This voice is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any feedback.
CANNES, LIONS — When retail media first landed at Cannes Lions, it had a bit of a strange vibe. A less flashy, lower-funnel channel has invaded a festival that celebrates bold creative ideas.
The annual gathering’s focus on technology will only become more pronounced, and undoubtedly reached a new peak this year — Retail media networks are expanding further into the upper funnel, looking beyond sponsored search and display ads to channels like video. Even branded entertainment.
“We’re passionate about opportunities to bring commerce and creative together, and this is the place to do it,” Ali Miller, Instacart’s head of advertising, said in an interview in Cannes last week.
Instacart, the grocery delivery platform that works with more than 2,200 retailers, announced a series of product news at Cannes Lions, highlighting its desire to move beyond performance channels and further into more full-funnel marketing, including through a new advertising studio. The studio invites brands to collaborate on Instacart’s campaigns and specific cultural moments, building on efforts such as promoting last year’s Super Bowl, which featured cameos from mascots from various consumer goods brands. Brainstorming, execution, and measurement will be supported by Instacart’s first-party data, bringing the company’s retail media division closer to its prestigious in-house agency, Local Produce.
“We really like to talk to brands before they fully arrive at a concept,” Miller said. “Let’s work together and come up with great concepts that can be utilized throughout the year.”
Another new proposal is immersive feed For short-form vertical videos within the Instacart app. The experience is similar to what you see on TikTok, but with brands offering videos that are between 5 and 30 seconds long. Hellmann’s, Kettle & Fire, Rachael Ray Nutrish, and Siete Foods are piloting the format, which aims to drive discovery and transactions through recipe and product recommendation videos with add-to-cart functionality. Instacart plans to expand its feed to organic content through partnerships and the integration of sponsored creators.
“When you think about recipe content, product demonstrations, personal care content, beauty content, vertical video is the perfect format for this,” Miller said, adding that immersive feeds “have no limits.”
AI advertising vision
Additionally, Instacart at Cannes Lions showcased its vision for an artificial intelligence-powered shopping assistant that would help users solve problems such as coming up with gluten-free meal ideas for a family of four. Miller said it’s “likely” that Instacart will begin experimenting with ads within the program in the second half of this year. Still, the executive noted that Instacart is not rushing to monetize and is taking a measured approach to advertising while considering user feedback. instacart Advertising revenue increased 16% year over year In the first quarter, it reached $286 million.
“We really want to make sure it’s a two-way street.”” said AI’s Miller.
Where Assistant fits into Instacart’s advertising mix is an open question. Other AI platforms that have started running ads include: take a similarly undecided position About its final position in the marketing funnel. Presenting sponsored recipes and opportunities (think creating a barbecue shopping list), deals and offers, and encouraging product exploration were some of the potential use cases proposed by Miller.
“We’re going to see what the dominant behavior is that ultimately consumers turn to AI, and my hypothesis is that we’re going to start to see a lot more of this upper-funnel, middle-funnel kind of behavior,” Miller said. “I think this will help move them a little more up the funnel and drive discovery behavior a little more.”
