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Advertising in retail and ecommerce environments has grown from a subset of shopper marketing to a key channel for the world’s biggest brands. This week on the podcast, Triad CEO Sherry Smith talks about that evolution.
Triad’s customers are big retailers like Staples, Kohl’s, GameStop and Office Depot. Wary of distracting consumers, these big chains have tended to wade carefully into media sales, fearful of harming the customer experience. But they’ve started to dip a toe – and more.
“Retail had to find its place when it comes to advertising,” Smith says. “You’re not going to see the prominence of an ad overtake the retailer and the products they are trying to sell.”
For Sam’s Club, Triad helped implement a data-management platform and brought in data partners such as LiveRamp and IRI. This has enabled greater personalization and automation of offers for the discount grocer’s members.
“They’re doing some targeted incentive offers,” Smith says. “They are able to automatically upload their membership card with savings based on purchase and browse intent.”
It’s the best of both worlds, she says: like “advertising without the ad itself.”
Also in this episode: what happened when WPP acquired Triad, dealing with Amazon’s influence, the transition to advisory work.