Retail race

Helping brands build their own retail media networks is one way News Corp hopes to secure a stake in the growing retailer race to monetise owned assets.  

Indicating the news publishing giant is adopting a 'co-opetition' mindset to counter growing retail media network investment, MD of client product, Pippa Leary, told attendees at this week’s Circana State of the Industry 2023 event News Corp is keen to create and amplify work advertisers are doing for retail channels through its own canvasses and networks. Secondly, it’s looking to bridge the gap between top and bottom-of-funnel outcomes through an increasingly connected content and commerce approach.

But Leary also revealed News has plans to take a bigger slice of the pie by actively helping clients build out networks too.

“We will probably get into the business of offering digital retail media networks and helping you as brands with sales and processes if you do not want to build your own retail media network,” Leary said. “It’s a really interesting space and it’s moving very quickly. We’re here to help on that.”

Among past and current tactics raised by Leary In News’ arsenal are retail catalogues, historically printed and distributed in newspapers. However, several Australia retailers, including Coles, have ditched printed catalogues over the last few years in favour of digital and app-based content and promotional plays using owned channels.

“Tomorrow, we think what that will look like is much better digital catalogue distribution solutions,” Leary said, signalling how News plans to adapt to the ongoing transition.

A key asset Leary also believed News Corp has for next-generation retailer solutions is data. “Because we have so much first-party data, we can share it with retailers, we can share it with brands,” Leary said.

“We’re not a walled garden; we are completely transparent. We know our job is to share the insights, so you get better outcomes. Data collaboration and sharing is super important.”

Growth curve

Countering the rise of retail media networks is something traditional publishers and media operators are having to confront head-on. GroupM predicts global advertising revenue from retail media channels will grow 9.9 per cent to reach US$125.7 billion in 2023, hitting US$180 billion in five years and surpassing TV ad spend in 2028.

GroupM has suggested search as one of the main marketing channels losing out to retail media. But traditional online publishers are also reportedly seeing ad dollars moving away from their channels towards retail publishers thanks to their targeting capabilities and position closer to the point of purchase. In the US, retail media channels are now taking share from social media channels and TV as well as search. Locally, media buyers and ecom experts think most social and performance channels face increasing competition.

Leary positioned the emergence of retail networks as capitalising on marketers shifting their dollars towards lower funnel outcomes. And even while flagging News Corp wants to work alongside retail media networks, she warned advertisers about short-termism and a race to the bottom if they put too many dollars into the retail media basket.

“It’s a bit snake oily – we want to make sure as retailers and brand managers, you understand what’s going on,” Leary said. “We can see retailers are very attracted to the high-margin opportunities to add more monetisation to their shopping. Also, we’re seeing high intent audiences.

“What you do have to be very careful of is these retail media networks don’t become so lower funnel, you get caught in this constant performance loop. What we are trying to do is work out how we work with retailers and how do we work with retail media networks to open them up and make them more accessible to everyone.”

Funnel vision

Retaining a balance between top and bottom-of-funnel thinking was positioned by Leary as especially critical given the cost-of-living crisis facing many Australian consumers. She described a 75/25 split in the economy largely between those with mortgages, versus those who don’t. According to the publisher, the more buoyant 25 per cent is spending ever-greater amounts on travel, cars and luxury goods.

News Corp hopes to deliver both by shifting from ‘billboards’ to an integrated shopfront and commerce offering. As reported by Mi3, new solutions include Checkout, a content and commerce initiative connecting editorial product reviews and guides with the publisher’s affiliate marketing technology.

Leary said News generated 6.5 million brand referral clicks to affiliate partners in 2022 and expects this year’s result to be 40 to 50 per cent higher.

“We are going all in on this one,” she said. “What we saw during Covid was people spending a lot of time online researching. After Covid, that behaviour didn’t change. We now see 80 per cent of shoppers coming online prior to purchase. We want to make sure they’re making the right choice.

“The takeaway for us is investing more in ’content commerce’- editorial content that’s built to help people make decisions.”

In addition, News Corp has been building shoppable capability into advertising using capabilities such as headless commerce. A recent native content campaign with Moet & Chandon and run using the Vogue brand used this technology. Readers could go into video content, personalise and gift their own bottle of champagne. News Corp then took the native content and amplified it, turning it into shoppable ads.

Results included 38 per cent brand lift, a 10 per cent lift in intent and 109 per cent lift in order sales off that ad unit.

“We look at that ad unit and go, oh my gosh, that ad can do double duty: Brand work and performance work. It’s very unusual and doesn’t happen much, but it’s possible,” Leary said.  

Content and shopping integration can also be found through a recent collaboration between News’ Taste website and Coles, which embedded ability to directly buy ingredients within recipes. Leary reported a 39 per cent increase in Taste Flybuys members shopping in-store within 48 hours of accessing recipes.

“Today we are the source of more affiliate clicks than any media website in Australia. We feel we’re at the beginning of our total commerce journey and we very much see ourselves as partnering on this journey with our retail clients,” Leary said.

Artificial intelligence is providing the mechanism for News Corp on this front, with Leary attributing its ability to link ingredients in Taste recipes straight through to a Coles shopping list to AI technology innovation.

“The other thing that’s very possible is an ability to create an AI-driven itinerary generator for our Escape sites linking straight out to deals,” she said. “We already have affiliate relationships, which up until now have been quite manual. AI allows us to scale all those affiliate relationships.”

Looking into the future, Leary predicted the inevitable decline of the screen in favour of wearables, along with widespread use of augmented and virtual reality in the purchase process.

“Change is all around us and even with our close relationships with our retail partners, we’re struggling to keep up,” Leary added. “To keep sane, we return to our North Star: How do we turn audience engagement into outcomes for our clients? And how do we understand the moments that matter, that trigger people to move through that funnel, no matter the platform or form factor.”