Martech platform Brandcrush is helping clients unlock new revenue through existing customer touchpoints with its media monetisation software. CEO and co-founder Teresa Aprile explains. This article first appeared in the Ocotober 2021 issue of Food and Drink Business.
Brandcrush is unlocking the media power of businesses globally with the launch of its first-of-its-kind end-to-end media monetisation software.
We entered the market with an activation marketplace solution and have just launched premium software features to power mid to large businesses, from grocery and direct-to-consumer retailers, shopping centres, gym chains and universities.
The aim is to help them monetise everything from in-store shelf talkers to out-of-store parcels, and digital sponsorships by making them easily discoverable and bookable by third party brands and agencies.
Untapped $100bn in owned media assets
Changing consumer behaviour, diminishing attention spans and limited top-tier media positions have resulted in traditional advertising becoming not only more costly but also less effective.
Savvy marketers are now looking for ways to drive sustainable customer acquisition and are allocating media spend to new and emerging retail media and partnership channels, leveraging the trust these businesses have with their audience.
Research company Forrester says the retail media is booming with many retailers relishing the opportunity to double-dip on their pandemic-spurred e-comm growth.
“We estimate based on our latest retail media research that enterprise advertisers spent at least $5 billion in retail media networks such as Amazon, Target, Walmart and others in 2020,” it says.
We believe these figures are significantly undervaluing the global opportunity and seismic shift away from traditional media owners to these new channels. Media assets owned by businesses everywhere are untapped revenue possibilities.
Businesses, such as major retailers, have recognised the value of their owned media assets, across not only their e-comm channels but also their in-store, out-of-store, social, and data channels and are building in-house teams to manage and grow this revenue. While other businesses are just starting to unlock these commercial opportunities.
Any customer touchpoint – physical, digital and social – held by a business can be defined as “owned media”, making this conservatively a $100 billion industry.
Our technology can capture and catapult this for businesses all around the world.
Smart businesses are already capitalising on their owned media assets through retail media sales and commercial partnerships.
Major grocery retailers have been actively monetising their owned-media assets for years (think catalogs and in-store signage, and more recently onsite assets).
Beauty retailers like Sephora have also done an impressive job in this space, selling access to their loyal consumer communities via loyalty programs, sample boxes, and consumer apps.
And now, a new wave of media owners are emerging, taking a piece of the media pie and converting their owned assets into profit centres.
Leading food delivery ecommerce retailer, HelloFresh has partnered with Brandcrush in its top three major markets, UK, USA and Australia to power media sales. The meal kit delivery leader is committed to activating partnerships that are successful for brands and also enhance the experience for their customers.
Hellofresh UK commercial partnerships head Louise Branth says: “We can authentically introduce brands to millions of highly targeted and attractive households each week through our parcels, our insert perks as well as our social and digital channels.
“We needed a platform to streamline and scale our media sales. With Brandcrush we now have one simple platform to manage it all.
“It helps us manage our unique media inventory and workflow requirements and give us the tools to maximise our revenue potential.”
Trusted companies are the new media. Businesses who don’t see their owned media assets that way are simply missing out on revenue.
We know that with customer acquisition costs rising marketers are leveraging the trust of businesses to get closer to the consumer.
Getting started
While some businesses are fast tracking their media divisions, plenty are only just kicking off the conversations.
Here’s a few tips for those looking to monetise their owned media assets:
1. Media assets: identify your valuable customer touchpoints
Audit all the opportunities within your business where you could make a warm introduction for a brand to your audience. The simplest way is to map out your customer journey: what are your customer touchpoints, and what is your audience reach at each touchpoint across physical, digital, and social channels.
2. Media revenue potential: what is your media worth and what is worth unlocking?
Calculate your media asset potential, meaning the commercial value of your media assets. Your media revenue potential is the total of your media inventory assets multiplied by the expected media rate. By defining this, you will then be able to identify which of your media assets could offer the best ROI with the smallest set-up effort. We like to call these the “no-brainers”.
3. Media operations: identify the who, what, where, and when to execute on media campaigns
At this step you’ll be working out the logistics of your owned-media monetisation – that is, how it will all happen. You could use third parties to support the execution of these owned-media campaigns, or you could use an in-house team. It pays to consider the economies of scale on executing campaigns. What minimum bookings will you need to make it worthwhile? Map out the workflow steps in getting a media activity from booking to execution and ensure you’ve identified who owns the process at each step.
4. Media focus: think and act beyond the side hustle
Every business has the potential to drive 5-10 per cent of their total revenue from media monetisation but, like any revenue stream, it requires focus to take it beyond a side hustle. Set sales targets and KPIs for your owned media assets the same way you do for your core revenue streams. Define your sales strategy – how will you drive partner acquisition? Who in your team will own this?
Every business has the potential to drive 5-10 per cent of their total revenue from media monetisation but, like any revenue stream, it requires focus.
5. Media technology: invest in technology to set your media business up for scale
According to McKinsey, up to 80 per cent of B2B buyers are now saying they prefer digital, self-serve tools. This means you need to make media discoverable and easily bookable online, which is where Brandcrush comes in.
For businesses that are looking to tap into new revenue streams through their owned media channels, it’s important to ensure these opportunities are available to brands digitally otherwise the potential to unlock and scale owned media opportunities will always be limited.
We are unlocking the media power of businesses globally, making it easy for businesses to work together to build brands. Our platform unlocks new media opportunities and digitally transforms media businesses from offline PDF packs and excel spreadsheets to a powerful end-to-end software solution where partners can monetise and maximise their media potential.
