Ahold Delhaize USA, Instacart expand retail media offerings

Two major grocery entities are adding to the functionality of their retail media networks.

Both Ahold Delhaize USA and Instacart are building out their existing retail media networks, which enable CPG advertisers to directly target shoppers with personalized, time- and context-sensitive ads and have access to key customer metrics. Following is more detail on each initiative.

Ahold Delhaize USA
Peapod Digital Labs, the digital, e-commerce and commercial company of Ahold Delhaize USA, will grow its AD Retail Media network by building an end-to-end, in-house retail media business. With this move, Peapod Digital Labs will offer new strategic partnerships and expanded capabilities, including:

• Launching a unified on-site and off-site platform to deliver a single point of activation and measurement.
• Leveraging proprietary data to create more targeted ads and improve returns on ad spend.
• Enabling one dashboard for transparently measured campaign results spanning transactions made on-site and across the web; and,
• Enhancing self-serve control to reach customers in a streamlined, targeted way.

As part of the transition, AD Retail Media will transition to the CitrusAd retail media network platform, powered by Epsilon. AD Retail Media will also partner with LiveRamp Safe Haven as a data collaboration solution and continue to use Quotient as its digital coupon provider.

Together, the brands of Ahold Delhaize USA operate more than 2,000 stores, process more than 23 million transactions per week, have nearly 24 million active loyalty card users and total more than $51 billion in annual sales across the East Coast.

“Retail media is already a sizable percentage of total advertising spend – with forecasts showing it will continue to grow significantly,” said JJ Fleeman, president, Peapod Digital Labs. “By bringing AD Retail Media in-house, we will create a connected go-to-market offering for CPGs, grounded in new capabilities, simplicity and value generation. As the space continues to grow, we’re proud to invest in retail media to continue to propel our companies – and our CPG partners – forward.”

“These new partnerships are the beginning of many new capabilities that AD Retail Media will bring to market in 2023 and beyond,” said Fleeman. “Through the enhanced network, we expect our partners will be able to create more relevant, measurable, real-time campaigns that produce greater ROI both for the CPG and the customer.” 

[Read more: Ahold Delhaize USA expands CPG promotional platform]

Instacart
Grocery technology company Instacart is enhancing the ad buying experience in Ads Manager, the company’s self-service portal. Instacart’s CPG brand partners can now start campaign creation by choosing an objective, which is intended to streamline their ad setup by reorienting their campaign around their specific goals.

Brands choosing “reach,” “engage,” or “maximize sales” with their campaigns in the new Ads Manager framework will see tailored recommendations for the ad formats, targeting, and bidding options to help them achieve their campaign goals.

As part of the new Ads Manager experience, Instacart also announced the availability of shoppable video ads, initially piloted in spring 2022, for all brand partners. Shoppable video ads combine immersive rich media creative with a set of in-line shoppable products.

Shoppable videos on Instacart autoplay with sound off and can be between three and 30 seconds long; advertisers can select and pin three to 20 directly shoppable products from their portfolios with Instacart’s seamless add-to-cart functionality. The new ad unit can also drive consumers to a custom landing page or product detail page.

“Over the last year, we’ve built multiple new ad formats to enable brands to drive impact on Instacart by deploying a comprehensive suite of ad solutions,” said Ali Miller, VP of ad products at Instacart. “Today marks a significant next step in our ad platform’s evolution by making this new format fully available, alongside a new Ads Manager buying experience that helps brands align their campaign setup with business results that matter. We’re excited to continue to collaborate with our brand partners to unlock more rich media ads across Instacart that help elevate their brands and products and inspire and engage more consumers.” 

[Read more: Instacart offers advertisers real-time view into performance]

Instacart partners with more than 800 national, regional and local retail brands to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America.