As retail media commands an ever greater share of overall ad spend its even more important that its used effectively.
This means it should be used to drive brand growth.
Brand growth means growth in sales, share and profitability but above all, growth in new users.
The key metrics are therefore user (or customer) numbers and brand penetration (within the target audience of a geography, retailer or media entity).
In order to grow penetration, brands have to grow their "physical availability" and their "mental availability" whilst ensuring they are competitive on key brand attributes (eg taste, smell, performance, price etc)
Physical availability or brand presence is the priority as this plays a key role in driving mental availability (the reverse is not true) and so the first thing to consider is the extent to which retail media can be used to build brand distribution or presence.
This could mean linking retail media spend to support distribution extensions, off shelf display or greater prominence on the digital shelf.
Growing "mental availability" is best achieved by optimising the number of people who can see the ad or activation - the focus should be (cost effective) reach - and reach should be prioritised over frequency - better that a lot of people see the ad or activation once, than a few people see it several times.
Ads and activations should emphasise the brand's distinctive assets (colours, icons, fonts, jingles etc) first and foremost - consistency is key here - so that other ad placements whether they be instore, out of home or on TV (as well as the brand's packaging) reinforce each other.
Wherever possible they should be "always on" - think branded shelves, top row of the digital grid, first place on the retailer's app, high prominence on magazines, playing on the instore radio - especially if the brand has a distinctive jingle or sound.
Its better to spread activity over a year so that the ad or activation is always visible to new users, especially infrequent ones, rather than concentrate it in bursts. This is because most users are not in the market most of the time and so bursts have high wastage.
Where the retailer enables audience or user targeting,then these tools should be used to target new and light users rather than "heavy/loyal buyers" (bear in mind that today's "heavy/loyal buyers" are tomorrow's light buyers and vice versa). There are very few, if any, 100% loyal brand users, so don't worry about precise targeting. Your customers are your competition's customers who occasionally buy you. Best therefore to target all category users and to find ways to bring new users into the category.
Audience data can be very useful to validate what activities are most successful at attracting new users. The key here is to test and learn and to get to know new users and the activities that converted them.
As in all media buying, you should negotiate to get the best deal, and don't over pay. But this means you need to know what works and to be able to ascribe a value to it.
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