With a career spanning brand giants such as Procter & Gamble, Missguided, The Very Group and more, Kenyatte Nelson knows a thing or two about what customers want.
In his Mad UpNorth session, he deep-dived into his career journey, sharing some of the lessons he’s learned along the way. He also broke down how Co-op and SMG successfully launched the UK’s first convenience retail media network, and what’s next for this pioneering partnership…
Kenaytte joined Co-op in 2023, attracted by the company’s commitment to its members and its “beautifully frustrating” position in the market.
“ Co-op is, at its core, a co-operative driven by a mission to do right by its people – its members and the wider community, but it operates in incredibly dynamic and competitive sectors…most of the businesses we compete against are highly commercially driven businesses.”
“When I joined Co-op, retail media existed in a very different guise. We had 2 full-time employees on the team, generating around £14 million for the retailers. If you look at the profit per FTE, it was incredibly lucrative, and I thought, we need to do more of that!”
He added that the key to any new business venture or marketing strategy is making sure that your stakeholders understand the commercial benefits to the business.
“When we as marketers can talk about what we do and deliver in a way that moves the needle commercially in a significant way, big things happen!”
For Kenyatte, the importance lies in the proposition and the clarity in its communication.
“We’re a convenience retailer with 2,500 stores, and we’re the most shopped shop in the UK with more than 800 million transactions per year.”
Combined with the frequency of store visits and the behaviours of those shoppers, Co-op found they had a real point of difference – and that difference was convenience.
Because of the frequency of store visits, the layout of stores and the nature of the shopper missions, Co-op Media Network was able to set itself apart in the increasingly busy commerce media space.
Nelson also references the recent results of Co-op Media Network’s global-first attention report, which helped prove just how effective convenience media can be for brands.
In fact, the report, conducted in partnership with Lumen Research, showed that retail media in smaller format stores can actually deliver…
The results of the Lumen study hold some important implications for retail media as a channel to build brand affinity, rather than simply drive sales at the point of purchase.
Enter retail media, where the ability to engage shoppers at the point of purchase meets the ability to influence the way a person thinks about a brand, particularly in a convenience setting where shoppers are more open and looking for inspiration.
My point of view is simple…all marketing should perform!
Working with partners like SMG and Liveramp Co-op Media Network has been able to harness the data of its 7m+ members to bring brands closer to their ideal customers and activate some impactful, data-driven campaigns.
But the uniqueness lies not only in the way brands can activate with this data but also in the fact that, as a co-operative, the retailer puts its Members at the heart of these campaigns, giving back profits in the form of pricing benefits, exclusive offers, experiences at Co-op Live and more.
Co-op Media Network has certainly hit the ground running in its first year, but with a nascent industry that’s constantly changing, there will undoubtedly be challenges ahead.
“The retail media market right now is incredibly fragmented…all of us are searching for growth, and we’re doing that in an environment where people’s wallets are challenged.”
So, with all of this in mind and some big numbers to hit, where does the future lie for Co-op Media Network and for retail media as a whole?
Kenyatte thinks CMN’s unique proposition will be its superpower in this space.
“Because of that uniqueness and differentiation in the marketplace from a media standpoint, that’s going to serve us quite well over the next several years.”
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