Steve Smith, Chief Commercial Officer, savi explores how FMCG brands can got on-board with retail media by setting up their own pop-up networks
Retail media may be rewiring the relationship between FMCG brands and retailers as investment and innovative capabilities are poured into stores and commerce networks, yet for FMCG brands the retail media revolution presents a complex eco-system to navigate.
With notable exceptions, many retailers are working hard to reposition what was once a straightforward trade marketing relationship into a sophisticated media proposition.
Many retail media networks (RMNs) now span the full consumer journey – from digital display ads on ecommerce sites, to in-store digital signage and personalised loyalty promotions, enabling the possibility of full omnichannel campaigns.
RMNs promise a closed loop of media touchpoints fuelled by data, enhanced performance across the customer journey, better attribution and return on advertising spend (ROAS), and sophisticated measures of incrementality. From an FMCG point of view, it’s a magnetic proposition.
Independent innovation
Data collaboration, unifying complimentary sets of shopper insights from a range of sources has become a focal point for innovation and experimentation in retail media.
Given that most brands are seeking to reach the maximum number of consumers reached nationally, marketers might ask if it is possible to independently create a retail media effect across all media channels but also aligned with retail media campaigns – leveraging and creating rich data and insights that can also be used to optimise retail media investments in real time or in the future?
Promotions as a brand builder
The answer to that question is yes. But it will require a shift in the way brands think about the use of promotions in their brand marketing. Marketing promotions offers FMCG brands a mechanism and whereby independent campaigns can do in effect do the same job as retail media. It’s worth setting out why promotions as a sales and brand advertising driver needs a fundamental rethink.
Historically, the job of brand advertising has been to create awareness and affinity, while promotions were pigeon-holedto the world of shopper marketing. But that distinction is becoming increasingly obsolete.
Consumers – particularly younger, more cost-conscious audiences – are increasingly responsive to brands that offer promotions as part of the emotional exchange. According to multiple studies, value-driven messaging enhances brand equity when done well, creating positive associations beyond simple price discounting.
Seeking value for money is for many now a way of life. savi’s annual study of consumer attitudes carried out in late 2024 found 57% of shoppers said coupons have the most impact on how and where they shop, and nearly a 1 in 5 said that coupons are saving them at least £20 a month. Other influences include loyalty schemes (53%) and discount codes (42%).
Having grown up in a perennial cost of living crisis, GenZ shoppers are particularly cost conscious and disloyal. They seem to be happy to mix the emotional with the practical.
Nor do they respect the status of heritage brands. Coca-Cola has been particularly cognisant of the need to win each generation of consumers and is using value as a core mechanic in advertising, for example for Coke Zero turning a combination of DOOH advertising, gamification, and mobile coupons into a mass sampling device that resulted in record trials of the product and the approval this audience.
savi’s study increasingly points to the importance of digital promotions – especially mobile-delivered ones – which amongst GenZ are now seen as standard. They expect them and collect multiple coupons from many different brands to the extent that 90% of 18-25-year-olds say they are now more likely to try a product if they have a coupon for it. Across all age groups, 70% say they have used mobile coupons on their smartphone to redeem offers.
Loyalty to one retailer is no longer a given, and for younger shoppers in particular, the ability to access instant value across platforms and brands is often a more powerful driver of engagement than traditional loyalty schemes. So much so that Gen Z consumers are willing to follow offers across supermarkets with 80% consumers saying they would consider switching supermarket if their preferred store did not accept their coupons – a figure that was still 2/3rds across all shoppers.
In this context it makes sense to challenge marketing orthodoxies that suggest promotional activity damages brands by testing the dynamic between consumer desires and needs against brand affinity, sales, and profit.
The pop-up RMN
By strategically integrating mobile-first promotions into creative concepts and early-stage media planning, FMCG brands can run brand activity that complements direct investment in retail networks.
Connecting the offer featured in a campaign to mobile coupons via QR codes not only makes the marketing funnel stickier (connecting upper and lower funnel), it also makes it quicker for consumers to pass from brand message to purchase. Given the proliferation of channels and mixed marketing messages – securing and keeping consumers’ share of mind to winning their share of wallet is vital before they lose them to the next thing.
