Carrefour and Publicis join forces in advertising

The Carrefour and Publicis groups announced on Tuesday their intention to create a joint venture to join forces in advertising on e-commerce sites in Europe and Latin America, according to a press release.

"Retail media", i.e. advertising on e-commerce sites, closer to the act of consumer purchase, is booming following stricter regulations in terms of cookies, which limits the possibilities of targeting outside merchant sites.

The main player in this market segment, which could reach 100 billion dollars by the end of the year, is Amazon, which markets the ads on its platform itself and competes with the Google and Facebook duopoly in online advertising. .

"The joint venture aims not only to make the most of Carrefour's retail media potential, but also to rally many distributors to the platform", explain the two groups in their joint press release.

Openness to other partners

The new alliance calls on all companies with first-hand data on the profile of its consumers (customer purchases, loyalty services, etc.) to join the platform to "help brands to be more effective in their strategy marketing".

Carrefour had already partnered with a specialist in digital advertising, Criteo, to found Carrefour Links and exploit the data of its consumers.

"Our alliance with Publicis allows our model to change dimension. With them, we will go up the value chain, by creating retail media solutions ourselves, and we will set out to conquer new markets across the entire continental Europe and Brazil," said Group CEO Alexandre Bompard.

For the chairman of the management board of Publicis Arthur Sadoun, who has sat on the board of directors of Carrefour since the end of 2021, "this is a crucial step in helping (the brands) to regain control of their customer relationships, to accelerate their preparation for a cookie-free world and to implement the most effective media strategies".

Owned 51% by Carrefour and 49% by Publicis, the joint venture "should begin its activities during the first half of 2023", it is specified.

Carrefour announced Tuesday a strategic plan including a continuation of the reduction of its costs by 4 billion euros by 2026. The distributor also plans to accelerate the openings of discount brands in Brazil and Spain