Asda ramps up programmatic drive with appointment of Triad to digital media account
Asda has brought in Triad Retail Media to lead its digital media sales in the UK, replacing its former media sales partner of more than 10 years, Publicis Blueprint.
Triad has been established in the UK for the last 18 months and already works with Asda on elements of its non-transactional digital content, including its Recipes and Baby Club sites. It will now will focus primarily on digital media sales on Asda’s main groceries site.
The appointment comes after Asda earlier this year began selling unsold ad units programmatically across three of its major websites ahead of of a push on the main grocery site. The moves amount to supermarket's early steps towards launching a private ad exchange.
“The digital media landscape has changed dramatically since we launched our grocery home shopping site 15 years ago,” explained Dom Burch, Asda’s senior director for marketing innovation and revenue.
“Following an agency review last year, we decided we needed to evolve our thinking and provide more dynamic solutions on our websites and digital properties. Triad brings a broad range of skills and experience to the partnership including ad tech, creative design capabilities, content creation, and sales and marketing expertise.”
Nick Bamber, Asda’s senior manager for digital media and innovation, added that with Google, Facebook and Twitter now accounting for around half of all digital advertising spend in the UK, combined with evolving technology, data and advertising formats, there has been a shift in how advertising is bought, sold and reported.
“Notably, advertisers’ media strategies are moving quickly towards programmatic media buying — hence, our aim over time is to follow this trend by enabling better targeting and measurement of ads on our grocery website to ensure a more personalised and relevant experience for our customers,” he continued.
Triad has already worked with Asda parent company Walmart, eBay, Toys “R” Us and Sears in the US, Otto in the Netherlands, Metro Group in Germany and eBay in Australia to help monetise their online propositions.
Jill Orr, executive vice president international at Triad Retail Media, said: “Significantly for us, Walmart was Triad’s very first partner back in 2004 and that partnership is still in place today. The Walmart proposition has developed over time to encompass multiple digital products and demand sources as the market has evolved, including email, video placements, mobile and the Walmart Exchange (WMX) which enriches the onsite customer experience by putting the right ads in front of the right target audience and accurately measures campaign effectiveness.
“As a result, in the last few years digital media revenues have grown exponentially. We look forward to going on the same journey here in the UK with the Asda Media &Partnerships team.”