One of in-store retail media’s earliest incarnations—the Best Buy “TV Wall”—was introduced in 2011 as a way for national brands to reach shoppers in a high-visibility, high-attention and high-intent environment. Often serving as extensions of national brands’ TV ad campaigns, TV wall ad buys lean into mid- and upper-funnel marketing objectives like awareness and aren’t just about driving a purchase on that shopping visit.
In this era of media fragmentation, the number of true common cultural touchstones is dwindling. Outside of major tentpole events like the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the Oscars, physical stores are among the last remaining bastions that can quickly deliver tens of millions of eyeballs.
The top U.S. retailers have a unique audience reach of 100 million per month, on par with the top broadcast TV networks. They also reach the “unreachables,” the coveted “money demo” that now barely watches linear TV. And unlike social or programmatic, retail ad inventory offers scarcity and brand safety in a premium environment. These branding benefits come with the bonus of contextual relevance and proximity to the point of purchase.
The smartest brands already get this. Go into virtually any retail store with digital screens and you’re likely to see Apple ads. It’s not just at retailers where Apple products are sold, but also in grocery stores and drug stores nationwide.
National brand budgets—not shopper marketing—should fund in-store ads
Stunningly, many brands still fail to see the big picture, relegating in-store media to shopper marketing—or comparatively tiny digital out-of-home—budgets. This massive channel isn’t even on the radar of most national brand teams, nor do they have strategists with an in-store media remit. Organizational dynamics are getting in the way of what should matter most to brands: marketing effectiveness.
Emerging media channels are often held back by the lack of inventory scale and measurement to justify large investments from national brands. This has certainly been true of connected TV, which wasn’t counted in Nielsen TV ratings and has had minimal ad-supported inventory until recently. Now measurement is catching up right as Netflix, Prime Video and Apple TV+ embrace ad-supported models.
In-store retail media isn’t lacking in reach, and recent advances are delivering scalable sales lift measurement and in-store audience metrics. We are one step closer to the in-store equivalent of Nielsen TV ratings, which would facilitate the movement of national media investment. Additionally, the tech is adopting some of the advancements of digital, such as programmatic targeting and closed-loop measurement, and has the potential to generate new customer and brand opportunities that integrate natively with shoppers’ smartphones, opening richer app, loyalty and promotional experiences akin to shoppable ads on CTV. So, the eventual impact could be far greater than just content and ads on screens in stores.
