Did you know that Platform 195 has a podcast? Called Retail Media Moguls, it brings together the best minds in the retail media industry, examining current trends and investigating how companies can leverage their retail media presence for accelerated growth.
In a recent episode, Platform 195’s founder, Stuart Adamson sat down with Anthony Bridges, Head of Platforms at the company, to discuss the importance of data, technology and strategic planning when it comes to retail media success. Anthony and Stuart met when both were working at Thomas Cook in 2015, where Anthony built out the technology that scaled Thomas Cook's retail media business to over $ 100 million US.
After several years working together at Thomas Cook the company folded in 2019, and Anthony and Stuart decided to take their experience and expertise and use it to build a tool that other retail businesses could use to scale their retail media operations - the Uplift platform. Anthony explains the three key elements that make up the platform, “We had the experience and knowledge to know what to build and how to build it to monetize e-commerce sites. Number one was making sure our ad server, Uplift Ads, worked seamlessly and loaded rapidly so as not to negatively impact the customer experience. Number two was working out how to activate audience extension seamlessly – connecting into the leading paid media channels such as DSPs (Demand Side Platforms) and social advertising platforms, building those integrations. Number three was servicing campaigns. Inventory management is a huge challenge for retailers – everything involved in campaign management like automated screenshots, all of those reporting pain points that crop up as you scale.” He continues, “We built to solve those problems, which we have experienced ourselves. So we knew where to start with Uplift as a platform, and we adapt to meet our client's requirements.”
"With the audiences that we've got, and with the data that we've got, how can we run effective campaigns for all of our suppliers?"
One of the biggest challenges retailers have is selecting the right technology for their retail media organisation. As Anthony points out, “It's very challenging for retailers to decide what they need in terms of technology – you've got CRM tech, order management, inventory management, campaign management, you've got self-service portals, ad tech for all of your on-site ad serving, audience extension using data platforms…” the list is a long one! “We try and solve those use cases [for our clients], alongside working with the leading tech platforms designed for retail media.”
With a reliable platform secured to support their efforts in everything from serving ads to reporting, what do retailers need to do next to maximize their opportunities in retail media?
Stuart discusses three key areas where retailers can look for growth:
As Stuart explains, “A key area for retailers to focus on is how to drive incremental bigger deals from their biggest suppliers, the ones that come to them every year with decent-sized budgets. How do you grow these through effectiveness, creative solutions, datafied media solutions, automating activity, so these relationships are optimised and strong.”
The second piece of the puzzle is the longtail of suppliers with small budgets, how do retailers scale that part of their business? The key is in automation, everything from the integrations to reporting, and inventory management. As Anthony explains, “Increasingly, when retailers are realising that when they start monetising their long tail suppliers they don't have enough inventory on their own platforms, so the question becomes, with the audiences that we've got, and with the data that we've got, how can we run effective campaigns for all of our suppliers? I think that's where retail media is heading.”
As retailers scale their operations, creating the ability for campaign managers to have a single platform where they're able to go on and capture all the elements they need for reporting is key. As Stuart says, “We’ve been able to do this with our Uplift platform, it's a really strong tool.”
Of course, data is key to the success of any retail media operation, and evolving questions around privacy and protection are creating new challenges weekly. As Anthony says, “The retail media industry is evolving rapidly, including the challenges that businesses face around monetizing their audiences and their data. You need a plan, you need to understand your audiences and you need to understand how much data you have, and the future-proof position you need to take to ensure you can still monetize your media assets and your audiences years from now. Planning is certainly key in terms of making investments – things like data clean rooms are becoming more important but they are expensive technologies. Retailers need to look for opportunities where they can proof of concept these things now and plan for where the industry is heading over the next 12 months.”
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