Exploring retail media innovation with Bill Clapes, President of DEEL Media, on RMNs, effective CTAs, and driving in-store and online customer engagement.
Bill, could you please share a brief overview of your professional journey and your current role as President of Deel Media?
I graduated with a degree in film and video production, and a minor in instructional technologies. I was fortunate enough to land a role at UPS using my skills to create corporate training and communications materials. In the early 1990s I became curious about how the internet would impact the world of communication and that led to a role at a large restaurant franchising organization, applying internet technologies to streamline the company’s business processes. In that role I was introduced to one of the first companies to create software for managing digital menu board content online. I thought it was brilliant, and when I was invited to join the company, I jumped at the opportunity. That’s where I met my business partner, Bryan Lynch. Bryan and I founded DEEL in 2009 to solve the challenges of efficiently scaling digital network content management and delivering “last mile” solutions for retail media, extending merchandising and advertising platforms to the store.
How familiar are you with Retail Media Networks (RMNs) and their role in advertising within retail environments?
I’m very familiar with the technologies required, the importance of opening inventory to the supply-side marketplace, and the vast opportunity to gain consumer mindshare. That said, DEEL is not an advertising company. We supply the expertise required to install, support, and maintain hardware at retail, and content distribution software that integrates with advertising platforms, allowing retail media networks to extend to retail. To lean on the UPS analogy, we pick-up content, deliver it to the store, make sure it’s signed-for, and we provide delivery confirmation.
In your opinion, what is the main advantage for retailers in leveraging RMNs on their online and in-store platforms?
Retail media networks have a two-pronged benefit for the retailer, offering the ability to monetize valuable real estate through advertising sales, while allowing for merchandising of products in-store.
How effective do you think RMNs are compared to traditional Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) advertising networks?
Understanding the specific demographics of shoppers in a retailer’s store environment – who the shopper is – is much clearer through a retail media network than in a traditional digital out-of-home network. The ad buyer can be more confident in targeting shoppers by demographic, and this confidence should lead to higher CPMs.
The brief mentions that many RMNs are missing a crucial component: the call to action (CTA). How important do you believe a strong CTA is in retail advertising?
To answer this question, I’d like to first draw the distinction between advertising and merchandising. From a messaging perspective, my opinion is that advertising is related to the presentation of items that are not immediately available in the retail environment (e.g. a Ford truck ad inside of a Kroger), while merchandising is content that presents immediately available in-store offers. With that in mind, I feel that the call-to-action is extremely important in the merchandising scenario. The purpose of the merchandising message is to drive a consumer to make an immediate decision based on a compelling offer. Advertising can build product awareness and brand-equity, but if the item is not readily available it’s difficult to tie the viewing of the message to the actual downstream purchase. This is a gap that we’re working to close through integration with other platforms such as loyalty programs.
What types of CTAs do you find most compelling in retail media (e.g., “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” “Use Coupon,” etc.)? Please specify.
The type of call-to-action that best drives a purchase is an offer of a discount, or the perceived offer of a discount. In traditional retail a “buy one, get one” offer presents great perceived value, while in foodservice retail a bundled offer such as a combo meal provides the consumer with quick and easy decision-making, along with perceived value.
How likely are you to engage with advertisements in-store or online that include a clear and direct CTA?
The likelihood of a customer to act on an offer is directly related to the relevance of that offer to the customer. Let me break that down: the better a retailer understands the demographics of customers in their store at any given time, and presents offers that are relevant to those customers, the more likely sales will increase. Activating this concept manually is difficult and time-consuming, but in our testing we’ve been able to significantly move the needle.
Machine learning allows us the ability to automate this process by letting our software decide what to present based on historical demographic and sales data. This also allows the software to learn how the actions of those decisions impacted sales, therefore building upon that learning to perfect the model.
What challenges do you think retailers face when integrating effective CTAs into their RMNs?
I feel the biggest disconnect that I’ve seen to date is an understanding of how best to use the medium. There’s a huge difference between traditional advertising and in-store advertising or merchandising. Traditional digital advertising assumes a passive consumer, sitting down, watching television or in front of a computer. In this type of advertising a writer has fifteen, thirty, even sixty seconds to build a compelling story, with the call-to-action as a payoff toward the end of the ad. In the retail environment people are in motion. Messages are brief. To be effective the call-to-action must be visible whenever someone glances at the screen. Marketers must consider this difference when creating messaging for retail media networks.
From your perspective, what improvements or innovations would you suggest to make RMNs more effective in driving customer actions and sales?
The integration of sensors can help us better understand the demographics of who’s viewing and lingering, and tying that to performance at the till for the specific messaging shown, can greatly increase our ability to target messaging based on real data.
What key piece of advice would you give to retailers and advertisers looking to maximize the impact of their Retail Media Networks?
Implementing a retail media network is a multi-disciplined project.
Make sure that your team includes resources with expertise in in-store merchandising, construction, logistics, and networking. Analyze your store layout to determine best placement of displays for customer travel paths and sight lines. Make sure you have a partner who understands how to get the hardware installed and supported.
You’ll need a CMS platform that can integrate with anything. Like supply side advertising engines, POS systems, price book systems, printing platforms, etc. Integration might also include data and triggers from sensors and cameras for understanding shopper behavior and creating more immersive shopping experiences.
Finally, make sure your graphic designers and motion graphic artists are experts at creating compelling in-store advertising and merchandising messaging.
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Bill Clapes, President at DEEL! Media
Bill Clapes has over 35 years of professional experience. Bill began his career as a Communications employee at UPS. After, he moved to AFC Enterprises as the Director of Franchise Technologies. In 2008, he became the President at MxN Media. In 2009, he founded DEEL! Media, a digital agency specializing in customer-facing retail merchandising, design, and implementation, where he continues to serve as President.LinkedIn.
