Blog posts
Many of our customers and colleagues are familiar with this diagram we use to explain the different business models of in-store retail media.
The diagram outlines the most important business models, from increasing the sales of own brands and basket size to media sales for trade partners and other types of advertisers.
A closer look at the diagram reveals an additional layer we’ve added called “Automation.”
Through years of operations and hundreds of discussions with various retailers and market participants, we’ve identified that one of the biggest challenges in launching in-store retail media operations is the significant resource demand and the new tasks it imposes on organizations that typically have little to no experience with audience monetization.
This is why our R&D has focused on developing new automation features for our in-store retail media platform over the past few years. Below, we introduce several development paths for automation in in-store media.
When scaling in-store retail media to an industrial level, an average retailer and advertiser needs to display a vast amount of marketing material across the network. The first requirement to enable this is, of course, a platform architecture that can scale massively.
The second requirement is to automate most of the content production. To understand how this works, consider a major retailer’s web store in the age of retail media: most ads you see on the website are sponsored products. These are automated ads generated from a database and displayed according to a commercial agreement between the retailer and the brand.
Now, consider a physical store—like a grocery store—and the in-store screens displaying ads. To meet the needs of most brands sold in-store, the retailer must provide the same automated content capabilities available online. While brand videos will still be produced for the largest brands, the scale required in retail media can only be achieved through content automation.
Another aspect of content automation is the dynamic nature of ads in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) environments. Ads must always be relevant. When content automation is done right, ads can have many dynamic features, such as:
From day one, campaign and targeting automation has been the cornerstone of the Doohlabs platform. We recognized that traditional digital signage software wasn’t equipped to handle the needs of the retail media revolution, so we developed a feature set that could automate campaign scheduling and distribution based on the target audience. Once booked, the campaign materials are trafficked and ready to run automatically.
We’ve also further developed our audience-based campaign booking system. Campaigns can be booked using either ready-made media products ideal for reaching popular audiences or by selecting the precise parameters using a planning tool.
Retailers have numerous partners, and retail media adds another layer to these existing relationships.
In retail media, major trade partners have so many interactions with the retailer that it makes sense to provide them with a channel to manage their own campaigns. The Doohlabs platform enables retailers to offer trade partners, as well as media companies, their own self-service interface, where they can book audiences tailored specifically to them according to their contracts. Partners can traffic all the materials themselves and receive a report on how well the campaign has met its goals.
It took some time for in-store retail media to become a priority for retailers and marketers amid all the online buzz. But we’ve finally arrived—over the last year to 18 months, in-store development and in-store media have become some of the hottest topics in the business. Even major research firms have taken note; Gartner, for instance, has featured Doohlabs in two of its retail research reports.
What’s next in our field? The automation of everything has only just begun and will dominate technological development for some time. Content automation is already converging with generative AI. It won’t be long before we see a significant increase in automatically produced in-store ads, both audio and video.
Audience-based in-store campaigns are also in their early stages. Retailers with advanced loyalty programs have unparalleled insight into their customer base. When these retailers fully explore the possibilities for creating personalized shopping experiences for consumers—and the more sophisticated reach they offers advertisers—we will see a significant transformation in store visits.
Another major development is the integration of multisensory marketing into in-store media. There’s already been much discussion about how in-store retail media must be careful not to overwhelm customers with excessive advertising. Adding sound, scents, lighting, and even tastings to retail media campaigns will give marketers and store developers new tools to create exceptional store visit experiences.
