• by Fern Siegel , February 18, 2022

Walgreens Advertising Group has launched a self-serve programmatic effort that gives brand advertisers better control of their campaigns. It extends the company's belief that retail media is solidly positioned to be a core disruptor in any market to any customer.

Advertisers can custom-target consumers by using Walgreens’ first-party audience data and advanced analytics, then run campaigns on each advertiser’s preferred demand-side platform (DSP).

WAG's goal is to take strong customer relationships and marry it to the information brands possess.

The new self-serve solution is available through The Trade Desk or OpenX.

Luke Kigel, vice president of Walgreens integrated media and head of Walgreens Advertising Group, said the new effort would build “a better consumer experience through more relevant and optimized advertising. “This solution allows the relationship between brand advertiser and retailer to be more transparent than ever and deliver a more integrated, human experience to the consumer."

Brand advertisers can maximize campaign reach and scale across digital channels: on Walgreens DSP, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube. The programmatic service can target purchasers of more than 70 key categories. There are 95 million myWalgreens members and Walgreens has an estimated 1 billion touchpoints daily with customers.

With the addition of the clean room, via Epsilon, brand advertisers can measure customer overlap yet keep their first-party data private.

The new self-serve programmatic offering will expand more broadly in the second quarter.

Kigel previously stated WAG had three core principles: “help brands deliver more relevant personalized experiences; support audience-led and channel agnostic media approaches; and make it easy to work with us.”