A Look at Hy-Vee's Retailer Media Network

In September, Hy-Vee officially launched its full-scale retailer media network. Hy-Vee RedMedia connects brand partners directly with the regional grocer’s customer base across multiple platforms and channels.

Hy-Vee says this in-house venture enables brands to reach and target specific customers and create omnichannel marketing strategies through the retailer’s digital platforms, in-store advertising and brand-safe websites.

With Hy-Vee RedMedia, marketers can hone their brand messaging based on purchasing behavior, first-party data, smart tools/tech and brand preferences as well as build brand affinity through personalized interactions, according to a media release.

“Retail media is outpacing traditional marketing and will be a game changer in consumer marketing,” Jason Farver, president of Hy-Vee RedMedia, said in the release. “Leveraging insights allows companies to be smarter and more strategic with their marketing dollars, while also improving the customer experience by reaching the right customer at the right time with the right product offering.”

Some of Hy-Vee RedMedia’s solutions include:

• On-site: Banner and carousel placements, sponsored product experiences, brand landing pages, custom offers for loyalty members and digital coupons.
• Off-site: Display, connected CTV, social and video opportunities; targeted standalone customers communications via email and the retailer’s mobile app; Epsilon ID Matching combining first-, second- and third-party data; placements across 14,000-some publishers.
• In-store: Product displays, events and signage as well we display ads on 7,000-some digital screens, in-store product sampling and in-store audio.

Hy-Vee’s portfolio of services and assets include food and grocery as well as pharmacy, dietetics, specialty health care, banking, manufacturing, construction and wine and spirits, to name a few. The retailer also operates several digital-driven ventures, including Hy-Vee Aisles Online, Iowa-based specialty healthcare product marketplace WholeLotta.com, prescription discount search engine VCRx.org and telehealth service RedBox Rx. 

Hy-Vee RedMedia also offers closed-loop reports for post-campaign attributions, access to real-time analytics, inventory validation and basket analysis, per the network’s website. The retailer worked with agency partners to bring the network to fruition, including Publicis Group’s CitrusAd (powered by Epsilon), Neptune Retail Solutions’ Quotient, Merkle and Mood Media’s Vibenomics.

The retailer says its business portfolio gives brands access to insights that go beyond simple demographics and wide-ranging buying behaviors, allowing the retailer to provide information that it says better illustrates lifestyle preferences than many other retailers. Hy-Vee RedMedia offers brands a deep understanding of the consumers they are trying to reach and provides content that's relevant and valuable to those consumers.

Hy-Vee RedMedia joins the increasingly crowded onslaught of retailer media networks available to marketers as well as the growing number of regional retailers getting in on the action.