Commentary

Grocery Giant Ahold Delhaize Hires CitrusAd, Powered by Epsilon, To Expand Retail Media

Peapod Digital Labs, the e-commerce subsidiary of grocery giant Ahold Delhaize USA, has selected CitrusAd, powered by Epsilon platform to overhaul and expand its retail media operation, the companies have confirmed.

Publicis Groupe acquired retail media CitrusAd in July 2021 and spent a year integrating the operation with its Epsilon data unit. With media retail sales expected to reach $60 billion in the next couple of years, the integration was designed to create 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).

Peapod Digital Labs runs a media network dubbed AD Retail Media and the overhaul is intended to boost Ahold Delhaize USA brands’ market presence. Those brands, largely focused on the East Coast, include Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford, Stop & Shop, and Fresh Direct.

Combined the Ahold Delhaize USA brands operate more than 2,000 stores and process more than 23 million transactions per week. They have nearly 24 million active loyalty card users and generate more than $51 billion in annual sales, according to the company.

advertisement

advertisement

Peapod Digital’s plan is to expand AD Retail Media into an end-to-end retail media business that will comprise a unified on-site and off-site platform to deliver a single point of activation and measurement. The expanded operation will “create a connected go-to-market offering for CPGs, grounded in new capabilities, simplicity and value generation,” said JJ Fleeman, President, Peapod Digital Labs.  

In effect AD Retail Media will transform to an in-house digital media agency utilizing CitrusAd powered by Epsilon as its main platform, the first major retailer to do so. It will expand its retail media team and also tap digital transformation specialist Publicis Sapient for additional support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next story loading loading..