers, the common theme for each is creativity. Bringing emotion, relatability and often a bit of humour into the mix sets brands apart from the generic wash of product and price ads that surround us.

The rise of retail media has created a new canvas for brands to execute creatively and in a way that brings them into direct contact with a consumer who can be prompted into immediate action.

Bringing a creative message into a retail environment gives brands the opportunity to execute in multiple ways including:

Crossing categories to reach your audience

Maybelline, a female focused beauty brand, used the cross-category power of retail media to promote an anti-bullying campaign, reaching the target audience of male gamers where they would typically shop; the gaming sections of both physical and digital stores of The Warehouse.

Bringing the at-home experience in-store to solve a life problem

Vogel’s took a common Kiwi household problem, the frustrating inability to get the perfect Vogel’s toast first time, and brought the solution into a retail environment by testing The Warehouses’s Living & Co. toaster range to find the perfect Vogel’s settings. They then intercepted the supply chain and stickered the toasters in-store and virtually online too. This information gave consumers the correct first and second run settings for that perfect Vogel’s toast slice in the morning!

The campaign was amplified by Point of Sale located in the Spreads aisle, activity on instore screens and on the bespoke Vogel’s display units located next to the toaster aisle.

Not only did this sell a ton of Vogel’s but also prompted an increase in toaster purchases too. Double win!

Getting the creative campaign right

Mattel took their use of the retail media canvas to the ultimate level and turned an entire store pink to celebrate Barbie’s 65th birthday!

They coupled this large splash execution with experiential activations in an additional 9 stores across the country creating immersive photo opportunities for fans and shoppers to interact with the iconic product and simultaneously amplifying the campaign across UGC social feeds. The campaign also activated widely across dOOH, a homepage takeover on thewarehouse.co.nz, targeted eDM’s, a radio partnership and more as they combined their brand campaign with the retail media execution.

Turn the omnichannel retail environment into an experience

To really maximise the creative impact of your retail media campaigns we recommend you start with these three principles:

Start with an insight. Understand the why behind what your creativity is trying to achieve.
Get as close as you can to the end consumer and build the campaign with them at the forefront of your thinking. Think about how to reach them where they shop and with a message that will resonate.

Make use of the entire canvas. Retail Media represents an array of touchpoints that can be deployed to deliver your message.

Interested in adding a dash of creativity to your next campaign? Chat with your Market Media representative today!

RORY MCDONALD

Rory McDonald is the General Manager of Market Media. He's previously worked in the US at ROKT and Australia at Newscorp. He's also a tragic Australian rugby fan which we try not to hold against him too much.