Dive Brief:

• Rite Aid launched a platform, Rite Aid Performance Media, that will enable brands to execute targeted digital media campaigns to its customers through a variety of the brand's owned and operated digital properties, per a press release.
• Partnering with digital promotions, media and analytics firm Quotient, Rite Aid Performance Media will also offer consumers digital coupons for brands opting to advertise on the platform. Campaigns will go live in October.
• Rite Aid is the latest in a number of retail brands that have begun turning their owned media platforms into revenue generation opportunities. Brands see the platforms as a way to reach consumers when they're in a buying frame of mind.

Dive Insight:

Rite Aid Performance Media presents an opportunity for brands to reach consumers across a variety of different channels, including Rite Aid owned and operated digital properties, social media, offsite programmatic display and digital out-of-home. These opportunities can be powerful for brands, as consumers visiting Rite Aid and its digital properties are likely to be close to making a purchase as they search for products.

Rite Aid is the latest in a slew of retailers turning their owned digital properties into an advertising platform for brands. The trend has intensified this year as retailers grasp the value of the consumer data they own, which brands are willing to pay for as the focus on data in marketing grows, giving retailers a way to drive revenue at a time when consumers are visiting stores less frequently, a trend that was apparent even before the pandemic hit.

After Amazon began selling ad space on its retail platform several years ago — and became the third-largest digital platform in the country — retailers such as Walmart, Target and CVS seized the opportunity and set up their own media networks. In addition to helping brands sell their products, the ventures create a new revenue stream for the retailers and perhaps some new partners.

While Rite Aid is jumping into the media business, Walmart's is seeing some turmoil, with the head of its internal ad business leaving the company, according to a report in Ad Age. Stefanie Jay, vice president and general manager of Walmart Media Group, has played a key role in the retailer's push into media. Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president of marketing, will takeover the role while Walmart conducts a search for a potential replacement.

For brands that advertise, Rite Aid is promising full closed-loop measurement and performance transparency for their marketing campaigns. As brands forgo traditional media channels, platforms like Rite Aid's offering them a targeted, measurable ad channel, per the release.

In addition to digital coupons using Quotient’s Retailer iQ tool, Rite Aid promises the media channel will offer relevant and personalized content which consumers are "hungry" for, according to Erik Keptner, Rite Aid's chief marketing and merchandising officer.

Now that a handful of the largest retailers have their own digital media platforms for advertisers, it could be just a matter of time before other retailers follow suit.