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10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
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[00:00:00] Kiri Masters: When it's done well in store, activations can deliver something that sponsored product and programmatic display simply can't. A lasting multisensory brand experience that drives both immediate [00:00:15] sales and long term brand building. But the problem, especially with highly experiential in-store activations, is that nobody can agree on who should pay for it.
[00:00:27]
[00:00:29] Kiri Masters: This week I've [00:00:30] taken some highlights from my second LinkedIn live with Jordan Whitmer, who leads retail media strategy at Salt xc, an agency that is known not just for retail media, but also experiential [00:00:45] activations. Now I love speaking with Jordan because he spent years on the brand side at Hershey Stanley Black and Decker and Ken View, before moving over to the agency side.
[00:00:56] So he has seen this from every angle and he shared [00:01:00] candidly about the gap between what is possible in store and what's actually happening, especially in the us. Let's get into it.
[00:01:09] Jordan Witmer: What we get out of that is this different level of thinking through how consumers experience things in a [00:01:15] physical setting, and an, I'll say a different level of appreciation for what's possible or a different level of effort than goes into probably 90 plus percent of what you would see in [00:01:30] store activation.
[00:01:31] Especially in the US when I talk about things being boring. Um, that's both certainly like hand up shot at our retail friends. It's, it's gotten better, but also it's, [00:01:45] it's, it's on it agencies.
[00:01:47] Kiri Masters: Hmm.
[00:01:47] Jordan Witmer: To bring that and on the marketers to bring that, the same level of energy that you put into developing a 30.
[00:01:55] You put into developing like a big campaign idea that you're gonna adhere [00:02:00] to and bring to life for multiple years. Bringing that level of energy to planning for in-store, what's, what's possible in that space? It completely changes what, what you can actually accomplish and it be it, [00:02:15] that equation that we've talked about of give away a product.
[00:02:18] A certain amount of margin, you've gotta get a certain rebuy rate on that thing, plus all the fees that you paid to do it. Tough ma, tough equation.
[00:02:28] Kiri Masters: Hmm.
[00:02:28] Jordan Witmer: But by turning that into a different [00:02:30] level of experience, we start getting some of the best of both worlds. Certainly you're, you're driving and we've seen massive spikes in.
[00:02:39] POS during events and during activations. But the, some of the, the secret [00:02:45] sauce is the after effects. It's how long a consumer remembers a unique experience, that the deliverable on that, on consumer attention and recall is what maybe makes things different.
[00:02:57]
[00:02:59] Kiri Masters: Now I just wanna [00:03:00] underscore that last point. Jordan's talking about an activation that delivers on two metrics that typically live in different parts of the marketing org chart, the immediate point of sale lift and lasting brand recall. He also [00:03:15] shared data from Harris Poll showing that 71% of consumers say that experiential activations deepen their brand connection.
[00:03:24] While the top response from individuals being asked about these [00:03:30] experiential activations is they said it would make them purchase right away in the store. So both things at once.
[00:03:37] Long-term brand recall and short-term sales, which sounds great until you try and get it funded, [00:03:45] because in most organizations, the team that cares about brand connection and the team that cares about. In-store sales are working from different budgets with different KPIs and different approval chains.
[00:03:57] Jordan shared a example of this really [00:04:00] immersive activation for the, , beverage brand Topo Chico that turned a section of a target store into a multisensory brand experience.
[00:04:11] Jordan Witmer: If you're at one of salt's, I believe seven Super Bowl [00:04:15] activations this year, it would look and feel like this.
[00:04:18] You walk in, there's the sound around you, changes to rushing water. The what's on the screen and where you're stepping is reacting. To you being in this environment and it's a soothing and [00:04:30] calming and it starts to create a very strong association between Topo, Chico and a and a feeling for the consumer.
[00:04:38] Yeah. And there's more shots of this. The video was huge. I'm happy to share it with whoever wants to see it. Um, [00:04:45] but as you walk around this, it's shoppable, certainly. And we saw same store sales year over year, jumping, uh. More than three x in some, in some cases, well, more than three X on average. But, um, really, really big spikes because this is a [00:05:00] huge merchandising play.
[00:05:02] The amount of more eyeballs you're getting in this space is, is wild, but it's sustained.
[00:05:07] Kiri Masters: Mm-hmm.
[00:05:08] Jordan Witmer: Because we've, we've created this really engaging experience. It's something if you walk through this in a target, it's [00:05:15] hard to put your blinders up. Something like this. Yeah. So this is the one that, yes, it lifts from a commerce next day.
[00:05:22] Did the ROI happen perspective, but a lot of the real value you're getting out of it is you've deepened a memory, [00:05:30] you've deepened an associ association between what your brand stands for, and a feeling that it creates for consumers. Okay.
[00:05:37] Kiri Masters: Now you just, you just muttered the, uh, the magic words. I was listening for.
[00:05:42] Uh, metrics, [00:05:45] metrics, metrics. You said same source sales. Now. So where is the ROAS on this, Jordan? What are we looking, what are we looking for?
[00:05:53] Jordan Witmer: Well, we wouldn't have a lot of. Clients return to us. If I was, if I was driving, if I was gonna get on here and [00:06:00] show 'em, flash up, here's the ROI, here's how we measured it, here's how you can beat us.
