By Helen Myers, Advertising Week Correspondent
In a panel presented by Koddi, Kathryn Lundstrom, Commerce and Sustainability Editor at AdWeek, led a discussion on the integration of programmatic retail media.
Gopuff and Koddi have recently teamed up to make on-site retail inventory available on The Trade Desk. “This collaboration means that buyers and advertisers are able to activate against the full funnel, the full consumer journey, all in one place,” said Matthew Fantazier, VP of Retail Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk.
Koddi has been in the retail space for roughly five years, and has grown close with Gopuff during that time, so the collaboration seemed logical.
JR Crosby Director of AdTech & Data Partnerships at Gopuff said they want to make it as easy as possible for advertisers to access their media. “This is hands down the best thing that we can do right now in terms of not only giving more access to our inventory, where the advertisers are already buying, but also setting ourselves up for all the great things that this can lead to in the future by combining programmatic and retail on-site,” he said.
Fragmentation is the hot topic for marketers. With the number of retail media networks vastly expanding, marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to plug into each one. Rajeev Vijay, Head of Partnerships at Koddi, said that fragmentation has always been something seen in the ecosystem. “Retail media is really performance. And that’s the cornerstone of all of this. It is an effective media channel to drive conversions. When you bring that into the same ecosystem, we really believe that you’re going to see like incremental demand and incremental spend from new budgets on the advertiser side,” he said.
Lundstrom then asked how programmatic can fit into the broader omnichannel planning and what kind of plumbing needs to be there for it. Vijay mentioned that they will see unlock when they start adding new use cases. “That’s where programmatic, that sort of cross-channel audience-based various data points, can come in and build those omnichannel campaigns in a much more refined way. From a plumbing perspective, we’ve got that taken care of, and we’re testing that out, and then it’s just layering on over time,” he said.
The conversation then switched to the blurring lines between programmatic and retail media buys. Lundstrom asked the panel what they wish brands and agencies understood better about programmatic retail media.
Fantazier started by saying that there are good reasons why some silos exist, and to learn how to operate within them. “The best thing we can do as we move forward is to make it easier. How do we reduce friction? How do we create operating systems that allow for people to do this?” he said. He also added that creating a singular brief and focusing on business objectives can help with this media. “Who are you trying to reach? What are you trying to tell them? And then go from there, because ultimately you’re talking to the same consumer. They don’t know the difference. How do we think about it as one media plan with the tools to actually activate it as one media plan?” he said.
Finally, Lundstrom ended the conversation by asking what the panel is most excited to see coming down the pipeline.
“I’m very excited about the possibility of incorporating identity, sequential messaging, and holistic measurement, and being able to tie that into not just media, but business data. I think we’re really close and we will need that identity layer,” Crosby said.
