CVS provides its brands with a targeted audience through its 20-year loyalty program with 90 million users. Using transactional data from front-of-store and back-of-store, brands working with CVS can personalize ads. “We owe that to our customers, to give them that connectivity and messaging from brands that are relevant to them,” Lentz explained.
These brand and retailer partnerships are a huge opportunity for brands thatwant the ability to understand and target customers the right way. “Brands want to see the return that’s delivered for the investment that they make,” shared Ollie Shayer, senior director, global strategy and innovation at SMG. This, along with better merchandising and distribution opportunities, can be joined together to create the right type of retail media network, he added.
The role of AI
Several panelists shared how they use AI in their advertising and marketing. DoorDash uses AI to ensure that ads are personalized and relevant. “Everything we deploy AI for is hopefully solving a customer problem,” said Peter Giordano, general manager of platform and growth services at DoorDash Ads.
By using AI, DoorDash no longer has to ask small and mid-size restaurants what kinds of promotions they want to run. Instead, DoorDash just asks if they want to run a promotion andthe brand’s technology delivers the right message or offer to the right consumer at the right time, removing the guesswork, he said. This approach has led to an increase in conversions and sales from those promotions, while decreasing advertiser ad costs.