This activity ideally should be complimentary to anything going on with the retailer, for example, a retailer could take advantage of incremental footfall / purchase opportunity delivered by brand promotions by running the campaign in store and online at the same time. All a retailer needs to do is accept the offer.
Enabling consumers to activate offers from say, an ad on TikTok, Instagram, connected TV or digital OOH, not only enhances measurable response rates but crucially allows a brand to collect behavioural and sales data and measure media performance across channels across the market. Brands can start to answer previously murky questions. Like which retailers, formats, channels etc. work best for different segments?
By running full funnel promotions through their own advertising channels, FMCG brands can create a direct feedback loop. Each scanned QR code, claimed offer or redeemed coupon, becomes a data point: a signal about media effectiveness, consumer behaviour, and sales attribution. When this is structured properly, it can support and enhancethe functionality of RMN.
The mindset shift required
Of course, for many FMCG marketers, this is a significant departure from the norm. Price promotions have traditionally been siloed under trade marketing, often negotiated retailer by retailer, with the brand’s role largely passive. Integrating promotions into above-the-line campaigns requires a more holistic, consumer-first approach, and of course strategic business planning.
It also requires closer collaboration between brand, media, and promotional strategy teams – ensuring that creative assets are designed not just to build awareness, but to convert. This means embedding value into the creative idea, not bolting it on at the end. It may also involve technology partners capable of bridging the gap between media channels and redemption mechanics in-store or online.
Two lanes are better than one
To be clear, this isn’t a case of RMNs versus brand-owned activations. There’s a case for both.
Retailer media platforms offer unmatched access to audiences at the point of decision, and FMCG brands should absolutely continue to invest in them—particularly as RMNs evolve towards better standards and accountability. But they should do so with open eyes, recognising the limitations around consumer choice, creative control, data access and measurement.
By complementing RMN campaigns with brand-owned, media-integrated promotional activity, brands can create a dual-lane strategy: one that delivers reach, relevance and value for both them, their retail partners and importantly consumers.
You are in: Home » Retail Media » GUEST COMMENT How FMCG brands can create their own pop-up RMNs through traditional advertising
GUEST COMMENT How FMCG brands can create their own pop-up RMNs through traditional advertising
Paul Skeldon
Steve Smith, Chief Commercial Officer, savi explores how FMCG brands can got on-board with retail media by setting up their own pop-up networks
Retail media may be rewiring the relationship between FMCG brands and retailers as investment and innovative capabilities are poured into stores and commerce networks, yet for FMCG brands the retail media revolution presents a complex eco-system to navigate.
With notable exceptions, many retailers are working hard to reposition what was once a straightforward trade marketing relationship into a sophisticated media proposition.
Many retail media networks (RMNs) now span the full consumer journey – from digital display ads on ecommerce sites, to in-store digital signage and personalised loyalty promotions, enabling the possibility of full omnichannel campaigns.
RMNs promise a closed loop of media touchpoints fuelled by data, enhanced performance across the customer journey, better attribution and return on advertising spend (ROAS), and sophisticated measures of incrementality. From an FMCG point of view, it’s a magnetic proposition.
Independent innovation
Data collaboration, unifying complimentary sets of shopper insights from a range of sources has become a focal point for innovation and experimentation in retail media.
Given that most brands are seeking to reach the maximum number of consumers reached nationally, marketers might ask if it is possible to independently create a retail media effect across all media channels but also aligned with retail media campaigns – leveraging and creating rich data and insights that can also be used to optimise retail media investments in real time or in the future?
Promotions as a brand builder
The answer to that question is yes. But it will require a shift in the way brands think about the use of
sFMCG brands a mechanism and whereby independentHistorically, the job of brand advertising has been to create awareness and affinity, while promotions were pigeon-holedto the world of shopper marketing. But that distinction is becoming increasingly obsolete.
Consumers – particularly younger, more cost-conscious audiences – are increasingly responsive to brands that offer promotions as part of the emotional exchange. According to multiple studies, value-driven messaging enhances brand equity when done well, creating positive associations beyond simple price discounting.
