Omnicom Media Group's Keiko Osada Finds Shopping Insights and Innovation in Vegas

Shoptalk 2022 is one of the largest retail conferences in the world Osada was ecstatic to be back among peers and to be able to reconnect with industry friends at one of the largest most wellattended conferences to date But at the same time she was a little surprised by the conversations she had with attendees at the show which welcomed 10000 people from 48 countries breaking attendance records from prior to the pandemic It featured over 250 speakers from all walks of retail including grocery fashion furniture and other verticals and an Expo of over 300 exhibitors For the retail trade industry a moment of normal had returnedGoing into the conference Osada expected the focus to be on next generation innovation omnichannel marketing the breakdown of organizational silos sustainability and consumer data privacy However one topic seemed to dominate even more than she expected the Metaverse quotIn almost every talk that we had it was 39How are you thinking about the Metaverse NFTs and the Future of Digital39quot she explained quotThat it was a subject wasnamp8217t surprising but how much it was talked about was and essentially how little people know about itquotOver the past quarter there have been numerous brands that have been diving headfirst into the Metaverse Proctor ampamp Gamble created an elaborate showcase during CES for all its brands PampampGamp8217s live sales rep avatars gave a glimpse of what the future of both prospecting and CRM could look like Pacsun the Gen Z fashion retailer has embraced cryptocurrency payments and partnered with Roblox to clothe avatars in Pacsun branded clothing and is even coming out with realworld Metaversebranded clothingIn February Molson Coors designed a virtual bar in Decentraland a cryptobased virtual world to conquest AnheuserBusch InBev during the Super Bowl However the results may be a reflection of how much hype is built into the current Metaverse marketing wave Although it used a TV spot to drive traffic during the highly viewed game which reached 208 million viewers Coors has reportedly received only around 40000 visitors While reach was most likely not their objective it still puts into perspective the hype that is currently in playOne of the focal points of the Shoptalk conference is the quotShark Reefquot startup pitch modeled after Shark Tank which highlights companies that the organizers feel are innovative and relevant Tellingly there were no directly related Metaverse companies included among the 15 contestants The audience choicewinning company was ReUpp a sustainability platform that offers customers a buyback program in the form of store credits and free return shipping labels for consumers at the time of original purchase Osada predicts that next year quotWe39ll see a slew of Metaverse companiesquotAnother hot topic at Shoptalk according to Osada was the fastgrowing revenue stream of retail media which according to eMarketer is set to surge by 28 this year a 24 billion marketplace that is expected to grow to 41 billion by 2024BCG Global is even more bullish projecting retail media becomes a 110 billion market by 2026 exceeding profit margins from merchandising sales At the conference Kroger Precision Marketing and its 8451amp176 unit announced that marketerstrading desks can now purchase productlisting ads using select thirdparty management platforms These include Pacvue Skai and FlywheelMeanwhile Instacart announced that it is instituting a quotpowered by Instacartquot platform that brand advertisers can utilize to spread their messages across multiple retailers Instacart will be able to offer targeted brand messages and personalized offers directly into a customer39s digital shopping cartquotInstead of innovation from the retail media partners themselves the emphasis is more on how brands are thinking about the holistic strategiesquot Osada noted quotSpecifically endtoend planning is something I am very involved with from an Omnicom perspective but we also are focused on how we harmonize those strategies As SKUs are similar how we can look at them across the board and drive greater efficiency and effectiveness but also be able to react more realtime to where the consumer isquotEven if it39s the same product it may be a better optimization on a Walmart vs a Dollar Generalquot she continued quotHow do we look at this as a retail media strategy and not a Walmart or Dollar General strategyquot Osada sees data harmonization companies as key components as the ascent of retail media continuesWith this predicted ascent of retail media the natural question arises Who will own the relationship Is this in the realm of the mediaprogrammatic team or is this coming out of shoppermarketing budgets Osada admits that this is still a gray area quotI think internally at client organizations there is a little bit of that friction as historically shopper marketing has spent their dollars on very different tactics not typically involving mediaquot she saidBut she added quotWe see our clients making progress They are saying 39We have to have those conversations together We39re not just shopper marketers We39re not just brands We are here for the consumer to have the best consumer journey39quotIt39s a matter of letamp8217s plan together and talk through what39s really going to make sensequot Osada continued quotWhen we build our strategy itamp8217s not just to the brand marketing teams but to the shopper marketing and eCommerce organizations as wellquotThe retail industry has been severely challenged and has dramatically evolved over the past two years With the focus shifting to omnichannel Metaverse immersive retail environments and 3D digital SKUs the next 12 to 24 months looks to be even more exciting and dynamicFor many brands even those outside of endemics the firstparty data that retailers own will provide critical signals to replace insights lost to cookie deprecation and expanded privacy laws This retailer data will fuel the growth of retail media Osada will be listening to those signals and guiding marketers on their journey to reach the customerClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Omnicom Media Group's Keiko Osada Finds Shopping Insights and Innovation in Vegas

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