Retail media networks (RMNs) have become an essential component of advertising strategies for many retailers over the past few years. These networks allow retailers to leverage their vast customer bases and online presence to provide targeted advertising opportunities to brands. We’ve covered the importance of RMNs in several of our past blogs, from highlighting the rise of RMNs to explaining how they can help advertisers create a more seamless journey for their customers. In this blog post, however, we’ll be exploring how the retailer ASOS has been turning to RMNs.
What Has ASOS Done?
ASOS (it stands for “As Seen On Screen,” just in case you’ve always wondered) is a UK-based online fashion retailer that sells a wide range of clothing, shoes, and accessories for both men and women. Founded in 2000, it’s since become one of the world’s most popular online stores for fashion-conscious consumers. It originally launched its RMN, ASOS Media Group, in 2021, and was ahead of the curve at the time, with other brands not totally convinced that RMNs were the way to go. ASOS currently supports brands with social media campaigns, targeted emails and notifications on both its website and its app. By monetising their platform this way, brands can use ASOS’ own first-party shopper data to target their ads towards specific audiences while they’re actively shopping, reaching consumers at the point of purchase.
Since ASOS launched its RMN, other retailers have followed suit, forcing ASOS to adapt to a changing market (and more demanding advertisers). The global retail media market is growing fast, and it shows no signs of stopping, so these changes will only continue. With this in mind, ASOS has recently turned to the commerce media company Criteo for help staying ahead of the competition. This year, ASOS announced that it had chosen Criteo as its exclusive partner for all advertising across its app and website. As Elton Ollerhead, the Director of ASOS Media Group (AMG), explained, “Criteo’s technology is proven at scale and designed for retail, which opens up enormous opportunity for brand advertisers across our key markets.”
ASOS and Criteo’s partnership
Before the partnership was announced, AMG was working with 150 of ASOS’ brand partners. Now, it’s planning on taking on another 200. In the long term, however, AMG is hoping to support all 900 of its brand partners in all markets.
Specifically, the partnership will see ASOS launch three new creative offerings for brands – sponsored ads, on-site display ads, and off-site ads.
Sponsored ads are a brand new offering from ASOS, designed to help customers who are searching for specific items or products. These will show up in search results, and include a curated selection of the 70,000 products that ASOS sells, from over 900 brands – including third-party labels and their own in-house brands (which now include Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge).
On-site display ads, meanwhile, are an existing format that ASOS has offered since 2021. They combine branding and product information at the point of sale, but they’ll be enhanced with Criteo’s support, allowing ASOS to deliver ads to more targeted audiences and present personalised brand messages based on customers’ browsing history both on the app and the website. These ads will be shot in-house by ASOS, in order to maintain creative consistency.
Criteo and ASOS will also work on off-site ads, a form of targeted ad that will run across thousands of premium publisher sites, as well as on connected TVs. With this offering, ASOS and its advertisers will be able to target lookalike audiences, as well as shoppers who have abandoned their baskets.
What To Expect
The initial deployment of ASOS’ new and improved RMN will take place across the UK, the US, France and Germany this summer, before it is then expanded to all global territories. ASOS is one of many retailers investing in an improved retail media offering, and there is no doubt that this latest move will help them take a more targeted approach towards their advertising and that of the brands working with them to advertise. Not only will it help the retailer to generate additional revenue, but increased relevance and personalisation will also help to increase customer engagement, improve the end-to-end customer experience, and provide valuable insights into how ASOS customers browse and shop.
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