Latest / IAB Europe podcasts / Retail Media Roundtable - From Data to Decisions: The Pan-European Retail Media Maturity Check

Transcript

Retail Media Roundtable - From Data to Decisions: The Pan-European Retail Media Maturity Check · IAB Europe podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Retail Media Roundtable, the podcast from my view that dives into the dynamic world of retail and commerce media advertising.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: In this special edition, powered by our partners Miracle Ads, we're bringing you fresh insight straight from the heart of the action, recorded live at our Retail Media Impact Summit in Amsterdam.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're seeking practical tips, strategic perspectives, or a deeper understanding of this fast-moving space, the Retail Media Roundtable is your go-to for timely and thought-provoking discussions.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in these exclusive live episodes, you'll hear directly from the experts and leaders influencing the future of retail and commerce media in Europe.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So grab a seat at the table and let's dive in.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to this IAB Europe Retail Media Impact Summit podcast.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, John Still, head of content at ExchangeWire.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Delighted to be hosting this podcast for the IAB Europe.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: And today we're going to be discussing the retail media maturity in a the pan-European question.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: To cover this, I'm delighted to be joined by Stan from LiveRam.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Stan, welcome.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Very happy to be here and thank you for having me.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, delighted to be chatting.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: We're about to go and do the same thing on stage in about 30 minutes.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm delighted to be picking your brain on this in advance.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: We can talk a lot about the value of retailer data, but data alone doesn't create that value.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: So what turns retailer data retailer data into a genuinely actionable insight for the retail?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think overall the reason why retail media is uh growing extremely fast is that retailers, in in addition to having pretty wide uh loyalty programs uh with social demo data and attributes for each of the members of the program, also have well very precise uh purchase-based data on and on the behaviors are of their shoppers in store and online, which is very interesting, notably in a world where brands distribute through uh retailers and don't know exactly who the shopper is.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: They know their consumers, but they don't know the shoppers.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's why that data is extremely valuable for retailers.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Then how do you turn it into action, activation?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: There are different types of ways to do so.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, is how you build relevant insights and share that with the brands.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, insights that can be about the shoppers, about the category performance, about the product performance, and how you tie the shoppers to these category and product performances is something that is super relevant.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Being then in a position to actually activate the data within the ecosystem the brand would naturally use to have personalized interactions with the consumer is the second uh important thing.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you make sure that that data that the retailer owns can be made actionable within all of the media that the retailer owns and can activate?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm talking about DOH, on-site media, um of course, but also about off-site.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you make sure that data can be safely for a retailer connected into places like social networks, CTV, open web, so that brands can activate and have personalized discussions with the people that like their products there.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then the third, the third area, which is extremely important, um, if you are a brand and you already activate levers such as pricing, assortment, promotion, what you're looking at is the uh sellout that it brings to you as a brand, but also the margin that it helps you generate.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so being in a position to measure every exposure you're doing into media, uh any media dollar that you spend with all retail media and connect that to the transaction is extremely important.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: So retailers have that, these transactions, uh, and that's extremely valuable for the brands.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh retail media has been discussed for you know a few years now as the you know, eye-watering margins is a is a phrase I've heard often.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, it's a big up-and-coming thing.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we're at a state now, I think we can probably start to really assess the maturity of it.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you and I are about to do so with some very high-profile retailers uh on stage.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: But for you personally, when you look around Europe in particular, where are we at with maturity?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: What separates a more mature retail media market from one that's less developed?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the way the the way retailers actually use their data and the number over the type of the breadth of the offerings they can bring to the market is where I would judge them the maturity.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like if you look at the off the product offerings that they have built as their retail media offerings, the ones that are the more mature I've already explored on-site pretty deep, and they potentially came to a point where their inventory became a bit saturated and they needed to find other areas for growing, but also, of course, uh consumers don't only behave and live within the e-commerce of the retailer, they have other behaviors and other platforms they go to.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you adapt and personalize the interaction into each of these?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if a retailer operates on-site, off-site, DOH, uh in-store, I would find it as a good uh proxy that the retailer is very advanced because it's built the capabilities to uh operate these different channels kind of um and to uh build like interesting um value plays for for the brands on each of these.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's I would think I would tend to think one thing that I would look at.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um the second thing, when you look into, for instance, off-site specifically, uh, I think there is potentially one starting point, which is activating the data within one social media or something like this.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: But like when you think about it, if you want to have the broader reach, you need to be able to interact with personalized interactions onto each and every channel.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if you go a little bit into the details, like a retailer that is already in a position to activate her their data within all of the off-site channels, uh, being all the social, audio, open web, and potentially AI tomorrow through uh agent e-commerce is a sign of maturity as well.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, and and then I think maybe two other things measurement is something that the market is expecting.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: So IAB is doing uh tremendous work about you know, trying to find ways and define standards uh for the brands to get access to these uh metrics and understand them and act on them.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think, yeah, like having a retailer being in a position to provide measurement KPIs for each of the activations and each of the media dollars that are spent is something that is very important.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think brands, when they go uh media uh and they spend their dollars, the national media dollars, they expect from the social platforms to be in a position to measure.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think when the retailers do so on behalf of the brand, the same thing is expected from the from the brand.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So they should also be in a position to give full transparency on the measurement side.