Eye-tracking technology has proven that convenience retail media boosts brand recall by four times compared to campaigns in larger stores, due to shopper frequency and the uniqueness of a convenience store’s format, a study by Co-op Media Network (CMN) has found.
In partnership with eye-tracking technology company, Lumen Research, CMN has evidenced the recall power of advertising in a convenience retail setting and revealed the untapped potential of retail media as a brand-building marketing channel in comparison to traditional media.
Due to Co-op’s smaller store sizes, formats and high shopper frequency, advertising messages within convenience stores would be seen and recalled by more people, more often, explained CNM. Furthermore, in a convenience store, the presence of mixed category aisles leads to customers encountering a wide variety of advertisements within the same space.
The Lumen Research methodology involved shoppers navigating either a small or large Co-op store, on a BBQ shopping mission – engaging with a mixture of categories from protein, produce, frozen, ambient and BWS – while wearing unobtrusive eye-tracking glasses. These devices monitored what the shoppers were viewing, the duration of their gaze and retinal movements.
This approach provided precise insights into what the shoppers were observing and offered an understanding of which advertisements were within their peripheral vision. It also assessed viewability and opportunities to see, indicating instances where advertisements could have been seen without direct focus. Upon leaving the stores, shoppers were tested on brand recall and completed brand choice surveys.
Results indicated that larger stores do generate brand-building with shoppers. However, when comparing smaller Co-op stores to larger-format stores, attention and recall were significantly enhanced in the convenience setting. The data revealed that a shopper who walks into a convenience store has twice the visibility of the advertising, triple the attention and quadruple brand recall compared to a large store.
Lumen Research, a company that studies attention with brands and media agencies worldwide, further evaluated the impact of retail media and recall in comparison to traditional media methods such as out-of-home, online display, online video and TV advertising.
The findings of this part of the study further spotlighted the impact of retail media, proving that it was the second most effective channel for brand recall compared to traditional methods – surpassing out-of-home, online banners and social.
Kenyatte Nelson, Chief Membership & Customer Officer at Co-op, said: “Traditionally, in-store advertising has been viewed by media buyers as a pure sales activation tool that was great for last-minute promotions but not for brand-building. However, this groundbreaking evidence now spotlights retail media, especially in a convenience setting, as one of the most powerful brand recall tools.
“The results from the Lumen Research study showcase the unmatched impact of Co-op’s small-format convenience stores and the findings position in-store advertising as a dual-purpose channel, driving both short-term sales and long-term brand growth.”
Mike Follett, CEO of Lumen Research, said: “Our research with Co-op confirms what we already knew – attention drives action. In small stores, shoppers revisit aisles multiple times and so encounter the same ads and messages multiple times, creating a higher frequency of exposure. That builds memories through aggregate attention, which drives memory-based outcomes such as awareness, consideration and intent.”
