Hy-Vee builds in-store digital media experience with Samsung

Hy-Vee RedMedia, the retail media arm of Midwestern grocer Hy-Vee, has partnered with Samsung Electronics America to deploy and manage more than 10,000 commercial video displays in stores chainwide.

Launched officially last month at Groceryshop 2023, RedMedia is one of the first businesses to implement the new Samsung VXT Content Management System (CMS) for digital signage. Plans call for Hy-Vee to install the cloud-based solution and Samsung QBR-Series displays within aisles; at deli, meat and seafood counters; in wine and spirits departments; and at food courts in all Hy-Vee supermarkets and Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh convenience stores.

To engage shoppers, the Samsung screens will play a mix of in-house content such as live cooking demos, promotions, recipes, product pairings, company announcements and menu boards. RedMedia, too, is working with the Samsung Ads advanced advertising unit to enable CPG brands to buy in-store digital content inventory with connected CTV to reach customers at the point-of-sale and drive a new revenue stream for Hy-Vee.

“Samsung is known as an industry leader, and they’ve been a great partner for quite some time. So it was a natural fit for us as we’re looking to expand in the in-store media space,” Jessica Enos, senior vice president of retail media at Hy-Vee, told Winsight Grocery Business in a video interview at the Samsung 837 store in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

Related:Retail media plays starring role at Groceryshop

Hy-Vee is placing the Samsung displays in a range of ways to promote adjacent food and nonfood items and draw eyeballs to digital content. / Photo courtesy of Samsung

“Hy-Vee has been very digitally first-focused in how we engage with the customers by merging physical and digital together. We have thousands of screens in our stores connecting customers with that experience. Traditionally, those have been held for in-house content like cooking demos, promotions or recipes, things that tied to the content of the [store] area where the screen was housed,” she explained. “Now, our partnership with Samsung will enable marketers to take advantage of buying this in-store digital inventory in combination with connected TV. So it’s really unlocking the ability to partner with our brands to be part of this engaging digital experience that we have in-store.”

Enos estimated that Hy-Vee now has about 7,000 Samsung displays up-and-running in stores, and that number is slated to surpass the 10,000 mark in the near term.

“We’re expanding the amount of screens that we'll have in-store over the upcoming months. That’s part of the partnership,” she said. “And then, over the last few months, we have been in a beta-test mode with partners from a marketing standpoint. Now we’re ready to launch this expanded partnership with Samsung moving forward.”

Related:Hy-Vee debuts Hy-Vee RedMedia retail media network

The deployment averages around 30 to 40 screens per supermarket—with several more displays in a larger flagship store—and less than 10 screens in a Fash & Fresh c-store, according to Enos.

“The convenience store market is definitely one that we’re intrigued by and see opportunity from the customer experience standpoint,” she said. “So we’re really looking at some other innovative ways we could expand from that perspective.”

Brands can reach Hy-Vee customers with their video message at various points in their shopping journey through the store. / Photo courtesy of Samsung

Hy-Vee and Samsung noted that the seamless integration of the Samsung VXT CMS with Samsung Ads gives RedMedia a cohesive content management strategy with data—including advanced measurement, targeting and programmatic transactional technology—to determine the optimal mix of original content and advertising to engage shoppers. Announced earlier this year, Samsung Ads has been creating a marketplace combining in-home CTV with digital out-of-home advertising, which Samsung said allows marketers to reach targeted audiences as they move throughout the day.

That includes how customers move throughout the store, as Hy-Vee and Samsung have taken an innovative approach to screen placement.

“They really are woven throughout the store to be embedded in the experiences the customer has with us through the shopping flow,” Enos said. “So whether that be in the perimeter departments or within center-store aisles and even in nonfood sections, they’re all throughout the shopping pattern.”

Examples of display content include ads or promos highlighting an adjacent item, new product launches, national brand campaigns, and recipes and/or meal solutions using nearby products. Some displays offer a degree of interactivity as well.

“You’ll see really contextual screens and screens at high-impact points within the store as well,” according to Enos. “So some tied to the merchandise that’s right there in the flow with the customer, and others just in heavy-traffic areas, points of latency where we know that a customer might be paused and could really engage with the screen and the content.”

The Samsung screens are positioned in perimeter departments as well as on center-store endcaps and within the grocery aisles. / Photo courtesy of Samsung

Such flexibility reflects the design of the Samsung VXT CMS platform, which the company said blends content management and remote device management functionality with intuitive features so users like Hy-Vee can control and secure their Samsung display network in real time.

“This is what I really love about the Hy-Vee and RedMedia relationship. When you think about what they’re trying to achieve with the experience, from the Samsung perspective, is that they have the digital endcaps, they have the screens up high, they have them built into some unique places that are so wonderful that it really catches your eye and you think, ‘How transformational is this?’ They have some screens in the middle of the aisle with the product built around it,” Parrish Chapman, senior director of enterprise retail sales at Samsung Electronics America, said at the meeting.

“Most companies that we’ve engaged with, they talk about three or four screens up high or when you first walk in. I think Hy-Vee and RedMedia are the first ones to really think in detail about the experience, the placement and the impact. And I think they’re doing a great job in how they’re covering the [in-store] environment and for their different [store] formats. This is why we’re so excited, because the value they’re offering in that retail medium is really unique.”

Importantly, the VXT CMS platform’s cloud-based device management optimizes content consistency and uptime while reducing the need for hands-on engagement with the hardware, in turn improving operational efficiency, Samsung reported. The solution’s reliability and scalability will be pivotal as Hy-Vee’s digital signage network grows to over 10,000 in-store displays that must be managed on a daily basis, Chapman noted.

“This is part of the program, that we want to talk about risk mitigation with hardware at scale. And so our 24/7 Knox [security platform] is monitoring that hardware and providing those services and reporting to keep their uptime, because obviously now it’s very important,” he said. “You don’t want a dark screen in front of a customer, and we don’t want a dark screen when we’re selling that space, because that’s both of our opportunities.”

Overall, West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee operates more than 285 retail stores in eight Midwestern states and generates annual sales of over $13 billion.