Ahold Delhaize USA Continues Advertising Innovation

Grocery giant was early out of the gate in launching a retail media network

By Dan Berthiaume

Ahold Delhaize USA sees a bright future for its retail media network.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Bobby Watts, head of AD Retail Media at Ahold Delhaize USA, about the grocery retail group’s latest efforts with its AD Retail Media Network.

In-house retail media networks like AD Retail Media Network provide retailers’ brand partners with direct promotional access to shoppers via channels such as in- store digital displays, online advertisements and connected television. They emerged from the grocery sector, which remains the primary sector where retail media networks are found.

Ahold Delhaize USA was an early entrant in the retail media network space, partnering with digital media and promotions solutions company Quotient Technology to launch what was initially known as Peapod Digital Labs Media Partnerships in 2018.

Since then, the grocery retailer has partnered with Quotient to release a new promotion amplification tool as part of the vendor’s Retailer Performance Media Platform, and also teamed up with Catalina to create additional opportunities for in-checkout lane media and digital circular personalization.

The company also collaborates with Neptune Retail Solutions (NRS) to serve sign, display, shopping cart and shelf-impact ads at more than 1,800 of its brands’ store locations.

What are some of the main issues with retail media networks today? Retailers and advertisers are all seeing the potential for growth in this space as CPG

The End of Third-Party Cookies

Third-party “cookies,” or browser-based tracking software applications that advertisers have historically used to follow the digital path of Internet users who click on their websites and ads, are being phased out. Google has announced it will stop enabling cookies on its Chrome browser in 2024, and other leading browsers, such as Safari, have or are planning to eliminate their use.

Already, many sites on Google Chrome are giving visitors the option to opt out of or limit the use of third-party cookies to track their online behavior. This potentially increases the value of retail media networks, such as AD Retail Media, which can serve personalized digital ads without the need for cookies.

brands and others are looking at their national media budgets and wondering if there is a more effective way to leverage their spending — especially as we all continue to contemplate what a cookieless world will look like and whether shift of revenue may occur as a result.

As a retailer, Ahold Delhaize USA is counting on a shift and trying to make sure that we are ready. On a macro scale, it’s about being prepared now. Also, at this level, it creates a ton of complexity for our advertising partners.

Because instead of being able to do one big national programmatic advertising campaign, they [adverting partners] may have to work with a multitude of retailers and their retail media networks to reach the same number of consumers. So on the retailer side, our responsibility is to try to make it as easy as possible.

If you are going to start a retail media network, you need to ask yourself as a retailer, how you can make it as simple, easy and seamless as possible for the advertisers. I believe whichever retailers have the easiest platform and connection for their advertising partners will be the ones that wind up getting far more than their fair share of those programmatic dollars as they do shift.

What do you see as the biggest trends in retail media networks for 2023?

There is going to continue to be a trend in measurement where advertisers look for a methodology that everyone can align to and is consistent across the industry. This would eliminate the possibility of an inflated metric that might include ‘attributable sales’ outside of what the media actually produced.

Another big emerging trend is using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to personalize retail campaigns to consumers by taking full advantage of our first-party data and moving into the idea of ‘hyper-personalized’ campaigns.

Omnichannel is, in my opinion, a little overplayed. Also, the metaverse is very interesting, but I think its retail media network usage and impact are still to be determined.

What is your opinion of the nextgeneration video channels, such as connected TV and livestreaming?

They are powerful channels that carry a premium CPM [cost per thousand ad impressions]. Next-generation video is a great way to reach consumers. Ahold Delhaize USA can target customers through these channels, as well.

What specific plans does Ahold Delhaize USA have for its retail media network offering in 2023?

In January, we launched our new platform with CitrusAd and Epsilon with a unified onsite/offsite platform. It provides one platform for buying media and for measurement. The other thing that we are focused on is continuing to build out our ad tech ecosystem.

We are starting to bring all these endpoints into one ad serving solution, so that we can understand all the touchpoints. This means we will be able to serve a social post or onsite posts to