Brief:
- Walgreens revealed a retail media network Thursday, appealing marketers better personalization and direct access to valuable first-party consumer data to support their digital marketing purchases, according to a company announcement.
- Called the Walgreens Advertising Group (WAG), the drug store chain’s bet on growing a larger advertisement service stresses a capability to utilize a physical retail footprint of more than 9,000 stores and a loyalty program that has over 100 million members. Walgreens last month debuted MyWalgreens, a revamped commitment offering that consists of an upgraded mobile app, same-day pickup, and partnerships with third-party shipment platforms like DoorDash and Postmates.
- Walgreens follows chief competing CVS is rolling out a media network, but its commitment program is larger. The company is also under growing pressure after Amazon presented a dedicated drug store organization, Amazon Drug store, in November.
Insight:
In retailers’ rush to grow media networks that can score more marketing dollars, Walgreens is a bit of a latecomer. The chain not just tails its most significant competitor, CVS, which introduced the CVS Media Exchange in August after months of speculation, however likewise others in the brick-and-mortar category like Walmart, Target, and Kroger.
Walgreens sees its extensive commitment program as a linchpin that can win over more brand names, and the business is propping up WAG as a full-service operation. WAG uses innovative services, for example, together with the measurement, analytics, and campaign optimization tools that are more common to a media network. And while CVS is the biggest drug store chain in the U.S., Walgreens triumphs on the loyalty front: CVS’ ExtraCare rewards program has about 78 million active members, according to Store Age, compared to Walgreens’ 100-million-plus.
Sellers’ push to develop media networks is a reaction to a number of elements, chief among them is Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies and the installing danger postured by Amazon, which itself has progressively constructed out an excellent advertising service in addition to continuing to disrupt the retail category with a huge e-commerce operation shored up the pandemic.
Marketers, especially in categories like customer packaged items, are excited about methods to gain access to first-party data and have long promoted an alternative to the dominant digital platforms. Retailers believe they can distinguish from companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook due to their particular chests of in-store consumer information, which can be leveraged along with digital insights to supply a more omnichannel view of consumers.
Walgreens is emphasizing such capabilities in its WAG pitch, claiming brand name partners will be able to reach consumers across the third-party digital screen, video, social media, streaming audio, and e-mail channels, as well as through the drug store chain’s digital platforms and in-store properties. Dealing with WAG likewise supplies access to Walgreen’s programmatic demand-side platform, which guarantees “SKU level real-time optimization based upon daily transactions,” per the statement.
