“Retailer media is really important for us,” per Jade Lish, Head of Marketing at plant-based protein firm v2food. But it would take more of her budget if retailers could “show me the data.”

“Retailer media is a key pillar in the funnel and getting us further down into conversion,” said Lish, who joined from Mars last year. “Agencies talk about reach, relevance and reaction – this sits in reaction and allow you to get closer to the shoppers basket – at point of purchase. It’s really important within both impulse and routine behaviour in influencing purchases. That’s were I want to be.”

ROI clarity required

Retailers have more work to do on results and establishing whether retailer media delivers ROI, said Lish.

“The way to do that is with clarity of information and data you get back – what are the benchmarks – are they incremental shoppers or those you targeted through the campaign? Are they light or lapsed? I think there is an opportunity to link the data you get back.” She said post-analysis reports from the supermarket players “always show a redemption rate, but not necessarily what the benchmark was against, and therefore why I should do it again”.

Lish is keen to do more A-B testing. “For example, loyalty card data gives you the opportunity to target different buyers – chilled, frozen, grocery, ambient aisle buyers, snackers. If I want to target based on somebody’s path to dinner, how could I do that? How could I test for example a creative message for a chilled buyer and get them to convert,” said Lish. “It’s quite difficult to do that without transparency of data in how we benchmark – and that comes down to the partnership with data partners both within briefs and the data you get back to give you the confidence to do it again.”

Media is as media does

She cites Pinterest as a standout in driving ecom growth with data transparency at her previous role with Mars for Ben’s Original Rice, which played a part in contributing to 3x growth. Lish thinks supermarkets would gain by taking a similar approach.

“If retailers are positioning themselves as media suppliers, they should be able to hold themselves accountable to the same standards that other media suppliers provide.”

While v2food is investing significantly in retailer media, Lish said the brand “also needs to invest more in awareness and education, which in my view is upper funnel. We have strong lower funnel [performance] already and adequate spend, probably weighted a little too much below the line and not enough top line.”

Lish thinks retailers could attract greater share of budget by proactively enabling more cross-category partnerships within channels such as out of home. “For example rice partnering with tuna [for the likes of Mars] and we’re doing some activity with Campbell’s – tacos and v2mince. It’s on us to ask about those partnerships. But they could also come to us.”

This article is taken from Mi3's retailer media report. Download it below.