Ahold Delhaize USA enters digital media arena

Eyeing a new revenue source, Ahold Delhaize USA plans to launch a digital media service through its Peapod Digital Labs unit.

The food retailer said Thursday that the service, called Peapod Digital Labs Media Partnerships, will help consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers target, optimize and measure digital media campaigns for their brands. Powered by Quotient Technology, the media service will span all customer contact points and link customers’ online and offline shopping experiences.

Peapod Digital Labs’ media platform is slated to go live in the coming months, and all Ahold Delhaize USA grocery retail brands will participate, including supermarket chains Stop & Shop, Giant Food, Giant/Martin’s, Food Lion and Hannaford and online grocer Peapod.

Connected solutions for CPG advertisers created via the platform will run on the digital properties of Ahold Delhaize USA grocery brands, Quotient’s digital properties and Coupons.com, as well as major social platforms and third-party digital publisher properties.

“A hallmark of Ahold Delhaize USA’s great local brands is the close connections that each brand holds with its customers,” JJ Fleeman (left), president of Peapod Digital Labs, said in a statement. “As we stand up Peapod Digital Labs, the engine that will power brands’ digital strategies, we’re pleased to launch this new platform, which will strengthen the brands’ abilities to incorporate CPG partners into the omnichannel experience each delivers and CPGs’ abilities to leverage a best-in-class technology platform to engage consumers at every stage of their shopping journeys.”

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Fleeman, who also is chief e-commerce officer for Ahold Delhaize USA, mentioned the company’s digital media plan earlier this week at the retailer’s Capital Markets Day conference in Manhattan.

“We’re going to launch a new media partnership platform, and it will allow us to optimize media campaigns on any device and in-store,” he said at the event. “The benefit that creates for our customer is that it allows us to take media and content and get it to her directly at the channel of her choice. And you would also imagine, this will generate new revenue streams for Ahold Delhaize that will help fund the new omnichannel strategy that we plan on launching here soon.”

For CPG brands trying to reach shoppers at Ahold Delhaize USA supermarkets and Peapod, the new platform will provide media solutions to help spur online grocery sales, roll out new products, amplify in-store events, boost brand loyalty and support shopper themes, the retailer said. 

To that end, Peapod Digital Media Partnerships will target shopper audiences using exclusive point-of-sale captured purchase data from more than 25 million active shoppers and deliver highly relevant, actionable advertising vehicles, including digital coupons, store locators, add-to-cart for online purchases and influencer-led social platform experiences, according to Ahold Delhaize. Media will be executive across all digital display formats and into social platforms, and advanced analytics will sharpen media performance by linking ad views to shoppers’ verified purchases, the company said.

“Quotient is excited to be a part of the Ahold Delhaize USA brands’ digital journeys, powering Peapod Digital Labs Media Partnerships, which will provide new, data-driven digital marketing solutions for the brands and their CPG partners,” stated Mir Aamir, President and CEO of Mountain View, Calif.-based digital media and marketing specialist Quotient Technology, parent of Coupons.com. “The platform is designed to efficiently grow sales through data science, media delivery and measurement.”

As digital interactions with consumers and trading partners escalate, retailers and businesses of all stripes have been sizing up incremental revenue opportunities from leveraging their online and mobile properties and stores of data.

For example, Kroger Co. executives said last month that the company aims to monetize the rich data amassed from its position as the nation’s largest supermarket company, with 2,800 stores, vast digital properties, millions of daily transactions, and extensive technology and analytics capabilities. Kroger estimates that business through partnerships, media, CPG insights and personal finance is expanding at a 16% compound annual growth rate in EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) and is projected to have a 28% CAGR through 2020 and a 34% CAGR through 2022.