Selecting the right touchpoints is key to maximizing results

In this edition, we explain why retailers and brands must take a collaborative, data-led approach to choosing the right touchpoints in crafting a retail media campaign. Plus, context from updates from Paypal, United Doordash, Albertsons, Costco and more.

Not every touchpoint is going to achieve the desired results, and when too many touchpoints are added at once, it can reduce the impact of a campaign for brands.

This week, we’re debunking the myth that brands should always activate as many touchpoints as possible to achieve success through Retail Media Networks. The reality is the same as always: retailers must take a data-led, collaborative and creative approach to building the best retail media campaigns with brands. 

At Threefold, we always advocate for an omnichannel approach: a campaign that can reach shoppers across their paths to purchase on a retailer’s e-commerce platform, in-store and elsewhere (Meta, YouTube, CTV, etc.). But that doesn’t mean it’s advisable to activate as many touchpoints as possible for each campaign. Not every touchpoint is going to achieve the desired results, and when too many touchpoints are added at once, it can reduce the impact of a campaign for brands. It’s about reaching the right shoppers at the right moment to achieve the intended goal.

Data from Plan-Apps, Threefold’s proprietary Retail Media Operating System that powers all of our partner RMNs, shows that activating multiple touchpoints will increase sales lift, but when too many are added, ROI can decline as the sales lift achieved doesn’t make up for the cost of activation. That’s why Plan-Apps offers campaign forecasting, which enables retailers and supplier brands to collaboratively predict campaign results ahead of activation.

Retailers must treat brands as clients; not customers. When a data-led approach is taken to campaign planning, retailers can offer brands the right media combinations that are likely to achieve the best results. Retail media is not ad sales; retailers must be transparent and set rate cards accordingly. Retailers stand to earn more in the long term by creating RMN propositions that deliver for brands, causing brands to make repeat investments in an increasingly crowded retail media landscape.

OK, we’ll get off of our soapbox (for now). 

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About Threefold

Founded in 2008, Threefold is the world's leading Retail Media Network (RMN) specialist, headquartered in both New York and London. As part of the SMG agency network, which employs nearly 400 retail media experts, Threefold's primary mission is to unlock incremental brand and supplier budgets, curate media campaigns that supercharge sales and elevate its retail partners into top-tier omnichannel media owners, spanning in-store, off-site and online.

Threefold's services include the leading Retail Media Operating System Plan-Apps, consultancy and a white-label in-house solution that has seen the agency build, run and operate over 10 Retail Media Networks to date. In the UK, Threefold runs and operates Walgreens' Boots Media Group, ASDA’s LS Eleven Media Services, Co-op Media Network, Morrisons Media Group and retail media for The Very Group.