Creative, Targeted, Omnichannel Campaigns: The In-Store Retail Media Opportunity In 2024

In today's media landscape, the most valuable asset any company can have is consistent access to an audience. Despite the surge in online shopping during the pandemic, almost 70 per cent of purchases are still made inside a physical store. This shopping preference coupled with 74 per cent of shoppers actively looking for “special deals” before making a purchase enables a strong opportunity for in-store retail media.

Retail media markets to consumers at or near their point of purchase (POP) or point of choice between competing brands or products. By connecting with consumers via POP signage, a subcategory of digital out-of-home (DOOH) place-based inventory, brands can boost sales, increase market share or encourage immediate buying decisions.

As in-store retail media capabilities evolve, we anticipate the category and inventory footprint to grow exponentially across shopping destinations such as big-box retailers, convenience stores, grocery stores and pharmacies. Here are a few of our key predictions for how in-store retail media offerings will continue to expand beyond the online space - and how retailers and brand marketers can get involved.

Monetizing in-store opportunities

Many retailers are recognizing the benefit of in-store advertising as an additional revenue source and are implementing, or planning to implement, screens in strategic ways that enhance the in-store customer experience. Currently, we’re primarily seeing big box retailers and grocery chains offer in-store retail media opportunities as they have the budget and ability to implement the infrastructure quickly. However, we expect to see an increase in smaller or independent retailers integrating digital signage screens into their store experiences in the coming years.

Activating targeted, creative campaigns

There are several ways we will see advertising shift to incorporate offline retail media including creating personalized experiences, retargeting campaigns and utilizing an omnichannel approach to bridge online and in-person efforts.

Personalized experiences

We can expect increasingly engaging and personalized in-store retail media experiences as marketers use first and third-party data to build audience-driven media strategies. From a creative standpoint, marketers will continue benefiting from compelling creative produced specifically for specific in-store retail media opportunities and catered to consumer behaviours; whether that's customized by contextual location of the venue type, time of time, day of the week or relating to local weather conditions.

Bridging online and in-person audiences

E-commerce has surged over the last few years, and online shopping will always have an engaged audience - meaning online retail media will retain high priority for advertisers on retailers’ digital properties. However, we’ll see more savvy advertisers take an omnichannel approach with the combination of online and in-store retail media placement to increase reach, continuity and overall effectiveness. This will become even more prominent as campaign retargeting allows advertisers to re-engage consumers exposed to their messaging in-stores in the online world - via programmatic advertising tactics like CTV, streaming audio and online video - and vice versa.

What’s next for retail media?

This is an exciting time for brand marketers with endless opportunities for creative and targeted omnichannel marketing. As more retailers monetize the in-store retail media opportunity and expand strategically placed screens, consumers will gain an enhanced and personalized in-store experience - in turn, supporting both brand marketers and retailers alike.

Author: Scott Mitchell, Managing Director, Vistar Media (Canada)

Vistar Media is the leading global provider of programmatic technology for digital out-of-home (DOOH). With a mission of enhancing every OOH transaction with automation, data and measurement, Vistar has established the most comprehensive marketplace for programmatic out-of-home transactions via a demand-side platform (DSP), supply-side platform (SSP), and data management platform (DMP). Vistar also offers core infrastructure software for media owner networks, via the Vistar Ad Server and device and content management platform (Cortex).