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10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
7 Things Home Depot Got Right at Its Retail Media Upfronts
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[00:00:00] Speaker: Home Depot's, orange Apron Media held its third annual in France, in Atlanta last week. I drove an hour through the horrible Atlanta traffic to get there, but pretty much everyone else had flown in for the [00:00:15] day. And that really tells you something. A few hundred brands or suppliers in Home Depot parlance traveled to Atlanta for a single day event and left energized in a year where everyone's [00:00:30] questioning ROI on conference travel.
[00:00:33] That's a compelling pool. I covered many of the product announcements in a couple of pieces from last week, but today I wanna talk about something a little bit different. What Home Depot got [00:00:45] right about the event itself and what other retail media networks can learn from that format.
[00:00:51] I have seven observations to share with you. Let's jump in.
[00:00:55]
[00:00:56] Speaker: Number one, they didn't try to be Amazon unboxed. [00:01:00] A lot of retail media leaders probably look at Amazon's multi-day unboxed extravaganza and think we could never do that, and They're right and they shouldn't try. Home Depot built something fit to [00:01:15] purpose and fit to size. One day, one venue, a focused audience of the suppliers who actually buy their media product. No sprawling expo floor, no press circus. There isn't just one [00:01:30] playbook of how to do this. Number two, a closed advertiser universe is actually an advantage.
[00:01:37] Home Depot is a single category retailer with a curated catalog and a finite set of brand suppliers. [00:01:45] That means they can realistically get most of their key advertisers in one room, something that other retailers might never be able to pull off, and that constraint turns into a strength. The in fronts that they host can touch [00:02:00] on the full range.
[00:02:01] Of their capabilities, answer questions in real time and build buy in across the supplier base more effectively than a trade show Booth ever could. Number three, they [00:02:15] put merchants on stage first. This is something I talked about length in my recap of it last week.
[00:02:22] I'll link up to it in the show notes, but important to note here, the first keynote. Of the day came from the merchandising [00:02:30] organization, not the media team. Product announcements didn't start until the afternoon, and this wasn't an explicit call out where they were beating everyone over the head. It was just that the agenda really spoke for [00:02:45] itself about what the priorities were and what they really wanted to get across to attendees, and I thought it was a very.
[00:02:51] Thoughtful way to get that message across. Number four, the event served three audiences at once.
[00:02:58] The suppliers [00:03:00] in the seats were the obvious audience, but the room also included tech partners, integration partners, companies where you can extend your Orange Apron media buying through like meta, Pinterest, Reddit, [00:03:15] Google, and then also the underlying tech partners that Orange Apron works with, like Meta router, vantage, they're all essential to Orange Apron's ecosystem.
[00:03:27] And And then there were the Home Depot [00:03:30] employees. That team responsible for the media product has grown from about 30 people in 2020 to more than 400 today. Not all of them were there, but
[00:03:41] there was a really good representation and I, I spoke with a few [00:03:45] folks on the engineering side who I've met previously who were really excited about seeing their tech leader. Arun Rum Swami present the work that they had been building for the last year, [00:04:00] maybe more than these important projects that they had been involved in that finally get to see the light of day and get everyone exciting.
[00:04:07] And so that's a real wrap for a team of this size. An event like this doubles as a rallying point where [00:04:15] they get to see what they've been working on and feel a sense of pride around. Delivering that to their customers. Number five, they brought supplier voices into the programming. Home Depot brought suppliers on [00:04:30] stage for one of the panels, and throughout the day they ran video testimonials up on the big screen so people could hear from suppliers about what they had been.
[00:04:41] Doing with Orange Apron, and that's a small programming [00:04:45] choice that I think was very effective. It gave a lot of social proof to the event, and it breaks up the inevitable sales pitch cadence. From what I understand. Getting the suppliers up on stage for [00:05:00] a panel was a new part of the programming, so I think, and I think it was really well done. Miracle Ads is the only retail media solution designed for [00:05:15] both one P and three P Marketplace brands. Why does that matter? Marketplace sellers demand a seamless advertiser experience that still offers full funnel ad formats, and retailers need a flexible [00:05:30] solution that allows you to scale your media business.
[00:05:33] Kiri Masters: Learn more@miracle.com. That's M-I-R-A-K l.com.
[00:05:41]
[00:05:41] Speaker: Number six, the venue reinforced the brand. [00:05:45] The College football Hall of Fame where they hosted the event in Atlanta, I'll be honest, was completely lost on me as a sports indifferent Australian [00:06:00] personally. I couldn't care less, but for the attendees it was a hit. And last year, home Depot chose Truist Park, who is another, which is another major Atlanta sports venue [00:06:15] and sports sponsorship is a core part of Home Depot's broader brand identity.
[00:06:20] They showcased a few ads that they have coming up around fifa. March Madness. It's a really strong part of the brand identity [00:06:30] and choosing these venues that reflect that detail really signals that back to attendees. And it also just gave many people who really love, love college football a reason to be super excited about showing [00:06:45] up.
[00:06:45] So I think this was a fantastic venue choice on their, on their part. And number seven, be intentional with press and analysts. Are you sick of hearing from me about Orange Apron media yet? Because this is the third piece I've [00:07:00] written about them. in a week, I did a column about their announcement.
[00:07:04] I did a column about this at the drum. I Did a profile of their category specific advantages on this podcast and for my own newsletter last week and now this [00:07:15] one, and that wasn't my plan going in, but Home Depot. Gave me enough access, context and material across a single day that three very different angles emerged naturally.
[00:07:28] Now, there were only [00:07:30] two journalists slash analysts at the in France, me and Karen Jacobs, who is the senior editor of Retail and Performance at E-Marketer, and she wrote a piece about Orange Apron's new partnership with Reddit last week. So what they [00:07:45] did here was they went narrow and deep. Rather than wide and shallow with press, and the result is substantive coverage rather than a handful of social posts from the back of a keynote hole.
[00:07:58] And so I think for [00:08:00] retailers for. And commerce media networks, thinking about analysts and press relations, you only need to give two or three people enough to actually write about and go deep with those relationships. And they did a really great job of [00:08:15] hosting. wrapping up here. Um. Not every retailer needs its own upfront event, and Home Depot certainly wasn't the first to host one, but the format is really gaining momentum.
[00:08:27] Ascendant Network, which runs [00:08:30] the very, the fantastic Retail media bootcamp series, just announced a week or two ago. A new event called Showcase, which is a collective upfront that will be in New York this September, [00:08:45] where multiple commerce media networks are gonna be able to present to brands and agencies in a single day.
[00:08:51] And for networks that don't have the supplier base or the brand advertiser base to fill a room of their own or those who are looking to reach new [00:09:00] advertisers, that kind of shared format could be a really smart. Compliment or even if you're still doing one yourself, in this case, a great way to reach new people and, um, get a bit of a halo [00:09:15] effect from press and analysts as well.
[00:09:18] Either way, the underlying idea is the same. There's real value in getting your advertisers in a room on your terms with a story worth telling. Thanks for [00:09:30] listening and I'll catch you tomorrow.
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