UK Online Grocer Ocado Retail Launches Ad Network
British online grocer Ocado Retail is enhancing its e-commerce ad experience with the launch of its retailer media network, Ocado Ads. The solutions will enable brand partners to serve relevant advertising and create a personalized experience for shoppers.
This next step in Ocado’s retail media journey comes as ad spend for the retail media industry is expected to pass 3.2 billion pounds in the U.K. this year, and is set to almost double by 2027, according to IAB Europe, 2024.
Ocado Retail’s first-party customer data helps brands target customers based on purchase history and reach a verified audience for advertisers, per a statement from the retailer.
Ocado Ads offerings:
- Ocado Ads Manager: tools and features for managing campaigns, powered in partnership with retail media technology/platform provider Zitcha.
- Full-funnel advertising: onsite and offsite, social media and connected TV.
- Insights & measurement: Insights, analytics and measurement powered by Beet, Ocado’s self-serve insights platform, with a metrics roadmap aligned to IAB standards.
- Ocado audiences: Advertisers can target and build audiences, and use them for targeting offsite.
- Ocado innovation: Advertisers can leverage the Ocado NPD Lab for fast new product development and use A/B testing to optimize creative performance.
Ocado Retail said its ad platform aims to be the “home of test and learn” for U.K. grocery advertising.
“Ocado Ads is raising the bar for retail media,” Jack Johnson, head of Ocado Ads, said in the statement. “We encourage all our suppliers to grow with us, and so we’ve created Ocado Ads [to provide] another growth engine for brands.”
“Ocado Ads has a flexible operating model that challenges the one-size-fits-all approach of traditional retail media networks,” he added. “Whether you're an advertiser or an agency, you can ‘have it your way’: fully self-serve, completely managed, or anywhere in between.”
“Ocado is spearheading the use of our joint business planning tools and will be the first in EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] to access Zitcha’s single customer-view platform, where it can manage its network to scale and deliver against its bottom line,” said Troy Townsend, Zitcha CEO. “The Ocado partnership illustrates how our platform can empower an existing retail media network to drive growth and maximize performance.”
Ocado Retail is a joint venture between Marks & Spencer Group and Ocado Group.