Publicis Groupe launches retail media platform—why CTV is a key component

Publicis Groupe is rolling out an integrated suite of retail media solutions, developed by its Profitero commerce analytics unit, for use across the holding company’s agencies and clients. Among the first two products in the new suite include Shelf Intelligent Media to optimize media activation, planning and measurement across the largest retail media networks for use on and off retailer sites, including connected TV. Related: Retail media has a measurement problem The second is Shelf Intelligent Content, a suite of predictive intelligence products aimed at increasing sales by optimizing product detail pages and keywords in digital retail, recommending improvements to product copy, titles and images to maximize sales. Profitero CEO Bryan Wiener described the media and content components as a “central nervous system” for planning and buying retail media and managing digital shelf presence. “What makes it really exciting is taking signals from the digital shelf, whether a competitor is out of stock or they’ve raised prices or their reviews are poor—or with your own products—and using it to drive buying decisions,” Wiener said. “This is not just for search in retail, but off-site on CTV or in-store, really where the future of retail media is going.” That includes Walmart, which recently announced a beta test integrating in-store radio and in-store sampling programs with its digital Walmart Connect offering. Walmart also expanded the use of shopper data to advertising on streaming platforms such as Paramount+ and NBCUniversal’s streaming sports programming. Shelf Intelligent Media is not currently integrated with Walmart Connect's in-store beta tests. Read more: Walmart data will help sell NBCU streaming sports ads The Publicis platform aligns with “the key trend of retail media today,” said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst with Insider Intelligence, which is the transition from a focus almost entirely on e-commerce search to “upper funnel” brand awareness advertising and in-store media. Lipsman refers to it as a transition from “Retail Media 1.0 to Retail Media 2.0,” with CTV being a key component. Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here Insider Intelligence projects the U.S. retail media market will grow from $45 billion today to $105 billion by 2027. But the key to finding that additional $60 billion is going beyond shifting trade and shopper marketing dollars into retail media and toward getting far more TV and broader digital spending, Lipsman said. Tools like what Publicis has created will help foster that, he said, noting that the vision sounds similar to what Microsoft described earlier this year. “There’s a ton of potential, and there’s going to need to be a lot of evolution in being able to plan, activate and ultimately measure campaigns,” Lipsman said. Wiener said he sees integrating the full suite of Profitero data for media planning and buying as fulfilling the vision he and Profitero President Sarah Hofstetter had when joining Profitero in 2020 after leaving similar roles at measurement firm Comscore. Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here Capabilities of the Shelf Intelligent tools include turning media on and off or calibrating it based on regional in-stock status or demand spikes for brands. It builds on an integration late last year with e-commerce marketing platforms Pacvue and Skai. Profitero has sought to integrate with partners that have the largest market shares, Wiener said, “because asking a media buyer to learn new behaviors or interact in another platform creates friction, and as product people you want to lower friction.” Publicis in a statement framed the new product suite as part of its broader retail media and data play, including the acquisition of CitrusAd in 2021 and the launch last year of CitrusAd powered by Epsilon. “Publicis acquired Profitero last year with a belief that its industry-leading intelligence and technology could be aligned with the rest of the Groupe to accelerate profitable growth for all our clients,” said Jay Askinasi, U.S. CEO of Publicis Groupe’s PMX investment strategy unit. “Today we are realizing that vision.”

Publicis Groupe launches retail media platform—why CTV is a key component

Featured Stories