Retail Media Networks have been set-up all over the world. It’s not just the US or Europe – there is lots of innovation in Retail Media Networks in Latin America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand – and we are going to profile some of them here on Internet Retailing.
This week’s profile is the newest Retail Media Network just launched in the UK – Ocado Ads.
Ocado has been a dedicated online grocer in the UK for almost two decades, built from the outset as an online-only brand with no high street presence. As the UK’s first online grocery delivery supermarket, offering 100% home delivery, Ocado revolutionised how people in the UK shopped for groceries online. Ocado has always been known as a challenger—a disruptor to the mainstream UK grocery business.
Ocado Retail is an online only grocery business – a joint-venture between Marks & Spencer and Ocado Group. The key to understanding Ocado Retail is to understand its logistics. In contrast to its main competitors, the company has no chain of stores and does all home deliveries from its warehouses. The Ocado Retail proposition is based on a unique fulfilment and logistics machine. Ocado claims ‘everything we do is designed to give customers the best service possible’.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗼 𝗔𝗱𝘀 ‘𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱’?
Ocado Retail is online only. This mean one thing that is very important in Retail Media: extensive reliable, first-party data, verified audiences. This delivers the capability for Ocado Ads to do real ‘closed-loop’ campaigns with proper measurement.
What is included in the Ocado Ads proposition?
- 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 Ocado Ads is promising advertisers that they attract and convert right across the entire customer journey, from onsite to offsite placements, including social media and CTV advertising.
- 𝗢𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗼 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿: Powered by Zitcha, a complete suite of tools for managing campaigns. Advertisers can choose self-serve or fully managed to suit. Managing Retail Media campaigns is not easy for brands or retailers. Many are just collections of spreadsheets. Scaling requires self-serve and good management tools – this is what Ocado Ads is providing.
- 𝗢𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 & 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Ocado already had a suite of self-serve tools for suppliers to analyse what is using existing self-serve insights platform. These tools are called “Beet by Ocado” and are now rolled under the Ocado Ads umbrella. Again, these are self-serve.
- O𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗼 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: Ocado Ads allows brands and agencies to build custom audiences and utilising offsite targeting options. Again, this is self-serve based on an existing partnership with the Trade Desk
- 𝗢𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Ocado already have a reputation for innovation and rapid NPD. They offer advertising and logistics products to test products in real-time to determine what works with shoppers.
Ocado Ads, Self-Serve and Retail Media
Most RMNS in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are not self-serve like the way most networks in the US are.
The language used in their press release announcing Ocado Ads points to how they are positioning around self-service. Jack Johnson, head of Ocado Ads at Ocado Retail. says: Ocado Ads has a flexible operating model that challenges the one-size-fits-all approach of traditional retail media networks. Whether you’re an advertiser or an agency, you can ‘have it your way’: fully self-serve, completely managed, or anywhere in between.”
The vendor behind Ocado Ads Manager is Zitcha, and, unsurprisingly, they are big proponents of self-serve. CEO Troy Townsend talking about the value of self-service capabilities says that “self-service is the future of retail media. It empowers brands and agencies to take control of their campaigns, optimise in real-time, and drive efficiency. A unified platform that can support planning, execution, and measurement across all channels is essential for retailers looking to stay ahead.”
Once Retail Media moves beyond its initial growth spurt, pressure will come for further growth. This growth can come from more distribution: this is the route the Google and Meta started with their advertising networks all those years ago. They started their business with self-serve and scaled exponentially thereafter. Retail Media Networks must follow in these footsteps – and this is where Ocado Ads has a real differentiator.
Self-serve also extends to data and insights: a Retail Media Network can be valuable to advertisers if an advertiser can access all the metrics, they need within a platform instead of connecting the dots across different dashboards. Ocado Ads is promising brands can “grow with Ocado and build a strategy using insights” from their insights tools – which again, are self-serve.
Ocado innovation
One of the benefits that digital advertising brought was access to lower cost advertising capabilities that could be used by smaller brands. This is also one of the promises of Retail Media – but for a different purpose: product innovation.
Retail Media can be used to shorten the product innovation cycle because Retail Media advertising can enable new products to be put ‘in front’ of shoppers at a much lower cost than getting shelf space in store. Shopper reaction to new products can be measured in real time and insights can be gather to ‘test, learn and improve’. The reduction of cycles mean cost and failures can be reduced.
Retailers want new product innovations to stimulate shoppers and improve their share of wallet. Smaller brands have the innovative products that shoppers want. Retail Media can provide the bridge between the two.
However, what has been missing is the ‘bridge’ between the two: a combination of insights, tools, advertising and measurement to enable innovations to test, learn and improve in real time. With Ocado Ads. aadvertisers can leverage the Ocado NPD Lab for fast NPD and use A/B testing to optimise creative performance. This is a real USP that is not available in any other RMN.
What’s next for Ocado Ads?
Next for Ocado Ads is to deliver on their promises around growth and innovation. The focus on flexible operating models with self-serve and managed service options as well as insights and innovation means that the business is already positioned to take on the existing UK Retail Media big names such as Tesco Media and Insights and Sainsburys Nectar 360.
