EU grocery chain Rewe Group has successfully developed a privacy-first ad solution to maintain its personalised marketing approach. With brands like Billa and Penny, Lithuanian Iki, and Croatian Bipa drugstores, Rewe Group is known for its commitment to delivering a unique shopping experience. After all, all companies strive to make their content/ads as personalised as possible. However, catering to the individual needs of its 30 million weekly shoppers across 3,700 stores posed a significant challenge.
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Privacy-driven decision
As privacy concerns and the phasing out of third-party cookies grew, Rewe Group sought a solution to uphold its personalised marketing strategy. In collaboration with Deloitte, Rewe’s in-house IT, marketing, and analytics teams decided to create a Customer Data Platform (CDP) from scratch. The aim was to develop a privacy-first marketing solution that ensures a tailored experience for customers.
The CDP, built in Google Cloud, centralises both first-party and select external data, offering a holistic view of customer needs and interests. Maximilian Hausmann, Rewe’s head of media strategy & data-driven marketing, highlights the impact of the new CDP, internally known as CustomerCloud. It enables Rewe to understand and meet customers’ coupon, offer, and content preferences, ultimately delivering a personalised experience.
Either we address the same customers again with new content, or we can expand our reach with the original content by addressing new customers.
Maximillian Hausmann, Rewe’s head of media strategy & data-driven marketing
Three data pool pillars
Rewe’s management outlined three primary requirements for the new data pool. Firstly, customer data should be collected in a privacy-friendly and secure place to enhance communication relevance and provide a unified customer view. Secondly, segmentation should be channel-independent, future-proof, and privacy-friendly, enabling personalised experiences despite the end of third-party cookies. Lastly, the CDP should provide long-term benefits to the marketing, analytics, and digital IT teams through modern cloud solutions.
The CustomerCloud consolidates ten data sources from Rewe, including the website, newsletter, e-commerce shop, and recipe collection. Data from mobile payments, coupon redemptions, and loyalty points is securely transferred to the CustomerCloud via Rewe’s app. Google Cloud’s secure infrastructure ensures compliance with privacy laws through default data encryption, access control settings, and advanced security measures.
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The consolidation of first-party data into the CustomerCloud amplifies the impact of Rewe’s brand communication and allows the company to leverage the growing retail media market. Rewe offers privacy-safe first-party audiences to advertising partners using Google Ad Manager, ensuring highly relevant display ads. Additionally, partners can access over 100 exclusive audience lists based on unified customer profiles for campaigns in Rewe’s online shop.
With the new solution in place, Rewe is prepared for a paperless, post-cookie era. Other brands are encouraged to adopt similar solutions to enhance reach and relevance. Companies that build teams that specialise in these types of implementations will reap the rewards short- and long-term.
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