From ecommerce to physical shops, advertising conquers shopping locations

In America they have christened it the battle of the screens. Which then hides the one for the attention of a connected and distracted consumer. It is contested between the two giants Amazon and Walmart. The latter has entered the competitive arena by challenging the Seattle giant to a singular tussle with the acquisition of Vizio, a TV manufacturer that currently ranks ninth in the world market. A transaction worth $11.50 per share for a total of $2.3 billion. A transfer of ownership that not only concerns televisions, but also the platform that has 18 million active accounts and carries advertising messages. Once again we are moving towards the media company. 'Between companies and publishers, it's the upside-down world of media,' Joshua Benton, head of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, had said in the past. But today there is something more. Walmart wants to create new opportunities to connect advertisers with customers by offering innovative ways that include in-home entertainment. After all, in retail spending it wants to reduce the lead of Amazon, which has a 37 per cent share in electronics and appliances, while Walmart's share is 6 per cent.

Thus, retail media guides choices, strengthens relationships and builds customer loyalty. Retail media is a form of advertising in which brands pay to position themselves in privileged spaces within retail platforms, both online and in physical shops. This approach transforms retail outlets into advertising channels, allowing brands to reach consumers at the point of purchase. In the digital sphere, this includes advertisements on e-commerce sites while in physical shops, it includes advertising displays and dedicated shelves. The potential market by 2025 will be worth $130 billion, according to Morgan Stanley analysts, accounting for 25 per cent of total online advertising expenditure. Europe already invests EUR 7.9 billion and by 2027 it will reach EUR 25 billion according to Iab-Statista. Currently, the segment's weight in digital advertising is 10% (with Italy more or less in line at 9%), but it will rise to 21.5% in the next three years. A game that is being played across the board, not only on digital. "We live in a hyper-communication context that requires companies to capture the attention of consumers. Retail media abroad has developed considerably, but also in Italy there is ferment: several brands are testing strategies, projects, alliances. It is an approach that involves different corporate functions and multidisciplinary teams. This is definitely new," says Vittorio Cino, Director of Centromarca, an Italian association of the brand industry that has also decided to launch an observatory to monitor the development of retail media, which is becoming relevant throughout the supply chain, from analogue to digital channels. "Creating customised content to intercept a specific and interested shopper is an advantage that no one today can afford to underestimate. An advantage that - in the case of retail media - depends on having detailed data on shopper behaviour provided by retailers. It can enable targeted messages to be delivered with precision and increased conversions,' Cino points out.

At the centre is the value of data at a time of transition from third-party to first-party. "For retailers this is new business. In a cookieless advertising market, first-party data will become a valuable commodity for those who want to connect with the consumer. And retailers have a wealth of customer information to build personalised and potentially winning communication. There is also the advantage of measuring the return on investment compared to traditional media and the impact on the media mix,' says Cino. In America, Amazon, Walmart, Kroger have taken the field. In Europe, brands such as Leclerc, Alcampo, Asda, Lidl, Rewe, MediaMarkt, Sephora and Carrefour, which recently signed an agreement with Publicis creating Unlimitail, the first retail media centre allowing integrated management of the offer. Then there is the alliance between Tesco and Dunnhumby, a leader in customer data science applied to retailers. Thus communication becomes vertical, personalised and potentially winning. The added value is in the data with tailored formats and messages. "Investing in retail media pays off because of an unprecedented mix of opportunities and criticalities. The first is called data, the second is related to disturbances in the connection of brands with the disoriented consumer in an overabundance of stimuli. Re-establishing a connection is the mission and retail media is the solution,' says Alberto Mattiacci, professor of economics at La Sapienza University and coordinator of the marketing area at the Luiss Business School. A new generation of marketers is emerging. "This new era of post-consumer relations requires a new mentality and the recovery of basic skills such as those related to research, as well as the integration of digital ones. If there is value in the proposition, the consumer rewards it. But we must overcome the mistakes of the past, when marketing was annihilated in favour of commercial results,' says Mattiacci. Authenticity and transparency: these are the compasses that must guide the new phase of commerce.

"Retail media has a very high potential. It allows to interface with the modern consumer who experiences hybrid and non-linear purchase paths between online and offline. If approached with a strategic approach, based on the collaboration between retailer and manufacturer, it can represent a true gamechanger for declining data-driven strategies in an even more profiled manner, systemising the value of knowledge of consumer purchasing behaviour," says Igor Nuzzi, Regional Director Italy and Iberia of Lavazza. "We need to invest on two fronts: technologies to facilitate the processing of complex data and the development of transversal skills," says Nuzzi.

"Retail media reaches consumers at the moment of purchase and will inevitably become the focus of digital advertising," says Francesco Pastore, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer of Sofidel, a giant producer of paper for hygienic and household use. "We started a data intelligence project that allows us to retrieve data from different sources and make data-driven decisions. With an omnichannel approach for each of our campaigns we give retail media specific conversion targets. In the UK we experimented with advanced approaches, such as the launch of the new product Regina Soft Bambo. The integrated campaign generated a doubling of sales compared to a traditional one,' Pastore points out.