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Tesco Media has launched video ad formats across its app and Tesco.com to expand brand advertising opportunities in its online shopping experience.
The video format within Tesco’s app sits on its Grocery homepage. Tesco claims this placement reaches 12m monthly unique visitors and is where 65% of Tesco shoppers begin their consumer journey.
The other format is a short-form video placement within Tesco.com on desktop and mobile browsers. Tesco claims visitors spend over eight minutes browsing these pages and that ads on them have an average click-through rate of 14% to product pages.
The innovation comes as Tesco Media seeks to evolve from “a retailer with data” to a media partner with “storytelling power”, according to a company spokesperson.
The effectiveness of the ads will be measured within Tesco’s closed-loop ecosystem, which connects exposure to sales.
Research commissioned by Tesco last year found that two-thirds (67%) of shoppers use supermarket websites as “a source of inspiration and discovery” and, hence, the new ad formats are aimed at targeting those consumers.
Ahead of the launch, both Diageo and PepsiCo tested the ad formats.
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Brands have increasingly sought to diversify their retail media strategies as ad spend in the media channel grows. According to IAB UK’s latest Digital Adspend report, retail media investment grew 18% in 2025 to £3.8bn, with advertisers prioritising closed-loop measurement and first-party data environments.
Investment in video formats, meanwhile, rose 20% in 2025 to £9.3bn, with video now accounting for nearly a quarter (23%) of total digital adspend.
“Video has always been a powerful way for us to tell our brand stories,” said Diageo’s head of creator, sponsorships and partnerships in the GB/EU, Mike Cheetham. “To have a new opportunity to do this in a highly contextual moment close to the point of purchase has the capability to be a highly influential way to reach our customers.”
Emma Cathie-Harries, PepsiCo’s digital and ecommerce director, added that she views the media opportunity as a way to support new product development launches.
For Tash Whitmey, Tesco Media’s managing director, providing video ad formats within a shopping environment is a step toward merging clients’ brand and performance marketing efforts.
“For too long, marketers have faced a false choice between building a brand and driving performance,” she said. “As Warc’s latest Multiplier Effect study highlights, campaigns are most effective when they deliver both, yet achieving that balance has often proved difficult, when many digital environments still separate storytelling from shoppable moments.”
Shoppability has become increasingly integrated in other media environments, namely TV. Other retail giants, such as Amazon, have integrated various shoppable ad formats into streaming platforms like Prime Video to similarly condense the marketing funnel.
Whitmey added that Tesco’s video formats have been designed to “allow advertisers to tell compelling stories that naturally flow into those high-intent moments of discovery, turning awareness into measurable action.”