[00:06:04] Um, so I, I can't go that far, but metrics is a really interesting conversation and Right. I, I know we both talked to, to [00:06:15] Andrew Lipson, who's most outspoken. Supporters of in-store and a lot of the times that we've spoken it's, it's interesting 'cause you almost gotta measure these multiple ways. There's a short-term ROI to this like there is to any [00:06:30] activation.
[00:06:31] And when you're measuring short-term ROI ON in-store, it's a lot less about impressions and it's a lot more about match market sales lift. It's about year over year. It's did that sustain, did you retain those [00:06:45] folks that you brought in during this event? And it looks and feels much more like, let's call it shopper measurement or sales side measurement.
[00:06:52] Kiri Masters: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:53] Jordan Witmer: And there's another piece to it of, well, this drove tens of thousands, right? Topos, tens of thousands [00:07:00] of folks walk through these activations. Across the state of Texas was the, the test environment. How we measure that in a longer term, ROI, where most of our measurement systems are built for impressions.
[00:07:13] And they tell us an impression is [00:07:15] an impression, is an impression. Our model will figure out how this works, um, and what the cost is. That's where it tends to get really complex. Inside of brands and the folks that I've talked to at, at some of the bigger brands that we work with and that we just know [00:07:30] in the, in the market, it's really, really difficult to do an apples to apples of, well, how do I compare this to my meta investment as a brand,
[00:07:42] right?
[00:07:43] And start to justify [00:07:45] that. Is something I should be doing whole brand versus this is something that if my Kroger team wants to do it, they can do it. Miracle Ads is [00:08:00] the Ad Tech solution trusted by Rakuten and over 50 global enterprise retailers. That's because Miracle Ads was built with both three P Marketplace sellers and one P suppliers in mind. Both advertiser [00:08:15] audiences demand a seamless advertising journey from onboarding to reporting.
[00:08:20] Kiri Masters: You can offer everything from sponsored products to video ads all in one solution. Learn more@miracle.com. That's [00:08:30] M-I-R-A-K l.com.
[00:08:32]
[00:08:33] Kiri Masters: A three x same store sales lift plus sustained brand recall. That's the kind of result that every brand marketer is paying attention to. But here's the thing, when I ask [00:08:45] Jordan directly about who's actually funding these activations, the answer shows what the real challenge here is.
[00:08:52] Jordan Witmer: what I've seen largely, this is still stuff, funding that sits in the shopper world. [00:09:00] The, the hurdle has not. Largely been cleared, I would say, um, to create that idea that this is investment that is truly brand building and activity.
[00:09:11] Yes, it happens to be in a retailer owned environment. [00:09:15] Uh, the majority, I would say, of funding for these types of activities sit in shopper budgets right now. That said, I think what's, what's really interesting to me is the parallel that I would draw. Of where brands have figured this out and made different [00:09:30] choices has nothing to do with in-store.
[00:09:32] It's the furthest thing away from in-store is Amazon. And if you look at an Amazon budget for any major brand, you're gonna see the traditional ESP, retargeting [00:09:45] sponsored products, bread and butter. What you think of driving the day-to-day business, Amazon. Then with a lot of brands, you'll see huge chunks of streaming and
[00:09:57] Kiri Masters: Yep,
[00:09:57] Speaker 2: streaming tv, right?
[00:09:59] Similar brands, [00:10:00] brands put on events. When it goes to retail, it's still an event. Brands buy streaming. When they buy streaming from a retailer,
[00:10:11] it, now what is, is my Amazon p and l gonna go upside [00:10:15] down because. They happen to own a channel that has a lot of premium streaming TV inventory.
[00:10:20] Kiri Masters: Mm. Yeah. This Venn diagram, probably not Venn diagram.
[00:10:24] Jordan Witmer: Yeah, it could be both. It could be both. And what I've seen, so I I will take, there are, there are many brands out [00:10:30] there, a lot of the larger ones where the investment makes it worthwhile to figure this out.
[00:10:35] They have started to separate and siphon off the, well, if I'm buying streaming from my retail partner. That's not shopper money. 'cause it's not a [00:10:45] shopper objective. So I, I think that's the model that is available to us as marketers. As advertisers that we've seen work, we've seen brands deploy. They're able to draw the line.
[00:10:56] Um, between is this a brand building investment or is this, [00:11:00] well, let's, let's drive takeaway at Walmart.
[00:11:03]
[00:11:05] Kiri Masters: So the reality is with this stuff, it is messy
[00:11:08] And the responsibility for these kind of activations has shifted over time. Brand marketers [00:11:15] have spent the last decade being asked to fund their retailer team's, sponsored product budgets, and now those same retailer teams are coming back with another ASK fund experiential too, and I get the fatigue.
[00:11:28] What I took away from this conversation is [00:11:30] that in-store experiential definitely has a place, especially for CPG, but the big question is how brands can break through their own internal budget silos to actually capitalize on it before [00:11:45] the online channels that they've been over-Indexed on, get further disrupted as I've been talking about for the last couple of months.
[00:11:54] Thanks to Salt XC for partnering on this LinkedIn Live series. It's a ton of fun. If you can [00:12:00] join live and ask questions and put the comments in. It's kind of like a live podcast experience, And in my newsletter, I'm always going to be promoting the next one. So if you're not signed up for my Monday to Thursday newsletter, go to retail media breakfast [00:12:15] club.com and sign up with your email. Thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time.
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