International broadcaster NBCUniversal has announced a new retail media partnership with ecommerce business Instacart, which will enable NBCU advertisers to target and measure campaigns using Instacart’s first-party data.
The two companies say the new offering, expected to launch in Q2 on NBCUniversal’s streaming content, will enable advertisers to specifically target in-market consumers, using Instacart’s data. Instacart runs grocery delivery services via an app in the US and Canada, covering a range of national retailers, giving it a lot of data on users’ purchasing habits.
Alison Levin, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, says this data is increasingly important for advertisers, who are looking for more specific audiences beyond basic demographics. “Advertisers are increasingly prioritising strategic audiences, and with this partnership, CPG brands will be able to connect with the next generation of grocery shoppers in a highly engaging environment,” said Levin.
The partnership will also let advertisers see how effective these campaigns are, combining NBCU’s ad exposure data and purchase data for buys made via Instacart.
Many broadcasters are securing deals with retailers to link up purchase data with ad exposure, proving outcomes. But in some cases, the gap between a user seeing an ad and buying a product might be quite long, meaning the connection might be missed depending on the attribution window being used. But Tim Castelli, Instacart’s VP of global advertising sales, said that the nature of Instacart’s product – where customers order CPG products as and when they need them, means that ads will often drive immediate results.
“NBCUniversal advertisers will be able to leverage Instacart’s first-party audience data to enhance their streaming campaigns and prove their campaigns’ efficacy with our closed-loop measurement,” said Castelli. “Consumers can see a CPG’s ad on streaming and get that product delivered to them via Instacart in as fast as an hour – it’s a win-win for both consumers and brands.”
While Instacart’s data will initially only be available for targeting and measurement on streaming campaigns, NBCU says it plans to roll the same capabilities out on linear TV in the future.
Broadcasters betting on retail
As more new ad product announcements are made at this year’s upfronts, it’s likely we’ll see a number similarly based around retail media.
Many large advertisers, including those who have traditionally spent big on TV, are increasingly focussed on efficiency on ad spend, wanting to measure return on investment for more of their spending. At the same time, the growth of online shopping and increased importance of first-party data brought about by the pending deprecation of third-party cookies on Chrome means more and more marketing investment is flowing into retail media products.
Thus, broadcasters see an opportunity in partnering with retails and ecommerce tech companies, using their data for ad targeting and measurement.
