• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 16, 2022

Nine months ago Publicis Groupe doubled down on retail media, acquiring CitrusAd, a SaaS platform that optimizes advertising for brands directly within retailer websites.

Now, with media retail sales expected to reach $60 billion in the next couple of years, the holding company has launched an enhanced retail media service that combines CitrusAd’s in-store capabilities with Epsilon’s off-site scalability (it has 300 million unique consumer IDs in its database).

It’s called CitrusAd, powered by Epsilon and the company says it is the industry’s first unified on-site and off-site retail media platform.

Epsilon’s data shows that only 10% of customers shop on retailers’ websites or apps compared to in-store. So, the company asserts, if retailers are not optimized for on-site and off-site, they are missing out on huge potential sales increases.

And the unified platform is designed to insure that doesn’t happen by helping retailers maximize sales as they extend reach beyond their owned channels.  

With the service brands can manage campaigns on a self-serve platform enabling off-site and in-store activation across multiple formats and channels such as sponsored product, display, video, CTV, digital screens and email.  And so-called “clean room” technology enables retailers and brands to securely collaborate on permissioned data to optimize brand sales in an increasingly cookieless world.

More about the new offering can be seen here in a launch video hosted by CitrusAd CEO Brad Moran.

Publicis Group CEO Arthur Sadoun, stated, “With the launch of CitrusAd, powered by Epsilon, Publicis Groupe is leading the new generation of identity-led retail media. We are pushing the boundaries of retail media platforms, empowering brands to connect with real people across the full customer journey and make investment decisions that are informed by real-time measurement and validated by transactions…The launch of our unified platform is a critical milestone in helping brands take back control of their customer relationships.”