Mondelez Case Study: 'Converting Reach Into Revenue With In-Store Activation'
The Path to Purchase Institute for the seventh straight year has teamed up with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to share case studies for selected winners of the ANA’s annual REGGIE Awards.
Each of these shopper-focused campaigns is worthy of “best in class” designation for the unique ways in which they engaged shoppers and drove results. “REGGIE,” shorthand for “cash register,” is an acknowledgment that the ultimate objective of any brand activation program is to drive sales.
In 2026 for the first time, the REGGIES became REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards, honoring the teams and work that fuel brand marketing success.
2026 REGGIE BRAND CATALYST AWARD WINNER
Campaign: Converting Reach Into Revenue With In-Store Activation
Client: Mondelez International
Agency: Vayner Media
Category: Best Use of Retail Media Networks (Bronze Award)
Today’s marketers are increasingly looking for retail media programs that achieve seamless integration of their online and in-store brand presence while providing clear, measurable results. For years, however, measurement in physical stores has lagged behind digital channels because it has been difficult to isolate the impact of advertising from all of the other factors that influence in-store sales.
This was the crux of the marketing challenge when Albertsons’ retailer media network teamed up with Mondelez International last fall on a program to convert reach into revenue through in-store activation around the Sargento Cheese Bakes snack brand.
“While digital environments provide clear exposure and conversion signals, proving the true impact of in-store media required more sophisticated measurement capabilities,” says Taryn Rade, director of marketing science at Albertsons Media Collective.
According to Rade, the breakthrough for this program was the combination of its high-impact in-store screen activation and implementation of a rigorous measurement approach known as Matched Market Incrementality (MMI) methodology.
“Rather than relying on simple geographic or sales-based comparisons, MMI uses advanced statistical modeling to identify highly comparable test and control stores based on a wide range of store, shopper, market and competitive characteristics,” explains Rade. “This robust matching process minimizes bias and helps ensure that any performance differences are attributable to the campaign rather than underlying market variations.”
For Mondelez, the ability to precisely measure the impact and ROI of tools like in-store digital screens and displays was especially important, considering that many purchases in the snacking category are made on impulse or influenced at the shelf.
“When integrated with off-site retail media, brands create a seamless path from awareness to action, reinforcing key messages throughout the shopper journey,” says Melissa Pitmon, customer director of omnichannel activation at Mondelez International. “Well-executed in-store programs can increase category sales, deliver stronger lifts and convert shopper consideration into purchase when consumers are most receptive.”
In 2025, Mondelez adopted in-store digital screens for the first time with the Sargento Cheese Bakes brand across its spring and fall campaigns. “The results reinforced the value of the channel, with the fall activation delivering a significantly stronger ROAS than the spring campaign,” notes Pitmon.
The fall campaign opened with off-site targeting designed to spark awareness and drive traffic to the retailer’s digital environment across 116 Albertsons banners. A custom audience of cheese snacking category buyers who had purchased in the last 26 weeks was comprised of two main behavioral segments — quality‑driven shoppers and engagement‑driven shoppers — known to respond to premium snack offerings and demonstrate strong intent.
“Quality-driven shoppers over-index on premium products, trusted brands and elevated food experiences, making them a natural fit for Sargento Cheese Bakes’ differentiated value proposition,” explains Pitmon. “Engagement-driven shoppers are highly active throughout the path to purchase, demonstrating a strong openness to new product discovery and a higher likelihood of responding to retail media messaging.”
By combining category purchase behavior with shopper mindset signals, the campaign created a highly qualified audience that drove strong incremental sales and reinforced the value of behavioral audience intelligence in delivering retail media results, adds Rade.
With nearly 60 variables guiding the matching process, the MMI approach minimized noise and reduced bias, thus accurately revealing the campaign’s incremental effect. The measurement design operated across a wide range of store formats and screen placements, including newly installed locations such as deli and pharmacy areas, making the test both rigorous and representative of real-world shopping behaviors.
The program delivered strong outcomes for its first in-store matched-market initiative, proving the value of integrating measurable in-store media into the broader omnichannel mix. The campaign generated a $2.41 incremental ROAS, a 1.5% lift in conversion rate, more than 5.5 million impressions and an impressive 14% in-store sales lift.
What’s more, the approach offered a scalable blueprint for other programs involving Mondelez brands. As Pitmon explains, “Pair audience-led, cross-channel activation with robust incrementality measurement to understand not only whether shoppers were reached, but also how that exposure translated into incremental sales growth.”
