• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 20, 2021

Grocery giant Kroger’s retail media business, Kroger Precision today announced the launch of a new private programmatic advertising marketplace.

The Kroger Private Marketplace allows agencies and brands to reach consumers by applying Kroger first-party audience data to programmatic campaigns within their preferred ad-buying platform.

Kroger, which serves 60 million households annually nationwide, said that for the first time, brands can now reach the most relevant consumers across the web, using their own DSP of choice, and then optimize performance against actual retail sales.

Advertisers tailor their audiences to match campaign objectives using targeting science exclusively available through Kroger Precision Marketing. The platform pre-optimizes audiences to achieve business outcomes.

For example, when aiming for conversions, the platform’s proprietary tech will enable brands to reach relevant households that will deliver the strongest sales impact. Based on internal test data, these activations have resulted in household penetration gains from new and lapsed households – with at least three times more sales than the average consumer.

“We built The Kroger Private Marketplace to be flexible for agencies – while protecting the privacy of our shoppers,” says Cara Pratt, senior vice president, Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°. “You design the audience, choose the measurement criteria, set the safety standards, and activate in your tech stack. We’re setting the bar for the future of programmatic media.”

Publicis Groupe was the first holding company to participate in the alpha tests for this product, helping to shape the offering for its clients and the broader industry.

“Brands are looking for ways to tap first-party retail data and reduce ad waste,” says Helen Lin, chief digital officer, Publicis Groupe. “The Kroger Private Marketplace uses retail sales data to unlock new optimization levers for programmatic buyers – while still giving them the flexibility to manage the campaign in our existing tech stack.”

“We’re still in the early days of seeing ecommerce disrupt shopping habits,” says Pratt. “This is an important time for brands to leverage retail insights to influence new shopping behaviors. Kroger’s private marketplace reaches relevant households and empowers teams to optimize campaign performance against actual business outcomes.”

Kroger works with 84.51°,  a retail data science, insights and media company to develop the tech behind its precision marketing products.