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Will Magazine Content Elevate Retail Media’s Opportunity?
Promising a “new retail media model,” Best Buy has partnered with CNET to integrate the tech review site’s recommendations across Best Buy channels to help shoppers explore new tech gadgets and help advertisers reach them.
Customers will see “curated content and unbiased editorial advice” from CNET’s writers across various Best Buy channels — BestBuy.com, Best Buy stores, and the Best Buy mobile app.
Founded in 1994 as Computer Network, CNET was among the first sites to review computers and mobile phones and is known for its reviews and ratings. CNET states, “If you can snap a picture with it, watch it, type on it or subscribe to it, chances are we’ve reviewed it.”
Many of Best Buy’s customers already do their own pre-purchase research at both Best Buy and CNET. Best Buy told Adweek that in a monthlong survey, during which CNET content was displayed nationally across Best Buy’s in-store TV walls, 86% of respondents said the content made them more confident in their purchases. The content also drove a 25% increase in purchase intent.
Jennie Weber, chief marketing officer at Best Buy, said in a statement, “This partnership allows us to integrate expert advice throughout every stage of the customer’s shopping journey, as well as leverage these insights to unlock new levels of personalization and engagement for our customers and partners.”
Advertisers on Best Buy’s retail media platform will be able to share ad spaces across Best Buy and CNET to reach a combined 50 million unique visitors per month. They’ll also be able to measure whether ads seen on either platform increase sales.
Lauren Newman, EVP of revenue at CNET, said, “With a focus on data-driven insights, we’re introducing a new standard to help brands expand audience reach and measure the impact across what was previously a fragmented digital media ecosystem.”
A number of publications, including CNET as well as Wired, Oprah Magazine, Buzzfeed, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, already create content for gift guides that include commission-driven, affiliated links.
However, the Best Buy/CNET deal represents the first time a publisher and retailer have combined data to support retail media. Retail media analyst Andrew Lipsman told Adweek, “The ability to understand whether somebody who’s exposed to ads on CNET then actually went and purchased through Best Buy — the ability to close the loop … that’s a totally new innovation.”
In a January newsletter, Lipsman predicted that retailers would begin partnering with publishers to leverage content to drive their retail media platforms. He said that the media partnerships could mimic the “flywheel” created by Amazon across its media, ads, and e-commerce businesses to maximize campaign effectiveness and lower customer acquisition costs.
Lipsman wrote, “It’s not hard to imagine the potential pairings: grocery chains + recipe sites, pharmacies + health info sites, home improvement retailers + how-to sites, department stores + fashion sites, and sporting goods retailers + sports news sites.”
Discussion Questions
Do you see enough benefits from the Best Buy/CNET partnership for both shoppers and advertisers?
How confident are you that other retailers will form similar partnerships with relevant publishers to accelerate the growth of their retail media networks?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Georganne Bender
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Ananda Chakravarty
Vice President, Research at IDC
In a sector like electronics, where consumers do a lot of research and where some are very interested in technology, this makes sense. I can see it working in other areas too: food, home furnishings, fashion, and home improvement tools. Being able to understand how content drives sales is very interesting. The only thing Best Buy will need to watch is to ensure its site does not become cluttered or confusing. I have seen retailers make websites too editorial before and it has sometimes damaged conversion. I don’t think that’s the case here as Best Buy seems to be limiting the content and sensibly integrating it, but it’s a consideration for others thinking about this route.
The combination of credible content, exponential eyeballs, and retail media would seem to be a winning formula, but what to do about negative product reviews and comparisons that might otherwise go unseen? Will brands be cool with that?
To be effective, content must be relevant, credible and/or entertaining. The Best Buy/CNET partnership seems like an ideal fit. The days of posting product fact sheets are over. Retailers are coming to terms with the tremendous media opportunity that they have and combining their efforts with credible media players can make a meaningful difference. There’s no doubt that any retailer that has a large audience will be watching this and others in the industry who are blazing the trail. But this isn’t just about eyeballs, it’s about connecting the media content to sales outcomes. There’s also a lot at stake for the media companies and content providers. By leveraging their content (and creating new content) for retail partners, they create a new revenue stream. Retail media networks are big and their going to get bigger and better – the Best Buy/CNET partnership is a good example of why.