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then maybe last thing, I think there is the traditional retailer and brand relationship that has been existing for a long time.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: They are connecting because they are the same value chain, but I think the retailer data, in a sense, is also very valuable for other types of players, uh, not only endemic brands, but non-endemic brands for sure.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh DOH players would really understand, uh, like to understand whether the their screens that are located anywhere have an impact on in-store transactions, for instance.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or, I don't know, publishers, whatever type of publishers you're talking about, whether it's broadcaster, they have their audience pools, but they don't have any, you know, purchase-based behavior attributes that they can link to their audiences.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, like a very mature retailer would have explored all of these areas as kind of their revenue generation uh streams, uh, and would have managed to define what are the relevant uh go-to-market in each of these uh for each of these players.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's a fair, you know, a few decent bellwethers for maturity there.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on the flip side of that coin, what's what are the barriers?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Where are the skills gaps in terms of reaching that retail media maturity?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um there are I think I think when you look at it, at least in the markets where we operate in in Europe, if you take these markets independently, if you look at France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and so on, I think you find yourself in a position where there is a bit of concentration around retail, meaning that there is always one or two players that have a very big chunk of the market share.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so I would say data is here.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: So data is not the limit here.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think tech has now become pretty much not commoditized, but I think it's like a lot easier to access.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, a lot of players are giving options and tools to do on-site, to do DOH.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: The number of these players have multiplied.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say these are the limits as well.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think um, yeah, willingness uh from retailers to kind of go a little bit bigger and test out this different options is something that is very important.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: So are they ready to invest and and and uh you know build teams and resources in order to power these different um uh revenue streams that we discussed is one thing.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think there is also a second thing, which is we I think like yeah, a few years back we were saying, okay, retail media is going to be a different thing than the trade discussions that the retailers and the brands were having, because you were talking about teams that were not specialist about media.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: So then retailers built their specific teams or even specific companies dedicated to on retail media.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I uh five years ago, I was thinking at some point in time, when everyone gets mature enough and all teams have kind of grown and are in a position to talk about trade and media at the same time, this would come back again, and you would see a market where uh retailers and brands have joined business planning across both topics media and trade.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: So pricing, assortment, promotion, and so on, connected to the overall sellout and the consumer satisfaction.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're still not there.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's a question of resources, teams, but also a question of culture.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've lived into a model where this was like this with trade agreements, uh uh which were basically dictating the rhythm of the year uh in the relationship.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And is that going to move away?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm last big question for you.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um Europe's a big place.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of different markets in Europe, different levels of maturity.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: We saw in Daniel Knapp's presentation this morning where different countries are in terms of that maturity.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um for brands who work across multiple markets, who are working trying to work in all areas across Europe, how much of a challenge is that fragmentation?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: How can we face it?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I agree.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: This is a pretty big challenge.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think historically these brands have built local teams and I've been in a position to have one-to-one discussions at the local level because not all retailers across Europe are multi-market, a lot of them are pure national players.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a bit of that that needs to continue.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then there are two options.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are, we are seeing more and more groups that are trying to unite the value propositions of different types of retailers.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: This is happening at a market level, but also at a cross-market level, uh, which I think is very interesting.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think the the difficulty about this is like how do you then um yeah, share the value between all of all of the providers of the data of all of the retailers?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's a difficult topic.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I think we are seeing more and more of this types of initiatives.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's that's one response.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think in a in a market specifically, we see also like national players that are trying to aggregate retail data all together.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I see that as very interesting.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think at the same time, when you look at this, like brands have to kind of select the players they want to work with, the priority ones.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's always a question of market share uh and outcomes on their sellout in the end.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and I think brands have a play into defining the metrics they want to see and and and get access to from the retailers.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like from the LiveRom perspective, we are a clean room provider.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: And some of the brands we work with, they basically have defined their own framework and they say and they go to retailers and they say, well, these are the six queries I would like to be in a position to ask to your database in order to understand my uh business performance within your walls.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the shoppers I can basically touch within thanks to your retail media, and a few questions around uh campaign performance.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if the brands kind of uh push that forward and build that framework for themselves, they are in a position to push it to every retailer and kind of have a similar understanding of the retail partnerships.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so not a one-size-fits-all, but a more nuanced approach.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, we're doing on stage quite shortly, which I'm very much looking forward to.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I'm gonna let you go, but first, a little bit of fun.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, can you sum up the IAB Europe Retail Media Impact Summit in three words?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so edition number two, and I think I was at the same um spot last year.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one thing, well, two things that didn't change, I would say, are uh seniority and expertise.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be two words, and the last one is maybe bigger location, which is uh which is uh way better.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, excellent.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll we'll give you those four words.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um but Stan, thank you so much for appreciate the conversation and thank you all for listening.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.