Seeking value for money is for many now a way of life. savi’s annual study of consumer attitudes carried out in late 2024 found 57% of shoppers said coupons have the most impact on how and where they shop, and nearly a 1 in 5 said that coupons are saving them at least £20 a month. Other influences include loyalty schemes (53%) and discount codes (42%).
Having grown up in a perennial cost of living crisis, GenZ shoppers are particularly cost conscious and disloyal. They seem to be happy to mix the emotional with the practical.
Nor do they respect the status of heritage brands. Coca-Cola has been particularly cognisant of the need to win each generation of consumers and is using value as a core mechanic in advertising, for example for Coke Zero turning a combination of DOOH advertising, gamification, and mobile coupons into a mass sampling device that resulted in record trials of the product and the approval this audience.
savi’s study increasingly points to the importance of digital promotions – especially mobile-delivered ones – which amongst GenZ are now seen as standard. They expect them and collect multiple coupons from many different brands to the extent that 90% of 18-25-year-olds say they are now more likely to try a product if they have a coupon for it. Across all age groups, 70% say they have used mobile coupons on their smartphone to redeem offers.
Loyalty to one retailer is no longer a given, and for younger shoppers in particular, the ability to access instant value across platforms and brands is often a more powerful driver of engagement than traditional loyalty schemes. So much so that Gen Z consumers are willing to follow offers across supermarkets with 80% consumers saying they would consider switching supermarket if their preferred store did not accept their coupons – a figure that was still 2/3rds across all shoppers.
In this context it makes sense to challenge marketing orthodoxies that suggest promotional activity damages brands by testing the dynamic between consumer desires and needs against brand affinity, sales, and profit.
The pop-up RMN
By strategically integrating mobile-first promotions into creative concepts and early-stage media planning, FMCG brands can run brand activity that complements direct investment in retail networks.
Connecting the offer featured in a campaign to mobile coupons via QR codes not only makes the marketing funnel stickier (connecting upper and lower funnel), it also makes it quicker for consumers to pass from brand message to purchase. Given the proliferation of channels and mixed marketing messages – securing and keeping consumers’ share of mind to winning their share of wallet is vital before they lose them to the next thing.
This activity ideally should be complimentary to anything going on with the retailer, for example, a retailer could take advantage of incremental footfall / purchase opportunity delivered by brand promotions by running the campaign in store and online at the same time. All a retailer needs to do is accept the offer.
Enabling consumers to activate offers from say, an ad on TikTok, Instagram, connected TV or digital OOH, not only enhances measurable response rates but crucially allows a brand to collect behavioural and sales data and measure media performance across channels across the market. Brands can start to answer previously murky questions. Like which retailers, formats, channels etc. work best for different segments?
By running full funnel promotions through their own advertising channels, FMCG brands can create a direct feedback loop. Each scanned QR code, claimed offer or redeemed coupon, becomes a data point: a signal about media effectiveness, consumer behaviour, and sales attribution. When this is structured properly, it can support and enhancethe functionality of RMN.
The mindset shift required
Of course, for many FMCG marketers, this is a significant departure from the norm. Price promotions have traditionally been siloed under trade marketing, often negotiated retailer by retailer, with the brand’s role largely passive. Integrating promotions into above-the-line campaigns requires a more holistic, consumer-first approach, and of course strategic business planning.
It also requires closer collaboration between brand, media, and promotional strategy teams – ensuring that creative assets are designed not just to build awareness, but to convert. This means embedding value into the creative idea, not bolting it on at the end. It may also involve technology partners capable of bridging the gap between media channels and redemption mechanics in-store or online.
Two lanes are better than one
To be clear, this isn’t a case of RMNs versus brand-owned activations. There’s a case for both.
Retailer media platforms offer unmatched access to audiences at the point of decision, and FMCG brands should absolutely continue to invest in them—particularly as RMNs evolve towards better standards and accountability. But they should do so with open eyes, recognising the limitations around consumer choice, creative control, data access and measurement.
By complementing RMN campaigns with brand-owned, media-integrated promotional activity, brands can create a dual-lane strategy: one that delivers reach, relevance and value for both them, their retail partners and importantly consumers.
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