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Retail Media Networks: Transforming Grocery Ads · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome back to NRA and the Retail Podcast Interviews
• 0:05
  with Actually, a brand that I've wanted to interview for a long
• 0:08
  time. I'm joined by Alice's Head of
• 0:11
  Strategy. Market strategy?
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  Market strategy. That was only the 4th time that
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  I've tried to do that. But so Alex, so those who don't
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  know because you, you are a North American place.
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  Yeah. And in some really cool grocers
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  like Wegmans, who Rezar, well, the pets, everything.
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  I think they're just amazing. It's like, well, you imagine the
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  future of grocery to be all around discovery.
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  In my mind, there's like, that's where a grocery felt anyway,
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  going off topic. So tell me about Infragard, tell
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  me about what you do Instagram, and let's take it from there.
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  In terms of the history lesson, where else where we all started
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  off when we started working with our advertisers is our app.
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  And so again, when you think about it advertisers objectives,
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  what they're really trying to do is find their consumer that
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  actually likes their products and move products off the
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  shelves. And so it was very interesting
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  for advertisers to work with us and invest in the Instacart ad
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  network because what you're basically essentially able to do
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  is log into the ad platform and say, look, I have some business
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  objectives that want to do. I want to either find new
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  customers or I want to grow my basket sizes or move more sales.
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  And we're able to do that through different ad formats
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  across our network. And so that's historically has
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  always been on our marketplace. Where we've taken it the last
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  few years is actually through our solutions because we're
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  constantly part of the retailers to think about how do we drive
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  digital transformation in your stores.
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  Yeah, well, every time we do that, we actually create new
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  advertising opportunities. Wow.
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  And so the last few years we've been partnering with our
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  retailers to create their own media channels.
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  And so you'll hear us talk a lot about Carrot ads, which is our
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  retailers option to create their own retail media network.
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  Control was what? Why would I do that?
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  Profitability, right? Well, so I can charge more of a
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  premium for my network. So, yeah, So basically, I think
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  that if you look at the industry today, yeah, most of what the
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  retailers are talking about is, look, is it really worth it for
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  me to actually spend the time and invest in creating a retail
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  media network? It seems like it's limited to
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  only the big players because at the end of the day and you don't
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  have the audience, then will the advertiser really come, right.
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  And So what we're able to do is actually none of the playing
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  field a little bit for both the the retailers, but also allow
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  our advertisers to reach all different channels to meet new
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  audiences. And So what we're doing is that
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  same network that our 5500 grammes is already investing in.
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  We're extending all those ad formats into our retailers own
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  channels. Yeah.
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  And did you get any numbers on the amount of cross sell
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  conversion up? So is that like something you
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  track or can the retainer track though?
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  Absolutely. I think that's.
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  Absolutely. A lot of people.
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  I think, I think what we're so excited about is that, look,
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  it's not like advertising is new to retailers.
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  They've been doing it for me just.
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  But what's always been challenging from that
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  relationship is advertisers saying, look, I have to go to my
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  CFO, is this campaign working? And often traditional print or
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  traditional way, the advertising is really tough to measure,
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  incrementality. And so when you do a digital
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  retail, media network of this, you could get measurement very
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  quickly, almost real time. You're able to understand who's
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  buying your products and you'll reach your consumers a lot
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  better. You could target them.
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  And so yeah, absolutely. No, fantastic.
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  Wait, what's your vision of the future?
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  Actually, 2 two final questions from being here for the last
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  three days. What's been the one question
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  when people come to you? What?
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  What's the number one thing at top of mind for them?
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  And then give me sort of like a a vision of the future.
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  Yeah, I often get asked, is it really worth it for me to spend
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  my dollars in my resources to build a retail media network,
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  Right. And I think the biggest thing
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  that we could tell them is yes, if you get through the cold
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  start problem, meaning as long as you're able to get the
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  advertisers to participate and that's what really we're we're
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  here to do with helping our progress, helping source demand
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  for them be part of our network And so they're able to actually
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  get over that objection there. So we're excited about that.
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  And your second question is about vision.
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  Look, I think that groceries are really exciting space right now.
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  And really the number one reason for that is because even though
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  it's an age-old practise getting your groceries, what's unique
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  about groceries that you have multiple touch points with your
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  customer in a week. Compare that to other
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  industries, you may see them three times a year, 6 * a year.
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  Yeah. Groceries you can see up to two
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  to three times a week. Yeah.
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  So think actually from an advertiser perspective, think
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  about how much you know about your customer that is so
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  fantastic from advertisers lens. And so I think what retailers
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  really have in their hands is a pool of data in a pool of
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  opportunity to partner with the advertisers and to really help
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  monetize their surfaces who Dr profitability.
• 4:50
  Alice absolutely wonderful. Thank.
• 4:52
  You so much. Thank you so much.