How do you control branded media in stores?

It’s crucial to be able to manage the volume and quality of branded media from advertisers in your stores. Without this control, your own brand as the retailer can become diluted. Often your own marketing, and the in-store experience you provide, are the main differentiators from your competitors. If they become watered down, customers may be more likely to shop elsewhere because you’ve stopped offering exactly what made your organisation unique. 

With that said, branded media is great, and vital, for retail. When well-planned, it adds to the in-store experience and advertisers buying extra media space provides an important revenue stream. But how, technically, do you make sure that all your environments remain true to your brand too? This blog looks at how to effectively control the branded media from advertisers in your stores.

Let’s get into it!

Planning Branded Media in Stores

In order to get the balance right between your own brand, and the branded media from advertisers, the first step is to be able to plan effectively. Most branded media is managed on spreadsheets which, while capable of doing the job, make it very difficult to have a true ‘picture’ of the volume of advertising across your estate. And, how all that media will actually look across your stores.

1. Understand Your Estate

A comprehensive location management tool, as part of your retail media technology, can help you to keep accurate store profiles. It can show exactly what each store contains, from its advertising opportunities (from floor space to individual screens and fixtures) to unique features, layouts, technology and shopper demographics. This overview is especially useful when selling media packages to brands. And, keeping an eye on what each store can house, and when it has reached advertising, or branded media, capacity. 

2. Control of Your In-store Inventory

Alongside this, integrated inventory management and monitoring tools can prevent over, or under, booking of the available inventory within your stores. It can stop over saturation of advertiser’s branded media in any location, and avoid competing brands from being promoted at the same time. All resulting in a better experience for the brands that advertise in your stores, and the customers that visit them.

It can also help you to build up important performance data about prime advertising locations and positions in your stores, enabling you to adjust your pricing accordingly.

3. Offer Coverage Across All Channels

Another great way to control the branded media in your stores is being able to offer brands good coverage across all your channels. This is beneficial for you because everything isn’t focussed on being in the physical store, and great for brands as they are visible to customers at every touchpoint. 

To manage advertiser’s branded media across onsite, offsite and in-store, the right retail media technology can bring all your channels, and available retail media inventory, together. This allows you to provide a comprehensive and connected retail media package to brands, while simplifying the buying and execution process for everyone.

4. Seize Collaboration Opportunities

Being able to align branded media with your own retail campaigns is another win, win scenario. Campaigns are amplified for both the advertiser and you, as the retailer. And, it can be achieved at a reduced cost for both of you. Not only that, but collaboration also makes the in-store (and online) experience for shoppers more interesting and cohesive. Better, more thoughtfully planned in-store environments allow for easier navigation and an improved shopping experience for your customers. And, rather than your own retail campaigns and your advertisers campaigns competing for attention, they can now complement one another.

Other key ways to control the amount and quality of branded media across your store estate:

• Clear Guidelines and Contracts: Make sure that the advertising in your stores is in-line with your own brand
• Centralised Approval Processes: Have an easy way to check all branded media before it goes live in stores
• Regular Audits: Make sure you can keep track of what’s being displayed in your stores all year round
• Designated Brand Media Zones: Have designated spaces or zones in each store for advertisers 
• Time Limits: Prevent advertising overload by ensuring stores always remove finished advertising campaigns on time

Controlling advertiser’s branded media in-store requires clear guidelines, centralised approval processes, controlled placement, and purpose-built retail media technology. By implementing these strategies, you can make sure that advertising enhances your in-store experience and helps to create an engaging shopping experience for customers.

Looking to guarantee all your stores reach their potential? Get in touch today to speak to us about modernising your in-store marketing and supercharging and streamlining your retail media opportunities.