Reaching shoppers beyond the cart: Using retail media networks to drive brand awareness and sales

Contributors: Jay Dennis, Madeline Power and Charlotte Weaver

From building awareness to driving sales and loyalty: how brands can use retail media networks to accelerate full-funnel marketing strategies.

Retail media networks (RMNs) have emerged as a vital component of brand marketing strategies in an evolving marketing and commerce landscape reshaped by digital. With access to shoppers, rich first-party data and sophisticated targeting, personalization and measurement capabilities, RMNs are quickly becoming a leading advertising channel for endemic and non-endemic brands. 

However, the full value of RMNs remains untapped. While brands are using RMN platforms to drive market share and sales, opportunities remain in how RMNs can be used even more effectively. Most RMN investments focus on bottom-of-purchase funnel tactics. They’re not being used as a strategic channel to drive full-funnel marketing objectives, including awareness. 

In this report, we explore the effectiveness of RMNs in driving full-funnel marketing — from building awareness to driving market share, sales and conversion. We were engaged by Loblaw Advance™, a leading RMN in Canada, to investigate how leading consumer brands are deploying RMNs to achieve key marketing objectives.  Tailored for brand, marketing, media and sales leaders in consumer product organizations, we study real-world examples of how brands have used RMNs to reach their target shoppers across their purchase journey.

We find that RMNs can be used for a diverse set of marketing objectives, including awareness. 

Brand marketers can use RMNs to:

• Build awareness: Brands can use their reach, targeting and full-funnel capabilities to drive awareness among qualified shoppers that can be tracked to sales and an on-target cost per mile (CPM).
• Grow sales: RMNs connect media exposure directly to purchase behaviour, making it easier to build personalized experiences that connect tactics to sales.
• Improve effectiveness: With layered audience targeting and full-funnel execution, RMNs can help brands reach the right shoppers with the right message at the right time, reducing wasted spend.
• Inform brand product strategy: First-party data gives brands deep insight into shopper behaviours, fuelling marketing strategies and better product development. 
• Measure what matters: RMNs unlock metrics like incremental ROAS and CLV, and adjusted cost per mile (aCPM), providing a more sophisticated view into brand and campaign performance.

However, making use of RMNs requires brands to evolve the way they plan, execute and measure their marketing activities. Brands will need to:

• Create awareness, education and alignment internally on RMNs’ value
• Establish a strategic, focused approach to how they engage with RMNs
• Integrate brand marketing and commercial efforts while incorporating RMNs as a channel
• Reframe measures of success, incorporating RMN measurement capabilities

As marketing, media and commerce continue to be shaped by digital and shifts increasingly towards omnichannel experiences, RMNs will play an increasingly central role in helping brands meet shopper expectations.

Brands that lean in, test, learn and evolve using retail media networks will be better positioned to navigate this shift and unlock the full potential of the next era of commerce.