As seen on TV – targeted ads for Walgreens customers

Walgreens is further opening its customer base to targeted ads from suppliers, beyond digital and programmatic into TV.

The drugstore giant, which in December 2020 launched the Walgreens Advertising Group (wag) based on its customer insights and first-party data, is adding a new suite of advertising-related capabilities. This expansion brings ads targeted to 100 million known Walgreens member profiles into advanced and audience-based television, via over-the-top (OTT) media services, connected TVs (CTV), and audience-based linear TV.

The new offering includes two facets. OTT & CTV inventory is now accessible via the wagDSP, a proprietary programmatic buying technology that integrates Walgreens customer and transaction data with dynamic creative capabilities and real-time optimization. Ad inventory is sourced through over 100 apps and 10 supply side platforms with over 2.5 billion available impressions daily, including access to inventory from key platforms. 

Walgreens advertisers can obtain the same functionality, real-time optimization, and measurement capability in digital video and display ads as they have previously received through the wagDSP.

Walgreens is also collaborating with multi-platform TV advertising company OpenAP and integrating with the open source OpenID authentication protocol to enable brands to reach audiences based on its first-party data as part of their television buys. Closed loop audience measurement, which measures the offline customer impact of ads, will be in place by the start of the broadcast year.

“At Walgreens Advertising Group we have three principles that are core to our DNA: to help brands deliver more relevant personalized experiences, to support audience-led and channel agnostic media approaches, and to make it easy to work with us,” said Luke Kigel, VP of Walgreens integrated media and leader of Walgreens Advertising Group. “These new advanced TV capabilities are all in continuance of our principles, and will open new areas of value for our brand partners that mirror our programmatic offering.”