ITV AdLabs unveils a raft of brands trialling its ‘Matchmaker’ Retail Media solution with Tesco and Boots

ITV AdLabs unveils a raft of brands trialling its ‘Matchmaker’ Retail Media solution with Tesco and Boots

More than 12 FMCG advertisers, including Unilever and PepsiCo, are now part of the trial of ITV’s new Retail Media solution, Matchmaker, launched in partnership with two of the UK’s largest retailers in November 2022. 

Matchmaker enables FMCGs who supply Boots and Tesco to enhance their VOD targeting by activating category shopper audiences on ITVX using their loyalty card data, and measuring precise sales uplift among those who’ve seen an ad.

PepsiCo’s Walkers, Heineken, and Unilever’s Magnum are among the brands trialling the Matchmaker Tesco solution. 

Meanwhile, Unilever’s Sure, John Frieda, and Estrid Razors, are among the brands trialling the Matchmaker Boots solution.

ITV’s Matchmaker solution is fully cookieless and consented, utilising InfoSum’s data collaboration platform to securely match ITV’s 37m registered first-party audience with Boots’ Advantage Card and Tesco’s Clubcard databases. According to IAB Europe, the Retail Media market is already worth €8bn, and is largely dominated by ad spend in the digital media market. 

The solution, which comes with accurate conversion and sales lift measurement, is planned for full-scale rollout from July, from when it becomes available to all qualifying FMCG advertisers. 

Katharine Crossland, Digital Commerce Director, Unilever, said:

“We are excited to be trialling ITV’s new proposition. Utilising retailer loyalty data allows us to deliver relevant ads to the most relevant audience, with the benefit of closed loop measurement.”

Jayesh Rajdev, Controller of Advanced Advertising for ITV, said:

“We’ve had an astounding customer response to AdLabs’ launch of Matchmaker, and I’m pleased to see the pilot gaining quick traction with such a broad spectrum of advertisers. We’re now full steam ahead on customer roll-out and development roadmap with both retail partners.”

Ollie Shayer, Omni-Media Director at Boots said:

“It is great to continue the long standing innovative partnership between Boots and ITV. Matchmaker brings together Boots Media Group’s exclusive data and measurement proposition with ITV’s scale and content, this clearly struck a chord with our partner brands and the reception for the Matchmaker offer has been brilliant.  We are really excited to see the results from our B trials and then rolling this out further across 2023”

Nick Ashley, Managing Director – Tesco UK, dunnhumby, said:

“We are thrilled to be partnering with ITV to provide Tesco branded suppliers with the opportunity to enhance their AV planning and buying precision through Matchmaker. Data science from dunnhumby, combined with an ever-growing Clubcard database of over 20m households, provides a customer-first proposition for CPG brands to reach their customers at scale. With closed-loop measurement at its heart, we are looking forward to collaborating with brands in multiple ways.”

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About AdLabs

ITV Adlabs is an enterprise and strategy to bring together all of ITV Commercial’s innovation, designed to bring ITV’s customers closer to the development pipeline as new innovations are tested and trialled.

ITV AdLabs covers three areas of innovation - Addressable Products, Digital Partnerships and Measurement & Insight, bringing together the various products and developments that ITV’s commercial team have been trialling and bringing to the market in recent months. Trials include the launch of Dynamic Creative across broadcast inventory, going into the Metaverse with Metavision and a Geo Experiments tool for the digital age.