Albertsons' Roche: In-Store Unlocks New Opportunities to Rethink Retail Media Measurement
As in-store retail media surges with opportunities, Albertsons Media Collective's Liz Roche sees the retailer's stores as underleveraged canvases for inspiration and experimentation that extend beyond digital screens.
The Path to Purchase Institute sat down with Roche, vice president of media measurement, during Groceryshop last month to learn more about Albertsons' measurement priorities, and she believes the retail media network has only scratched the surface when it comes to in-store.
Albertsons Media Collective has had a busy fall, forging partnerships with Google Cloud for an AI search tool across all banners' mobile apps and Linqia to leverage retail media influencer content. It also shored up its leadership ranks, bringing on Brian Monahan as senior vice president.
A new partnership with Perion Network will enable brands to reach Albertsons shoppers through in-store, digital out-of-home and online channels, testing how in-store visibility and digital engagement can work together to influence purchase behavior through personalized content.
With a scale that includes 2,200 stores, 47 million loyalty members and 520 million-plus trips per year, Albertsons is focused on moving from point of sale to point of inspiration, said Roche.
"We know that people see new packages and try new things. Bringing in-store to life and being able to address the full funnel is good for our shoppers so they can be inspired and maybe get away from the bagged-salad-chicken-breast dinner every night."
Measurement's Continued Evolution
Increasing Albertsons' focus on in-store retail media can open opportunities for the brands that are similarly seeking to spur discovery and inspiration, noted Roche. These moments will in turn present new and interesting ways to measure impact and the media mixes that generate the best results.
Roche described today's brands as falling on a spectrum of retail media measurement experimentation. While some are tightening up and sticking to tried-and-true tactics in part because of economic caution and constrained budgets, others are leaning into arbitrage opportunities — emerging channels that don’t yet fit neatly into measurement models but can enhance lower-funnel efficiency.
The brands willing to pilot and test early are seeing outsized returns, but overall, she noted a wide range of risk tolerance across the industry, from cautious optimization to bold experimentation.
[See also: Learn how retail media is becoming a strategic engine for grocers]
Albertsons Media Collective is taking steps to increase transparency for new measurement methodologies, as well as combat the common criticism that RMNs are grading their own homework. This includes allowing their partners to expose gaps before they're rolled out, such as the features that synthetic control models are testing against.
"When we want to explore synthetic controls, the first thing we do is bring that to our partners and let them pressure-test and blow holes in it, and then we take it back to the lab," she said.
Ultimately, Albertsons Media Collective's teams of analysts and data scientists are not too precious for feedback, she added.
"We know that we have a lot of answers, but we need to shape those answers together. A big part of the past few months for us has been really workshopping some of our measurement methodology with our partners, especially the future-facing methodologies."
