CSP’sRetail Media Network Forum, hosted in partnership with c-store consulting firm NexChapter, kicked off Monday in Chicago.
The three-day event runs through Wednesday and brings together retailers, consumer-packaged goods companies and technology solution providers to develop and explore their Retail Media Network (RMN) strategies.
A RMN is a platform that allows retailers to monetize their first-party customer data and digital properties by selling advertising space to CPG companies and other brand partners. For convenience stores, this can include advertising opportunities across mobile apps, loyalty programs, in-store digital displays, websites, at-pump screens and more.
The forum brings together retailers from all small-format channels, from convenience to dollar to drug and specialty.
Monday’s speakers included Art Sebastian, founder and CEO of Des Moines, Iowa-based NexChapter and chairman of the C-StoreTEC Advisory Board; Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Vice President Customer Marketing and Product Ashley Gockstetter and Vice President of Merchandising Kevin Keuhl; and Austin Leonard, vice president and general manager of DG Media Network at Dollar General.
“Every retailer, no matter your size, can build a first-party retail media program. You have all the ingredients," Sebastian said Monday.
Retailers have the first-party data, advertising inventory and relationships with the advertisers and brands, he said.
"My challenge is how to help you think through that," Sebastian said.
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CSP and its parent company Informa Connect are both part of London-based Informa PLC. For more information on RMN Forum, click here.
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