Albertsons' retail media arm aims to ‘close loop’ between ad spend, sales

Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media arm of Albertsons Cos., has adopted audience and measurement solutions from The Trade Desk to help give CPG advertisers a sharper picture of connection between ad campaigns and customer sales.

The nation’s second-largest supermarket operator, Albertsons will provide advertisers such as PepsiCo, Unilever and GroupM with insights and metrics across audience data to help them optimize their campaigns that “close the loop” between advertising spend and sales, Ventura, Calif.-based The Trade Desk said yesterday. Essentially separating data from inventory, the system will make it easier for brands to reach the right audience across the open internet and beyond, including the industry’s fastest-growing digital channels, such as connected TV, the advertising technology firm explained.

“Albertsons Media Collective and The Trade Desk are redefining what it means for advertisers to reach the right audience and measure their marketing campaigns,” Kristi Argyilan, senior vice president of retail media at Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons Cos., said in a statement. “Our shared philosophy on solving the issues on identity, transparency and inefficiencies that currently exist within the advertising ecosystem will create opportunities for brands to embrace the power of the open internet that drives precision and relevance.”

Related:Albertsons expands access to on-site advertising

The Trade Desk empowers advertising buyers through a self-serve, cloud-based platform. Albertsons will be the first U.S. grocer to enable The Trade Desk’s solutions across the open internet.

“Retail media represents an incredible opportunity for brands that want to connect their marketing spend to sales,” according to Jed Dederick, chief client officer at The Trade Desk. “As consumer habits continue to change and the identity landscape evolves, our clients are looking for future-proofed, data-driven ways to run impactful campaigns. Partnering with Albertsons Media Collective gives us the ability to provide advertisers what they want, which is targeting that reaches the right consumer and closed-loop measurement to inform media decisioning and optimizations across the whole open internet.”

Marketers increasingly value the data-driven precision of the open internet, which allows them to measure campaign performance effectively, The Trade Desk noted. As the industry prepares for the elimination of third-party cookies, new sources of audience data are critical, and brands will need to activate their first-party data and future-proof their advertising strategies to create personalized content for consumers that prioritize data privacy, the company said. Through the Albertsons-Trade Desk partnership, brands will be able to deploy new tools such as Unified ID 2.0 to preserve the value of relevant advertising, while enhancing consumer control.

Related:Albertsons debuts retail media network

“Advertising is going through a transformational shift, and PepsiCo is excited about the impact data-driven advertising is making,” stated Shyam Venugopal, senior vice president of global media and commerce capabilities at PepsiCo. “The partnership between The Trade Desk and Albertsons Media Collective is enabling brands to drive better control and decision making, as well as greater transparency across our media buys to give us the ability to leverage first-party data to reach the right consumer.”

In recent years, Albertsons has steadily bolstered its digital advertising and retail media capabilities. The retailer launched the Albertsons Media Collective in November 2021 to offer CPG partners a digital marketing platform and omnichannel solutions. And earlier this month, Albertsons said it’s partnering with the Pacvue marketplace advertising platform to beef up its digital network by expanding access to on-site advertising.

“We are excited to be working with Albertsons as they announce this strategic partnership with The Trade Desk,” commented Luis DiComo, executive vice president of global media at Unilever. “This partnership will enable Unilever to more accurately target valued consumers off retailer websites, while also measuring the impact of investment in ways previously unavailable.”

Overall, Albertsons Cos. operates 2,276 food and drug stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia under such banners as Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market.