The history of American advertising is, in part, the history of brands figuring out what to do with new screens. First radio, then television, then the computer monitor, then the phone. Now, apparently, the grocery store aisle.
Albertsons and Procter & Gamble have embarked on an experiment that would have seemed improbable even five years ago: a serialized video drama, produced specifically for retail media channels, running on screens inside supermarkets and on the grocer's e-commerce platform. The series, produced by Minivela, a company that specializes in short-form content for Hispanic audiences, has been releasing two episodes every Tuesday since June.
Brian Monahan, senior vice president of retail media at Albertsons Media Collective, said the campaign grew from a meeting at Procter & Gamble's headquarters in Cincinnati, where the companies identified Hispanic shoppers as a growth market worth pursuing with something more ambitious than the usual item-and-price creative. "We looked at some of our trip types and asked: Why do these consumers go into the grocery store, and how might we speak to them in context?" Mr. Monahan said.
One episode, he noted, centers on a shopper who ran out of avocados and had to make an emergency grocery run — a scenario drawn directly from Albertsons data showing that 8 percent of store trips are driven by a forgotten ingredient. (Whether this constitutes drama in the classical sense is perhaps a matter for scholars.)
Mr. Monahan said sales figures are not yet ready for public release, but that the company has been surprised by shopper engagement. QR codes placed alongside the videos in stores are being scanned at rates the company did not anticipate. "We put these videos up with QR codes, not even knowing if people in busy grocery stores shopping with their shopping cart would stop and pull out their phone," he said. "Well, turns out they are."
Marlow Nickell, chief executive of Grocery TV, a retail media platform, said the Albertsons effort signals that in-store media is maturing beyond repurposed content. "For the brands that really build custom creatives, we see significantly better results," Mr. Nickell said.
Mr. Monahan was careful to temper expectations. "We're not out here saying everyone needs to do micro dramas in retail media," he said. "Only if it's appropriate."
The avocado, it seems, has found its medium.
Original story published in Digiday: "Retail media is becoming more complex as brands invest in video", by Mitchell Parton