News Briefs

Publicis Groupe’s CitrusAd in August appointed Rob Odd as the first regional CEO for its Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) business.

Odd comes to CitrusAd and into the growing retail media industry after an extensive agency career. Over the past 20 years, Odd has held executive leadership positions for various agencies, most recently within the WPP network. According to his LinkedIn profile, he spent the last five years at Hogarth Australia marketing agency, serving in four different roles.

Odd will be responsible for the CitrusAd business across six countries — Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea — as well as for the company’s strategic partnerships in Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. He will be tasked with focusing on team growth, customer success, strategic partnerships, client retention and new business development in the region.

“Retail media has already seen significant growth, but I believe we are still only scratching the surface of its potential,” Odd said in a news release.

CitrusAd says the addition of this role reflects the company’s focus on ensuring each region — Americas, APJ and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) — aims to drive growth and customer, and better positions the company to continue serving its retailer and advertiser partners.

“CitrusAd’s growth in Asia-Pacific and Japan has doubled in 2022, and with a strong pipeline from across the region, this is an important step in ensuring we respond to the needs of our growing retailer and advertiser network” said Adam Skinner, chief operating officer at CitrusAd, in the release.

“[Odd’s] diverse strengths and experience will provide a wealth of value as retailers commence new endeavors across on-site, off-site and in-store retail media in the APJ region,” added Skinner.

Marin Software has partnered with Snap Inc.'s social media app Snapchat to support ad campaigns through its flagship MarinOne platform. The integration with Snapchat’s marketing API provides advertisers with deeper insights to help improve the performance of their Snapchat campaigns through machine learning and automation.

The MarinOne platform unifies AI bidding, budget pacing, forecasting, performance insights and recommendations to help advertisers maximize the reach and impact of their Snapchat marketing investment. Advanced analytical grids provide flexible reporting across Snapchat campaigns in addition to paid media metrics from other social, search, display and e-commerce platforms all in one place, according to a news release from Marin Software.

“Snapchat has an enormous reach with millennial and Gen Z shoppers who hold $4.4 trillion in global spending power. This gives brands an incredible opportunity to drive brand awareness and revenue with their future customers,” said Chris Lien, Marin’s Chairman and CEO, in the release. 

Advertisers can optimize their Snapchat campaigns alongside other paid social campaigns as well as paid search, e-commerce, display and mobile app campaigns to help generate additional demand. Snapchat boasts roughly 7 million daily active users.

Ahold Delhaize’s Food Lion expanded its To Go grocery pickup service to 15 more stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, on Aug. 29. The retailer is offering shoppers their first pickup for free.

The service rolls out in time for the fall and holiday seasons, and shoppers can confirm availability and place orders through the Food Lion To Go website or mobile app and pick them up on the same day.

Food Lion continues to expand this service across the towns and cities it serves. Where allowed by law, customers 21 and older can also purchase beer and wine through To Go.

Additionally, by linking their personal Food Lion MVP savings loyalty card to their account, Food Lion loyalty members can use digital coupons and redeem “Shop & Earn” MVP rewards/savings. They can also see accumulated Shop & Earn rewards on their checkout screen and view which clipped digital coupons will be applied to their order. This is in addition to their MVP discounts, in-store promotions and weekly savings specials.

“We continue to offer Food Lion To Go at additional stores to help our customers spend more time on what matters most to them,” said Evan Harding, director of digital and e-commerce at Food Lion, in a news release. “We want to give neighbors the option to shop however they prefer, in-store or online, while still ensuring they have access to fresh groceries at affordable prices.”

INEO Tech Corp., the developer and operator of the INEO Media Network (a digital advertising and analytics solution for retailers), has partnered with Adapt Media to market INEO's digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising inventory to Adapt's advertising clients.

Based in Toronto, Adapt has been operating place-based out-of-home (OOH) advertising networks nationally for 24 years and providing street-level and in-store advertising in over 1,000 cities and towns across Canada. INEO will work with Adapt to grow its retail media network of in-store digital signage located at the entrance of retail stores.

"Partnering with Adapt Media is a major advancement for INEO's advertising pipeline due to Adapt's presence in the Toronto area and their strong national footprint," said Kyle Hall, CEO of INEO, in a news release. "With their help in marketing our ad inventory, INEO will gain access to increased national advertising campaigns and a broader range of potential customers."

According to INEO, its retail media network reaches over 2.4 million shoppers each month, and its intelligent demographic and analytics data enables visibility and targeting for location-based advertising by brands and advertisers.

"Given Canadian advertisers' increased reliance on retail media to target shoppers at the exact moment of purchase, we are delighted to ally ourselves with INEO's robust retail media network, patented technology and incomparable data,” said Amanda Newell, Adapt's chief revenue officer, in the release. “AI-fueled DOOH will allow our national advertisers to truly monetize eyeballs by both capturing shopper attention with eye-grabbing offers and netting consumer demographic data to allow for current and future tracking on their path to purchase.”

Newell added: “Our INEO partnership is the ideal next step in Adapt's continuing goal to offer national advertisers optimum DOOH placement, measurement and accountability, and we can't wait to showcase INEO's magnificent offering to brands and advertising agencies across Canada."

St. Paul, Minnesota-based The Vomela Cos., which provides specialty graphic design and printing services, has acquired printing company Visual Impact LLC, Blaine, Minnesota. 

"As a full-service provider in out-of-home advertising, retail, hospitality and events, Visual Impact's capabilities align well with Vomela's current offerings and strengthen our ability to deliver branded experiences to a growing portfolio of clients," said Vomela president and CEO Mark Auth in a news release.

The Vomela Cos. is a full-service specialty graphics provider, producing a wide variety of promotional, store decor, event, fleet, original equipment manufacturer (OEM), commercial and transportation graphics services. The company employs more than 1,400 people in 23 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Visual Impact joins Vomela’s family of brands, including C2 Imaging, which specializes in retail signage and on-demand digital printing; Corporate Identity Systems (CIS), which provides end-to-end, high-design graphics for retail, vehicles and environmental; Fusion Imaging, which provides large-format printing services; and Pratt Visual Solutions, which specializes in creating retail environments through design, store decor and P-O-P for brands of every size.

Kroger has tapped OneView Commerce to deliver a series of digital initiatives.

In a move to meet changing shopper needs, Kroger is leveraging OneView’s headless Unified Commerce platform and capabilities to finalize the grocer’s digital orders and power e-commerce pickup and delivery experiences at more than 1,000 Kroger locations.

"Using OneView's platform, we continue to deliver an innovative associate experience," said Sriram Samu, customer technology vice president at Kroger, in a news release from OneView. "The solution helps us create a seamless associate experience through guided processes and simplified training — ultimately reducing our customer wait times."

Kroger development teams leverage OneView's unified commerce transaction engine to meet both store associates' and their customers' rapidly evolving needs across modalities, according to the release.

"We are pleased to support Kroger's phenomenal success in speeding delivery of solutions based on their strategic business transformation priorities and customers' needs," said OneView CEO Linda Palanza in the release. "Their results are a testament to our vision for unified commerce and our platform's power to enhance customer and store associate experiences while enabling retailers to retain control over the development and delivery of new brand-based interactions."