Lowe’s Cos. Inc. has added a new dimension to its retail media network capabilities, working with technology company Vibenomics to enable it.
The new retail media network technology focuses on in-store ads. Lowe’s will leverage it to use audio ads in its all its owned and operated store locations.
Early results from brands using this retail media advertising technology showed an incremental increase in sales and return on ad spend, Lowe’s general manager and head of retail media John Storms told Digital Commerce 360 via email.
“We designed our portfolio of omnichannel advertising solutions to reach home improvement customers at every step of their shopping journey,” Storms said. “Our advertising starts from the point of inspiration through social channels like Pinterest and Meta, to the point of conversion through Lowes.com and our new in-store audio in partnership with Vibenomics.”
The Lowe’s marketing team is “rebranding” its retail media network, vice president of marketing Bill Boltz told investors in the retailer’s earnings call for its fiscal second quarter.
It’s moving “to a simpler platform where we help our brand partners meet a wide range of marketing objectives from performance on shelf and new product launches to seasonal promotions and multiproduct sales,” Boltz said.
Lowe’s is No. 11 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s largest online retailers by annual web sales. Digital Commerce 360 categorizes Lowe’s as a Hardware & Home Improvement retailer.
Lowe’s adds Vibenomics ads to its retail media network
Lowe’s launched its retail media network in 2021. Since then, the company said, it has grown to serve ads for more than 300 home-improvement brands. Lowe’s media network advertising is available for the retailer’s current vendor partners, Storms told Digital Commerce 360.
In March, Google announced a retail media solution in partnership with Lowe’s. The beta uses Google’s Search Ads 360 product to facilitate retail media campaigns. It extends advertisers’ reach to new third-party channels beyond the retail media network’s owner.
“Our partnership with Google’s Search Ads 360 is an important step in expanding our media network’s offsite capabilities,” Storms said. “We’re using a managed service model today, but we’re on the journey toward self-service options for our brand partners to make it even easier to run campaigns in the future.”
Meanwhile, the new technology that Vibenomics provides Lowe’s specifically focuses on the retailer’s stores and own media network. Storms told Digital Commerce 360 that audio ads will help Lowe’s better reach its in-store shoppers.
“With a large mix of DIY and Pro customers visiting our stores, in-store audio was an important expansion to our portfolio of omnichannel advertising solutions,” Storms said. “Access to Vibenomics’ in-store technology helps us better reach in-store shoppers by serving relevant programmatic audio advertisements during a critical time in the customer’s shopping journey.”
Attributing sales to audio ads
The audio ads Vibenomics technology provides focus on impressions-based buying and programmatic activation. It’s similar to radio ads, said Paul Brenner, senior vice president of retail media and partnerships at Vibenomics. A key part of his role is integrating the work Vibenomics’ parent company, Mood Media, does with display screens and audio into retail media networks.
“It’s a one-to-many audience,” Brenner told Digital commerce 360. “Really, the only way that you can attribute sales is through a control-test scenario.”
That includes selecting a control group of stores, testing for feasibility in comparable locations with similar footprints and promotional calendars. And Vibenomics can typically target times of day where impressions are at their best.
“The best targeting that we provide is day of week, hour of day, heavy up on impressions,” Brenner said.
Second to that, he said, is targeting based on planning. For example, a retailer distributing gardening products might want to target stores in the southeastern United States in February, when spring starts in the region, and then move north as spring starts in areas like the Midwest.
The goal, Brenner said, “is to bring the programmatic impression-based models to the venue-specific stores.” The in-store impressions from Vibenomics audio ads inform the Lowe’s retail media network. And they do so by allowing Lowe’s and Vibenomics to measure in-store impressions and audiences in a way that makes them comparable to digital impressions and audiences.
“It’s really just a building block,” Brenner said. “I think that’s what the Lowe’s people have been excited about as we leveled up their in-store innovation as a foundation to where now, we can build on top of that with more automated technology, faster attribution.”
Addressing retail media network privacy standards
When it comes to the audio ads Lowe’s has implemented, Vibenomics also works with Placer.ai, a data company that measures location data, foot traffic and more. Placer.ai provides data insights to Vibenomics that help track store-by-store and hour-by-hour impressions.
Vibenomics does not gather demographic information, even with its visual display ads. And Placer.ai does not use device identification to track location or foot traffic. It uses machine learning and imagery to determine how many people enter retail stores and for how long. Brenner said the companies follow standards that the Internet Advertising Bureau has set.
The IAB is making those standards available for public comment until Nov. 1. Additionally, it said, it created the standards “to address the rapidly expanding in-store Retail Media opportunities and offer unified definitions, measurement standards, and guidelines for ad formats and store zones.”
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