Partner Content
Interview with Daniel Heer, CEO and Co-founder of Zeotap, and Projjol Banajera, CPO and Co-founder of Zeotap
At its core, retail media revolves around connecting with the right audience at the right moment with compelling messaging. Achieving this precision requires not just the right data but the tools to harness and leverage it effectively. In this regard, the choice of tools can make or break your strategy. This is where Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) come into play.
In this article we delve into the crucial role of CDPs in shaping successful retail media strategies with Daniel Heer, CEO and co-founder of Zeotap and Projjol Banajera, Chief Product Officerand co-founder of Zeotap.
What trends do you see in the Retail Media landscape?
Projjol Banajera (PB): There's a whirlwind of activity in the retail media space, but I'm going to try and summarize in five. The first is that retailers, especially those in Europe, have a renewed focus on integrating customer data and customer identities, and doing so in a privacy-first manner. The second is the surge of partnerships between major platforms and large retailers to take advantage of closed-loop opportunities in addressability and measurement. The third is a conscious desire to better link online and offline channels to build better omni-channel experiences for customers. The fourth is an attempt to do a sharper distinction between endemic and non-endemic brands at retailers. And the fifth, of course, is the use of AI in optimizing campaigns.
What’s the importance of choosing the right tools for your Retail Media strategy?
PB: In our experience working with retailers, there tend to be two camps. Some are concerned about downside protection, focusing on compliance, privacy, and security. Others look at the upside opportunity, aiming to expand audiences across inventory not owned and operated by them. In both cases, it's crucial to pick vendors who can go the extra mile and be real partners in your journey.
Daniel Heer (DH): There are two tools which are fundamentally important to have a successful retail media campaign executed. One, the ad server; two, a CDP. On one hand, you need an ad server which is able to take the assets that come in from advertisers and orchestrate and show them in real-time when a certain audience hits the website or the inventory. Two, a CDP is the foundation to unlock the data value that large retailers sit on and provide attractive segments to retailers to find the right audience."
How would you describe the key role of a CDP in a Retail Media strategy?
PB: In retail media, effective campaigns come at the intersection of media, creative, and data. CDPs address the data piece, ensuring data is integrated across multiple silos, connecting the dots in an omni-channel context while ensuring privacy and compliance.
DH: For retailers that want to invest in scaling their retail media business, it's important to consider choosing a CDP. Why? Retailers usually sit on a plethora of very wealthy and rich data. This data can be of high importance to advertisers because it helps them make the right call in investing budget in the inventory offered by the retail media vendor. It's all about personalised marketing, and a CDP can create simple audiences based on fully unified consolidated data that can power a better experience and more cost-effective campaigns for advertisers.
What are the primary challenges that Retail Media faces, and how does a CDP address these challenges?
D.H: CDPs primarily address a technical challenge by providing easy-to-use, simple, but powerful and fully unified audiences that advertisers can tap into when they want to reach their target audiences across retail media inventory. However, a significant challenge is also the change in selling routines for retail media sales teams. They need to rethink how they sell, focusing on personas or unified audiences. A CDP can make this transition smoother by offering a simpler audience creation process, making it easier for sales teams to adapt.
Why is a CDP a pivotal element of a successful Retail Media campaign?
PB: CDPs serve as the foundation of retail media businesses, maximizing yield from owned and operated inventory and extending audiences on partner inventory. That's why they're fundamental to success.
How does Zeotap CDP contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of Retail Media campaigns?
DH: Zeotap CDP is the right choice to power your retail media campaign for several reasons. Firstly, we offer a simple user interface that allows business teams to be independent and autonomous from resource-constrained IT teams. Secondly, we provide the full power of your first-party data to get advertisers excited, enriching it with our high-quality, privacy-compliant Zeotap data. This yields more compelling and richer audiences, ultimately increasing CPMs. Lastly, Zeotap prioritises privacy compliance, ensuring that your data and campaigns are in line with global privacy regulations."
How does Zeotap CDP stand out as the best CDP for Retail Media?
D.H: Zeotap sets itself apart as the right partner for your retail media strategy. We simplify the complex world of CDPs, ensuring adoption across your teams. We empower marketing teams with strong, compelling audiences, enhance your first-party data with Zeotap data, and prioritise privacy compliance. But beyond that, we aim to be more than a vendor; we strive to be your trusted partner, supporting you through every step of your retail media journey.
PB: As a CDP, Zeotap brings both technology and ideology to the table. We consolidate data from multiple silos, but equally important is our ideology of wanting to help you succeed. Your success is ours.
What makes Zeotap CDP unique?
PB: Zeotap's USPs are that we are easy, secure, and impactful. Easy, so your business teams can hit the ground running. Secure, because compliance is central to our stack. And impactful, because we have better connectivity to the partner ecosystem than any other platform.
How does Zeotap CDP help retailers maintain compliance and ensure data privacy in their Retail Media efforts?
PB: Zeotap was built from the ground up to ensure compliance with regulations across the world. Every workflow or data flow is compliant with consent, user preferences, and local regulations. This is an ideology that we live every day.
DH: Zeotap ensures full privacy compliance by incorporating GDPR and other privacy regulations into our product from the ground up. Our focus on privacy and enterprise-grade security is ingrained in our DNA, our employee onboarding, training, and company processes. Features like consent orchestration further ensure compliance, making Zeotap a trusted partner in safeguarding data privacy.
How is Zeotap adapting its CDP to meet evolving needs and opportunities of the market?
PB: In 2024, addressability is top of mind for brands. Zeotap is taking a build-and-partner approach, with our own cookie ID, ID+, and partnering with leading providers of cookieless solutions to ensure addressability even when cookies are deprecated.