More than 12 FMCG advertisers, including Unilever and PepsiCo, have now signed up to the trial of ITV’s new retail media solution, Matchmaker, launched in November 2022 in partnership with retail giants Boots and Tesco.
Matchmaker enables FMCGs who supply Boots and Tesco to enhance their VOD targeting by activating category shopper audiences on ITVX using their loyalty card data, and measuring precise sales uplift among those who’ve seen an ad.
PepsiCo’s Walkers, Heineken, and Unilever’s Magnum are among the brands now trialling the Matchmaker Tesco solution.
Meanwhile, Unilever’s Sure, John Frieda, and Estrid Razors, are among the brands trialling the Matchmaker Boots solution.
ITV’s Matchmaker is fully cookieless and consented, utilising InfoSum’s data collaboration platform to securely match ITV’s 37m registered first-party audience with Boots’ Advantage Card and Tesco’s Clubcard databases. According to IAB Europe, the Retail Media market is already worth €8bn, and is largely dominated by ad spend in the digital media market.
The solution, which comes with accurate conversion and sales lift measurement, is planned for full-scale rollout from July, from when it becomes available to all qualifying FMCG advertisers.
Katharine Crossland, digital commerce director, Unilever, said “We are excited to be trialling ITV’s new proposition. Utilising retailer loyalty data allows us to deliver relevant ads to the most relevant audience, with the benefit of closed loop measurement.”
Jayesh Rajdev, controller of advanced advertising for ITV, said: “We’ve had an astounding customer response to AdLabs’ launch of Matchmaker, and I’m pleased to see the pilot gaining quick traction with such a broad spectrum of advertisers. We’re now full steam ahead on customer roll-out and development roadmap with both retail partners.”
Ollie Shayer, omni-media director at Boots, added: “It is great to continue the longstanding partnership between Boots and ITV. Matchmaker brings together Boots Media Group’s exclusive data and measurement proposition with ITV’s scale and content, this clearly struck a chord with our partner brands and the reception for the Matchmaker offer has been brilliant. We are really excited to see the results from our B trials and then rolling this out further across 2023.”
