Albertsons Media Collective has a new leader who aims to maintain the company’s momentum in the retail media space.
After stepping into his new role as the grocer’s senior vice president of retail media in late July, Brian Monahan is taking his first steps to continue Albertsons’ retail media success — starting with the introduction of a new media toolkit.
Albertsons views retail media as not just an additional source of revenue but also as a strategically integrated part of its retail business, and the toolkit adds to this, Monahan said.
“We don’t see retail media as just a shakedown of our suppliers to pad our margins so we can fund our attempts to compete with Amazon,” Monahan said. “All those dynamics are real, but the offer that we have is about driving collective growth, [including] category growth [and] real, incremental sales growth.”
The fact that Albertsons is a nationally scaled retailer that incorporates media executives into its larger retail business is unique in the retail media operations space, Monahan said.
The “strategic reset” — from executive shuffling to divisional changes — that the company has been undergoing since Susan Morris took over as CEO in May has put new focus on company operations, including retail media. So while many other grocery retail media players are still working to integrate their media strategy with the overall company strategy, Albertsons is already there, according to Monahan.
What’s inside the new toolkit?
In a Thursday company blog post, Albertsons announced a new limited-time retail media toolkit that Monhan describes as “a BOGO for retail media.”
The initiative gives Albertsons advertiser partners the option to buy an impression that Albertsons will then match from its enterprise media budget, Monahan said. The program spans on- and off-site, through connected TV, digital out-of-home advertising and in-store.
“The reason we’re doing [this] is we’re so confident in our targeting and our measurement that when an advertiser pays to target one of our shoppers and present a product ad, we’re going to show that same person, that same audience, one of our enterprise campaigns, which is designed to drive traffic,” Monahan said.
Albertsons’ enterprise campaigns are mainly division-level, he noted, adding that they’ll usually be seasonal marketing campaigns.
The media toolkit program will also introduce three ad channels to Albertsons’ ad partners: social media influencers, in-store screens and onsite as well as in-app placements, according to the blog post.
The first channel connects Albertsons’ CPG partners with content creators, which the grocer said can lead to the creation of more authentic, influencer-style content to attract consumers. The second offering lets advertisers tap into Albertsons’ new in-store media network to access premium screen placements. The last channel gives CPGs the ability to place ads on Albertsons’ app and website, allowing ad partners to better connect with active and engaged shoppers, per the blog post.
The frequency of how often a consumer sees an ad or media campaign is the main fuel of this initiative because it helps lead to purchase intent, brand preference and purchases, according to Monahan.
“The more that we can speak to the same person in the same window of time in the context of their shopping needs, the more we think we can drive return on ad spend,” Monahan said.
The toolkit fits in well with Albertsons’ integrated retail media strategy, Monahan said. The company has worked over the years to string together its retail media mediums — from its app to CTV to in-store digital signage — so it can present trusted, recognizable brands to its customers in a meaningful fashion. From there, Albertsons can then layer on its own activity at the enterprise level, like its newest BOGO-esque CPG media package, and fuel collective growth, according to Monahan.
When Kristi Argyilan was still running Albertsons’ retail media arm, establishing a retail media standardization framework was a pinnacle of the company’s efforts, solidifying its place as an industry leader in this space. And Monahan doesn’t plan to leave this work behind.
Ad partners who opt in to use Albertsons’ new media toolkit will be shown key performance metrics, including an overview of their overall sales tracking, exposure and, specifically from Albertsons’ Media Collective, collective impressions and attributed outcome metrics, Monahan said.
Monahan said he expects this latest retail media initiative to prove the most effective through off-site channels like CTV, as this is where the majority of Albertsons’ enterprise activity already plays out.
While Albertsons announced this initiative as a limited-time offering, Monahan anticipates it will become a long-term strategy for Albertsons Media Collective. But first, Albertsons will monitor how the media toolkit plays out in the back half of this year, he said.
