GroupM to supercharge retail media capabilities with Tesco Media tie-up
GroupM, the world’s largest media investment group, has agreed a long-term strategic partnership with Tesco Media and Insight Platform.
The deal represents “the most significant single agreement” for Tesco Media and Insight Platform, with an agency-first in-store screen partnership for Tesco Connected Store.
In addition, it covers on-site and off-site offerings, and provides GroupM clients early access to innovations within the platform with a direct feedback loop.
Tesco Media and Insight Platform’s insights module and Sphere AI-driven self-serve platform will also be available to GroupM client teams to improve implementational planning with more targeted bespoke audiences.
Nick Ashley, client development director at Tesco Media and Insight Platform, called the agreement “a major landmark” and “a large-scale strategic partnership” that would allow GroupM to reap benefits in retail media across data, insights and strategic planning, and for clients to “truly harness the power of retail media, in all its forms, for measurable commercial advantage”.
The deal builds on “several years of work” with Tesco Media and Insight Platform, GroupM UK’s chief operating officer, Luke Bozeat, said.
He added: “The unique attributes of the Tesco Media and Insight Platform gives us, and our clients, the opportunity to truly explore the full gamut of opportunities offered by retail media and puts us at the forefront of initiatives to drive further innovation in this area. We look forward to a long and mutually successful collaboration.”
The agreement aims to drive innovation and growth in retail media, leveraging data from Tesco’s 22m Clubcard households.
Analysis: Agencies ‘critical’ part of strategy
This is not Tesco Media and Insights Platform’s first strategic agreement.
In August 2023, Omnicom Media Group UK became the first agency group to sign a retail media partnership with the company, which at the time offered insights from 20m Clubcard members for clients to be able to plan, activate and measure retail media campaigns.
In 2022, ITV announced that it was introducing a cookieless retail media “Matchmaker solution” with both Tesco’s customer data arm Dunnhumby and Boots Media Group.
The tool uses Infosum’s “privacy-first” data platform to match ITV’s pre-existing first-party audience with Clubcard and Advantage Card databases, allowing FMCG advertisers to improve their VOD targeting.
Uche Ofili, agency group head at Tesco Media and Insight Platform, believes agencies are “a critical part” of the group’s growth strategy.
He told The Media Leader: “This partnership, and others like it, are designed to ensure that we work holistically with clients and their agencies to delivery best-in-class work across our platform.”
Ofili described the GroupM partnership as “significant” because it establishes “a clear desire to partner in a strategic, long-term way” with its “biggest partners”.
He added: “A big area of focus in the partnership revolves around our Connected Store proposition and how clients can harness the power of our in-store properties in conjunction with on-site and off-site digital solution to deliver highly creative, impactful and measurable campaigns.”
Continued strong growth
In its latest adspend forecast, GroupM predicted retail media would be the fastest-growing segment of digital and comprise 15.1% of the global ad market this year. The channel is expected to grow to a 17.4% market share globally by 2029.
In the UK, the study highlighted a particularly strong performance for retail media, with anticipated 12.7% growth to $4.1bn in advertising revenue in 2024, rising to 14.6% growth in 2025.
David Fieldhouse, head of commerce at GroupM UK, told The Media Leader: “The speed in which this area is growing has informed our GroupM approach to integrated commerce capabilities, where our focus is on placing commerce at the heart of the full marketing proposition.
“Working with our valued and long-standing partners who echo these goals, such as Tesco Media and Insights platform, allows our clients across the UK to benefit from this. This partnership will be integrated across multiple channels and available to all GroupM agencies, with us appointing champions across our agencies to help bring this to life.”