Coles 360 has joined forces with audience measurement company Nielsen to develop a bespoke planning tool for omnichannel media planning for brands. It marks the first time Nielsen's planning tools will be utilised in a retail media setting in the country.

Through the partnership, Coles 360 will gain access to two of Nielsen's planning tools, Commspoint Journey and Commspoint Influence. These tools are designed to optimise media plans by calculating net reach and audience impact, assisting strategic media planning for Coles 360 campaigns. They will deliver insights on consumer purchase journeys at a category level, identify marketing campaign objectives, and help rank different media channels designed to meet the needs of the campaign.

Nielsen will conduct a custom survey to build out unique Coles 360 media channels and assets, tailoring the planning tool to the specific needs of Coles 360 and the supplier campaigns run by Coles 360.

Nielsen Pacific MD, Monique Perry, said: "This groundbreaking collaboration highlights Nielsen’s commitment to leveraging data-driven insights to drive more effective and impactful campaigns. By integrating Nielsen Commspoint Journey and Nielsen Commspoint Influence, we’re supercharging Coles 360, delivering unprecedented precision and strategy optimisation for brands and advertisers. I’m so excited to partner with Coles 360 on this pioneering initiative as we work together to shape the future of retail media in Australia."

Coles 360 Head of Strategy & Planning, Sam Hegg, said since launching two years ago, the retail media unit had worked to quantify the full view of media reach all channels deliver against audiences. “To meet and exceed market expectations, we sought to identify a partner who could provide not just a planning tool with robust insights and methodology but also an ability to customise an offering that covered all our bespoke and currently unmeasured media channels,” he said.

Strategy & Planning Lead at Coles 360, Bethanie Blanchard, said: "The power of this partnership with Nielsen is unlocking access to the understanding ‘why’. The application of Nielsen’s planning tools to a sophisticated retail media network like ours is a game changer. It allows us to better understand the why behind behaviour to better deliver strategically for our suppliers."

Since its launch two years ago, Coles 360 has worked to quantify the full view of media reach all channels deliver against audiences. This partnership with Nielsen is set to elevate their strategic planning capabilities to new heights.