Shopper marketing, a longtime favorite of CPGs typically used for in-store signage or to get products on eye-level shelves, is undergoing a massive transformation thanks to the spread of ecommerce and online shops.
Of the $178 billion marketers spend annually on in-store marketing, $55 billion could shift from traditional retail trade marketing to online ads, according to the US Grocer Site Monetization report released this month by Gartner’s L2 market research group.
Some of this activity is driven by availability, as retailers like Walmart, Target and Kroger’s have launched programmatic ad platforms so brands carried by the stores can target known shoppers as well as drive and attribute in-store sales.
And it’s working. Kellogg’s is investing more of its shopper marketing in retailer-owned ad platforms, programmatic and social media, said Gail Horwood, senior VP of global marketing.
Retail ad platforms have an especially strong shopper marketing pitch because brands typically assign shopper marketers to a specific retailer, said Nishat Mehta, president of media at the retail advertising and data consultancy IRI.
A brand shopper marketer assigned to, say, Kroger or Target could spend on that respective retailer’s platform and feel confident the target audience will end up shopping at that chain and not with some other grocer where he or she doesn’t get credit.
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