Criteo Acquires Brandcrush

Digital advertising company Criteo has acquired Brandcrush, an Australia-based company whose platform enables the buying and selling of omnichannel retail media, including in-store and on-premise digital displays/experiences, in-home offerings and online solutions.

The deal, announced on March 7, further expands Criteo’s retail media business, equipping the company to provide a more holistic omnichannel activation platform globally for retailers to plan and manage their media inventory across both e-commerce and physical retail. It also enables brands and agencies to discover and purchase media from retailers.

Additionally, the acquisition expands Criteo's client footprint and capabilities in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific retail media market.

While details of the transaction were not disclosed, Brandcrush brings roughly 20 employees to the Criteo team.

"As marketers continue to invest in retail media, offline is emerging as the new frontier — and brands and agencies must be able to effectively plan, execute and measure their campaigns in an integrated way," Sherry Smith, general manager of global enterprise at Criteo, said in a media release.

[WATCH: Retail Media Unplugged, Episode 1, with Criteo's Courtney Cochrane and Shipt's Dave Young]

The Brandcrush platform provides 360-degree media asset management and activation, ranging from in-store activations such as digital screens, P-O-P displays, pop-ups and sampling to out-of-store activations including inbox sampling and inserts, and online activations such as digital circulars, email and social sponsorship opportunities.

Combining Brandcrush with Criteo's retail media solutions — which include sponsored ads, on-site display and off-site ads — the overall platform now allows advertisers to scale their campaigns across touchpoints and channels. Brands will also now have a single sign-on where they can manage and analyze in-store activations via Brandcrush and online campaigns with Criteo, Smith recently told AdExchanger.

Brandcrush's platform is available globally and is currently undergoing integration with Criteo's retail media solutions to provide a seamless experience for retailers and their advertisers, per the release. The company will also continue to support integrations with financial, digital, audio and commerce platform partners in the retail ecosystem.

Smith also told AdExchanger that the future of in-store retail media — such as in-store TV setups, “streaming-type radio feeds” and digital-out-of-home units — is bright and that the Brandcrush acquisition certainly positions Criteo to grow into that space. These opportunities and placements are being packaged for retail media and can also be transacted programmatically, she noted.