How Walgreens, Haleon Turn Retail Media Into Store Sales
Vestcom's Shock Torem first called attention to the paradox that is retail media. And then, with the help of leaders from Walgreens and Haleon, he showed how companies are connecting upper funnel brand messaging to the moment of decision.
During a session last week at P2PI’s Retail Media Summit, Torem, SVP, media solutions at Vestcom, explained that while digital spend dominates brands’ advertising budgets, in-store is still where 85% of sales happen.
Using Walgreens and Haleon as the example, the speakers demonstrated that in-store media can be critical to driving omnichannel performance — through reach, relevance and results. And alignment between merchandising, marketing and media is critical to enable a connected shopper experience.
Katie Vogt, head of ad sales and client success with Walgreens Advertising Group, described the retailer’s approach to need-it-now moments:
"It's important to know that 9 million customers every day walk into a Walgreens store, and they all are there for unique reasons. … Our new campaign, called 'Now and Always,' is really anchored toward how we can be there for our customers in that moment that they need us most. … Digitally that's things like our one-hour delivery, our 30-minute pickup, and our site experience. And then in our stores, it's things like signage and display, and even our own team members, who are supporting our customers to find what they need."
Carrie Lovegren, director, shopper engagement, at Haleon, described how she thinks about connecting out-of-store messaging to the point of decision in-store. "We all know the shopper journey isn’t linear," she said. "That's more true now than it really ever has been."
Brands need to show up in a cohesive way, she added, and all the pieces need to work together, and be authentic to the environment.
The speakers walked the audience through examples of how they have engaged Walgreens' shoppers at key moments in their journey in-store.
A campaign targeting seniors leveraged tactics like Meta and email to drive awareness, and also used in-store navigation. Shelf tags communicated a "spend $25, earn $10 in rewards" offer for Haleon brands including Voltaren, Centrum, Tums and Sensodyne.
Walgreens has used pharmacy data to model front-of-store behaviors and target customers likely on a weight loss journey. Haleon has stressed the importance of educating shoppers on managing side effects and using products such as Benefiber. The example showed side panels in the beauty department that promoted the Benefiber brand and offered "support for your GLP-1 journey."
Furthermore, Haleon and Walgreens used in-aisle violators (or blades) for pain relief products. These signs disrupted and guided shoppers, while promoting the Theraflu and Advil brands.
Additionally, standees in the pharmacy engaged consumers during their wait time, reminding patients about immunizations and other health needs. They have targeted these high-intent shoppers for brands such as Advil.
"I feel like a lot of our examples are about that omnichannel experience, so I think that's my big takeaway," Vogt said. "We need to use the power of targeting audiences and reaching customers off-site, but also pairing it within stores where the magic happens."
Lovegren's takeaway …
"It's really just always remembering to be consumer-first, customer-first, and have that mindset in everything that you do — in the creative that you're building, in the location that you're reaching them. That will make sure that the magic happens, right? You need to make sure that you're reaching them in a way that's meaningful to them, and putting that consumer first in everything that you do will allow that."
