Ocado Retail, the UK’s fastest-growing retail grocer, has launched a new retail media network, Ocado Ads.
Ocado’s online-only retailing model gives Ocado Ads a unique differentiator in the UK market. Ocado Retail has extensive first-party customer data, enabling brands to target customers at scale with relevant advertising based on purchase history, reach a verified audience for advertisers and show the measurement associated with campaigns in its ‘closed-loop’ environment.
Retail Media is growing fast in the UK and advertising spend in the UK expected to double by 2027.
Ocado Ads are promising five different elements in their retail media proposition to advertisers:
- Full Funnel Retail Media: Advertisers can tap into opportunities across the entire customer journey, from onsite to offsite placements, including social media and connected TV ads. This multi-channel approach ensures brands can reach customers at various touchpoints.
- Ocado Ads Manager: Powered by Zitcha, this feature offers a complete suite of tools for managing effective campaigns. Whether brands prefer self-service or a fully managed solution, the platform can be tailored to suit various needs.
- Ocado Insights & Measurement: Through the self-serve insights platform Beet, advertisers gain access to powerful analytics and performance tracking. The platform includes a metrics roadmap aligned with IAB standards, providing a high level of accuracy in measuring campaign outcomes.
- Ocado Audiences: Brands now have the option to engage Ocado’s customer base more effectively by building custom audiences and utilising offsite targeting options.
- Ocado Innovation: The Ocado NPD Lab provides an opportunity for rapid new product development. Through A/B testing and creative optimisation, advertisers can test their products in real-time to determine what resonates most with consumers.
Ocado Ads offers more than the typical retail media list of advertising options: the retailer is leaning in on being the home of ‘test and learn’ for brands and agencies. This approach differentiates itself by being adaptable and flexible, offering advertisers the ability to experiment and refine their strategies. The advertising platform opens the door for advertisers to explore offsite audience extensions and test new product development ideas faster than ever before.
“Ocado Ads is raising the bar for Retail Media,” says Jack Johnson, head of Ocado Ads at Ocado Retail. . We encourage all our suppliers to grow with us and so we’ve created Ocado Ads with a view to providing another growth engine for brands. Ocado has been an innovative and disruptive force in the industry since its creation and we believe this will boost our approach to Retail Media.”
Johnson adds: “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.”
Ocado Ads is partnering with fast-growing Australian retail media tech vendor to build out Ocado Ads capabilities. Zitcha CEO, Troy Townsend, says: “Ocado is spearheading the use of our joint business planning tools and will be the first in EMEA to access Zitcha’s single customer-view platform, where it can manage its network to scale and deliver against its bottom line. By seamlessly integrating, Zitcha can expand current capabilities and unlock new ones.
Speaking about the partnership with Ocado, Townsend adds: “It’s exciting to partner with the world’s largest online grocery retailer and help integrate the entire business around its Retail Media Network. We are building out cross-functional capability and offering full visibility on the planning and delivery of Retail Media for the whole business. The Ocado partnership illustrates how our platform can empower an existing Retail Media Network to drive growth and maximise performance.”
Ocado Ads signals a shift in how retail media is approached in the grocery sector: instead of just a menu of advertising units, they are offering a suite of tools for advertisers to draw from, and doubling down on what they are good at. Given the level of competition for the advertising pound in the UK, more and more retail media networks will have to differentiate their proposition just like Ocado Ad are doing.
