As grocers look to ramp up retail media capabilities, Albertsons has been working over the past few years to fashion itself as a frontrunner within the space. Kristi Argyilan, Albertsons Media Collective’s senior vp, has been on the forefront of those advancements and a driving force for a few of Albertsons’ most pivotal retail media moves.
Argyilan has served because the retail media arm’s SVP for the past three years and helped the grocery store move its retail media network in-house in late 2021. Since then, Albertsons Media Collective has focused on growth and innovation, Argyilan said, partnering with firms that allow the grocery store to experiment with latest technologies and capabilities.
Standardization has also been a priority for Albertsons, Argyilan said, as the grocery store’s retail media network works to enhance measurement industry-wide. In September, Albertsons Media Collective announced that the Interactive Advertising Bureau would assume the retail media standardization framework the grocery store published last summer.
“As [retail media] has exploded as a priority, especially with cookies coming out of the market, the demands of retail media are escalating as well,” Argyilan said. “And so our must standardize, to turn into easier as a media sector to have interaction with, is an actual necessary piece and one in every of the things that we’ve been leaning into.”
Argyilan spoke with Grocery Dive on Albertsons Media Collective’s retail media priorities and where the industry stands today.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
GROCERY DIVE: How does Albertsons approach latest retail media initiatives and projects?
Headshot of Kristi Argyilan, Albertsons Media Collective senior vp.
Courtesy of Albertsons Companies
KRISTI ARGYILAN: The one thing that we at all times ask of ourselves is, “Who is it in service of?” And, from my perspective, it must be in service of the clients. So then we resolve the most effective solution to bring what we’ve to market. Does it require one other platform users must click into? Or are advertisers asking that or not it’s some type of service or platform they’re already using?
We do find that we partner more than we construct, but there are some very specific things that we construct ourselves — like our data platforms. Because the entire company operates off of the info that we’ve, having that be internally run and built for our purposes is naturally the best way we do this.
Consolidation is becoming vital for smaller and regional grocers expanding into the retail media space. Is Albertsons doing any consolidation work to higher connect banners?
We haven’t yet, but I get asked that query, especially given how we already operate 14 to twenty different brands. And we actually have consolidated all of those in order that we will execute as near nationally as our store footprint and our customer footprint will allow us to.
But there is this constant conversation about what I’ll call a consortium. You must quickly assess privacy while you’re fascinated with things that we’d white label for the market. And there could also be tools and technology that we could white label. But when it gets to the info piece, that’s where it gets really tricky for plenty of really good reasons when you concentrate on how privacy laws work, and most significantly, what our customers are asking and permissioning us to do.
Where is Albertsons Media Collective leveraging AI without delay? What are Albertsons’ future plans for it?
The primary use that we’re using it for without delay is what we call “the execution.” If you think that of the impact of AI on media planning and buying, it’s actually quite exciting.
There’s numerous manual labor media planning and buying, especially while you’re talking about digital and the necessity to optimize. And the more cycles of optimization you possibly can do the higher the performances. And sooner or later, humans must sleep and machines don’t, so our ability to maintain up and push through high-volume campaign planning and execution and optimization is an actual plus for us.
In terms of generating multiple versions of creative assets, AI is an enormous plus for us as well because, together with optimizing media itself, it’s optimizing the creative executions. And to have multiple versions available that, again, machines can do more fluidly than humans can, all of it just results in stronger performance across the board.
What we’re all still attempting to determine is how AI helps with content, specifically as we push into television and Connected TV (CTV). For probably the most part with video, you’ll are inclined to get a produced video asset from the brand, but then if you ought to make it commerce enabled, there’s more that you just add to it. And I feel the true questions are “Does AI help with that straightforward versioning?” and “How can we arrange the creative process to give you the chance to quickly adapt for commerce use?”
Where does Albertsons stand with in-store retail media?
We are right in the course of, “What is this thing and how can we capitalize on it?”
The one thing that is really missing is standardization for in-store retail media. So our stores have multiple vendors who’ve individual ad platforms, but nobody place where it’s all centralized and easy to execute. So how can we do fuel pump ads versus the paper tags on the shelves versus the digital signs within the deli section? Those are all different suppliers.
Our ability to serve ads from one place and then measure the stores as a media channel is widely complicated and that’s what we’re all wrestling with without delay as an industry.
The potential is there, but the flexibility to execute at scale is still the piece to be solved — I feel we’ll have that solved soon.
What would you prefer to see Albertsons Media Collective pursue in the long run?
So we’re currently operating like a media company, but is that the one thing that we must always be or is there more opportunity in how we bring our audiences to market, how we bring measurement to market? And how can we bring among the technology we’ve in-built service of retail media to market?
I’m also super excited because I actually think retail media could make some more traditional channels like CTV and linear TV far more performant than they’ve been previously. If you think that of using our audiences and then show that it drove sales, it’s a really different metric than where television has been, which has been impressions and impressions served.
Is there anything without delay that you think that suppliers and advertisers want from grocers that they aren’t currently getting?
Upper funnel. How can we do more brand and awareness-building activities? Our measurement is all about lower funnel, last click-to-drive purchase. But more and more there’s demand for understanding how retail media works more on the brand side.
There is an approach to this and one in every of the things that Albertsons is working on is who to integrate into among the marketing mix modeling that our larger brands and clients are using without delay in order that they’ll start to know the impact of retail media. I feel what you may have to do though so as to move further up the funnel is you may have to have the best type of content, and most of our content without delay is in its simplest type of “price and item” that isn’t necessarily often called being a brand builder.
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