Iceland Foods is gearing up for a major push into retail media, with plans to add potentially thousands of digital screens to its stores, The Grocer can reveal.
Ahead of the rollout, Iceland has created its first-ever in-house team dedicated to retail media. Category trading manager Adam Smith has been promoted to head of retail media to lead the new Iceland retail media team.
The team will take ownership for all elements of retail media, including screens, online advertising and traditional paper PoS across Iceland and Food Warehouse stores.
Previously, Iceland’s retail media function was handled solely by external contract agencies, who would then report to buyers. The new team would work directly with suppliers and Iceland’s buyers, Smith told The Grocer.
“This is a much more dedicated resource that will offer best-in-class service,” said Smith. “It will allow us to improve the service clients get for spending money with us.”
The new team will also oversee a rapid expansion of Iceland’s retail media offer across its entire store estate. The long term plan is to roll out screens to all Iceland and Food Warehouse stores.
Iceland has already introduced digital screens in some of its newer format stores, but has yet to install the tech in the majority of its store estate.
The frozen specialist also plans to ramp up its online capabilities to improve the level of analytics and insights that can be offered to suppliers.
It is the latest in a number of supermarkets to ramp up retail media capabilities.
Tesco has predicted the medium will overtake TV advertising spend by 2025 and has urged suppliers to invest in its own major retail media retail rollout, alongside its Dunnhumby data arm.
When complete, the 6,000 screens would be Europe’s largest screen estate. Tesco also intends to roll out the “next generation” of its handheld scanners to create more personalised offers.
IAB predicts that UK retail media spend will surpass £1bn by the end of 2025, rising to more than £7bn by 2028 if Amazon is included.
With nearly 1,000 stores nationwide and plans to double its Food Warehouse estate – as well as a significant online next-day delivery business – Iceland has one of the UK’s largest grocery store footprints, making retail media a compelling proposition for the supermarket.
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