November 2022

Despite the many delays to Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies, there is no denying that a cookie-less future is on the horizon. With this shift in the digital marketing sphere, advertisers look to adapt their targeting strategies and adopt new methods for gathering data. This is where retail media networks could become vital to the future advertising landscape.

Retail media is by no means a new proposition. Traditional point-of-sale advertising in physical stores has long played a part in brands’ marketing strategies, from trolley panels to in-store radio to shelf talkers. However, like much of modern advertising, it has been transformed by advances in digital technology, now offering advertisers the ability to reach consumers across a retailer’s online e-commerce property. With Amazon having launched the first online retail media network in 2012, it has since skyrocketed, reaching a reported $31.2 billion in revenue last year. A host of other big retailers have since followed in Amazon’s footsteps: Sainsburys, Tesco, ASDA, Ocado and Boots, with Morrisons and Deliveroo being some of the latest brands to announce the launch of their retail media propositions.

Online retail media, which comes in various forms from search ads to standard display to sponsored products, has benefits for consumers, retailers and advertisers alike. For retailers, it offers a new and (if Amazon’s success is anything to go by) lucrative revenue stream, particularly for supermarket brands, where profit margins tend to be low. For consumers, it can make for an enhanced shopping experience in the form of highly relevant, personalised ads that feel native to the retailer website. And for advertisers, not only does it give access to valuable first-party purchase data making for smarter targeting opportunities, but it enables them to effectively reach consumers at the bottom of the funnel, when conversion is just a few clicks away. It also allows for the direct attribution of sales to advertising spend, which is crucial at a time when marketing budgets and advertising effectiveness are increasingly scrutinised.

According to McKinsey, retail media networks are growing by more than 10% YOY in the UK and this expansion is only expected to continue. So, with the phasing out of third-party cookies, combined with the current UK recession which will likely mean that brands will need to be savvier with their advertising spend, now is certainly the time to test and learn new retail media strategies and ground marketing plans in robust first-party data, to help future-proof and optimise digital advertising spend.

Sources: WARC, The Drum, McKinsey

Even as football fever begins to set in ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, a large proportion of the public (both at home as well as across the globe) remain uneasy about the alleged human rights abuses & violations that have taken place in the host country in order to get this tournament underway.

Whilst Qatar did somewhat update and modernise it’s labour system back in 2017, Amnesty International research has found that “thousands of workers across all projects are still facing issues such as delayed or unpaid wages, denial of rest days, unsafe working conditions, barriers to changing jobs, and limited access to justice, while the deaths of thousands of workers remain uninvestigated.” This is clearly unacceptable, and given these issues have been ongoing for a number of years, there has been a lot of coverage of these controversies – across well-reputed publications such as The Guardian, The Independent & The Times.

It is clear that all this negative press around the tournament has had an impact of people’s sentiments. A survey conducted in October 2022 by adtech company LoopMe found that only around 30% of UK respondents planned to watch the World Cup. This is a stark comparison to the last men’s European Championship tournament – where more than half of the UK population tuned in to watch the final. Additionally, a UK poll (Amnesty International & YouGov) found almost three-quarters of respondents would support a FIFA remediation programme,  while 70% said they thought the FA should speak out about the human rights issues in Qatar. Especially pertinent for brands & media owners is that sponsors appear to also be affected by these negative connotations, particularly amongst younger age groups. For example, amongst Brits aged between 18-24, over 20% of those surveyed agreed with the statement: “I will avoid any brands who sponsor the World Cup due to the humanitarian issues in Qatar” (TGI).

And these views aren’t just limited to England or the UK; a global survey (Amnesty & YouGov) found that 73% of people “polled across 15 countries support (a) proposal that FIFA use World Cup revenues to compensate workers who suffered in the preparation of the tournament.” A very similar amount (67%) also want their national football governing bodies / associations to publicly address their concern over the humanitarian issues surrounding the tournament.

The key takeaway for brands is that they must remember to be sensitive to the prevailing sentiment surrounding the World Cup, and ensure all communications show some sensitivity to this issue. This is particularly relevant & important to remember given often World Cup-themed campaigns are overwhelmingly positive and often fairly easy to roll out. Furthermore, given the depth of feeling felt by younger audiences (such as Gen Zers) any brands that predominantly target these age groups must be particularly diligent in the near future. It is also vitally important that brands are authentic and show a continuous commitment to upholding these values in the long run.

Sources: Amnesty International, Amnesty International & YouGov, LoopMe, Forbes, TGI