dunnhumby Pilots Retail Media 'network alliance'

Retail data company dunnhumby has launched the 'dunnhumby network alliance', billed as an antidote to the siloed nature of retail media data, and giving clients access to audiences and inventory across a range of retailers, audience providers and media owners.

dunnhumby says the network, which will be delivered through a single solution built in partnership with technology company Kevel, gives brands and agencies a single route to activate campaigns across multiple retailers. The network is designed as an open and collaborative model, connecting retail purchase data with scaled publisher reach and allowing retailers to maintain control of their own media businesses while benefiting from shared standards for activation, measurement and reporting.

Benefits include cutting duplication and disruption of workflows, improving consistency of execution and reducing operational complexity; as well as opening retail media budgets to publishers through retailer data-enabled audiences.

Early partners involved in piloting the network this summer, in addition to dunnhumby's parent Tesco, are B&Q (owned by Kingfisher), John Lewis and Waitrose - more retailers are 'set to join.' To begin with, the network will focus on existing retailer audiences and inventory, with plans to expand into richer audiences and inventory opportunities in the near future.

dunnhumby itself brings deep data science capabilities and retail media expertise to the network. Outgoing CEO Josh Bottomley (pictured) comments: 'Brands are demanding scale, consistency and transparency, but fragmentation has held the market back. This ground-breaking alliance is made possible through dunnhumby's unique position in the market, bringing the industry together under a shared framework, making it easier for brands to activate, measure and grow through retail media.'

Kevel's Retail Media Cloud is an ad tech platform allowing retailers and marketplaces to create proprietary retail media networks, helped by a suite of API-driven tools - Ad Server, Audience, and Console. Users can manage, monetize and personalize their ad inventory to maximize revenue potential, and the suite includes advanced AI capabilities such as predictive segmentation, custom relevancy and yield forecasting.

Web sites: www.dunnhumby.com and www.kevel.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.