How Kraft Heinz Drove Incremental Sales Lift With In-Store Retail Media at Empire
Kraft Heinz used barbecue season to put in-store retail media to the test.
With its omnichannel “Summer of Savings” campaign, the CPG giant sought to boost sales among shoppers buying condiments and adjacent categories at Empire’s Sobeys and Safeway banners.
The effort spanned social, email and on-site advertising to deliver a seasonal message showcasing the company’s products, especially ketchup. But the manufacturer also used the occasion to test the power of advertising on Empire Media+ in-store screens.
“In-store retail media is highly valuable to the future of grocery retail and brand marketing because it connects with shoppers at the point of purchase, where decisions are being made in real time,” Kraft Heinz Retail Media Manager Juliana Nodwell told the Path to Purchase Institute.
“It gives brands the opportunity to influence conversion, strengthen visibility, and create more meaningful and dynamic touchpoints throughout the shopping journey.”
From May 15 to July 8, Kraft Heinz ran an experiment, bringing the omnichannel campaign to all stores and testing how in-store screens affected sales at stores that were selected to normalize for other criteria that might change shopper behavior. The test found that adding these displays led to +1.08% incremental lift above the media mix the other stores received, generating about $159,000 worth of incremental sales.
Nodwell said Empire’s in-store network combined scale with incrementality measurement, demonstrating that ad spend can drive sales at the shelf rather than awareness alone.
The barbecue season messaging was placed on screens in the category aisle, at entry and at checkout to capture the attention of shoppers who intended to shop for summer occasions and encourage them to add Kraft Heinz products to their basket. The spend was focused on high impact, large-format screens rather than every screen in store in order ensure the ad spend had the highest impact.
“The ‘Summer of Savings’ campaign perfectly sums up the value of an omnichannel strategy. It is not a case of a single ad on a single screen, but a synchronized and multi-touchpoint shopper journey from awareness to conversion,” said Jason Bennicoff, vice president of Retail Media, at Empire Media+.
“Every channel plays a distinct role — reach, impact, relevance — meeting the customer wherever they may be. Screen size holds a significant impact, but it is the intricate role and consideration of every detail that brings the shopper to the checkout.”
Empire operates over 1,600 screens across its Sobeys, Safeway, and IGA banners, and saw this test as an opportunity to prove their value.
The campaign with valued partner Kraft Heinz was a welcome collaboration for Empire Media+, according to Bennicoff. “The scale of this campaign offered the ideal conditions to measure incremental sales lift from our in-store digital screens network with clean category relevance."