CNET has a large following; reviews are less anecdotal and more about actual product testing. This partnership allows Best Buy to offer shoppers an additional – and reliable – place to check out product before purchase. The partnership makes sense all around.
This makes great sense. I have been referencing CNET forever. I have had too many retailer review sites that are less than credible and disappointing. Hopefully, Best Buy won’t have a problem if they don’t carry CNET’s top-reviewed product or if CNET rates what they carry poorly.
This sounds like classic problem/solution retailing, updated for the current and forward market. The shopper has a buying intention. I call it Explore + Experiment. The retailer puts forward possible use cases and the necessary how-to. That’s Execution. Which means the customer has the Experience they need to make an informed purchase. Mission accomplished for all parties.
Explore + Experiment + Execution = Experience³
Typical electronics purchases, i.e. computers, big screen TV’s, mobile phones, speaker systems, are expensive and the high majority of consumers conduct some due diligence as the starting point in their shopping journey, which makes this partnership so sensible. Shoppers are always looking for valuable information to bolster their confidence when making these kinds of purchases.
Best Buy’s partnership with CNET will benefit shoppers with informative, credible reviews and content that anticipates and addresses common concerns. An ‘unbiased,’ neutral editorial policy is a key success factor for shoppers to trust the content. Media will move more merchandise.
Advertisers win by boosting reach and consideration with content that can span the full marketing funnel. Closed-loop measurement and attribution help advertisers quantify ROI. Integrating and modernizing content with retail media marries advertisers with relevant, helpful expertise to earn credibility, trust and sales.
More retailers will partner with publishers to grow their retail media magnetism by solving consumers’ problems. Beauty retailers could work with beauty media like shoppable tutorials for consumers seeking a glow-up. Banks could partner with travel media for vacation inspiration and tips to stretch their budget while abroad. The possibilities are exciting.
Retail Media Networks have been about retailers seeking more ad dollars without much added value for the advertiser.
Offering relevant ads and valuable content is a good start to improving the customer experience. Connecting the ads and content presented to sales performance is critical to attracting incremental ad dollars and keeping the user experience one of high quality.
The art of discovery is alive and well in the electronics sector. Best Buy has already done an outstanding job transforming the connected customer experience across its physical stores and digital platforms. It has very successfully changed the store’s narrative from being an Amazon showroom experience to one where the art of discovery is alive and well with outstanding products, elevated customer service, and flexible fulfillment options.
Retail media networks have emerged as a potentially significant revenue stream for grocers, retailers, and brands. A collaboration between CNET and Best Buy is a win-win for both companies. There are plenty of synergies, as the core Best Buy customer actively reads CNET for product information throughout the discovery process. Companies advertising on Best Buy’s retail media platform can share ad spaces across the Best Buy and CNET platforms to reach a combined 50 million unique visitors per month.
The advantage of buying ad space with Best Buy is that companies can also measure whether ads seen on either platform increase sales.
Attribution, attribution, attribution! This is a great match and emphasizes the importance of content in all of retail shopping. The frequency and expense of purchase drives the need for relevant content, where most shoppers are purchasing expensive computers less than once every few years. The mapping of ad inventory extends the non-endemic market for Best Buy while enabling attribution numbers and data for the advertisers. This model is an exciting one to see in the retail media space, especially because sites aren’t always targeting the buying customer. The capture of customer information during the research steps where they are selecting a product and examining features and function goes deeper into the buying process and emphasizes a stronger attention to the opportunity. Expect to see more such partnerships.
True that it might not be hard to imagine potential pairings such as grocery chains and recipes, pharmacies and health information, home improvement stores with “how-to” sites, department stores with fashion, etc. etc., but Best Buy’s pairing with CNET would stand a better chance than the others, because consumer electronics are directly tied with the need for information, reviews, and endorsements, since these items are furthest removed from being every-day commodities that consumers are comfortable with. They also happen to be larger investments.
My real question is this. Will Best Buy’s customers make it common practice to go to CNET, if that isn’t a publication they already use? On the basis of consumer behavior trends, I would say no. This might be fairly successful, however, if the real goal is to match existing CNET users with Best Buy customers, and for Best Buy to expand its consumer-base through CNET.
It will be up to advertisers to determine if driving traffic from CNET specifically to Best Buy is an efficient way to spend their advertising dollars. The chances are decent considering Best Buy is nearly all that’s left in the consumer electronics retail business. Db