Schwarz Media, part of Schwarz Group, has agreed to a strategic partnership with The Trade Desk so advertisers can access online retail media audience segments through its platform.
Schwarz Media is the retail media arm of Europe’s largest retail group which owns budget retail giant, Lidl, and German hypermarket chain, Kaufland.
As a result of the partnership, advertisers can better target, measure and optimise ads across channels on the open web, including digital, connected TV and digital out-of-home ads, and use programmatic campaigns on Lidl online shop and Kaufland Marketplatz.
Analysis: Now discounters are joining the retail media party
Retailers have been jumping at the chance to expand their media footprints. The advent of digital has meant a grocer like Lidl can do a lot more than offer brands the chance to advertise on a trolley or the shop floor. Its customers are a huge source of valuable data.
The most recent UK grocer to enter the retail media space was Morrisons, which they announced at a conference last year. Grocery store chains Asda, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s, as well as beauty and pharmaceutical retailer Boots and major US retailers like Target and Kroger have developed similar omnichannel advertising platforms to connect brands to millions of their customers. Walmart, the US retail behemoth, has led the way through its Walmart Connect platform and now boasts dedicated TV and radio stations.
And it’s not just retailers getting involved, but taxi, delivery and banking companies, too. Uber, Deliveroo and Revolut have all announced advertising offerings with various formats and capabilities.
It begs the question: can anything be media? And where is retail media’s space on the media plan?
At April’s Future of Brands event, a panel discussed how retail media is often misconceived as an area for solely activation, rather than a place to leverage its full-funnel benefits.
The quickly-changing phenomenon of retail media, and the potential for businesses beyond retail to develop a self-serve ad platform as privacy-safe ways of using customers’ data become widespread, will also be a big topic at our Future of Media event in October.
