Innovator Profile: Brandcrush Unlocks Retail Media Potential for Businesses Globally

Introduction 

The Coresight Research team will attend and participate in this year’s Groceryshop conference, which will be held on September 19–22, 2022, in Las Vegas, US. Groceryshop 2022 will explore the changing grocery landscape and help businesses navigate the rapid rise in e-commerce, the latest business models and technologies, and the shifting consumer behaviors that are impacting the industry.

On September 19, 2022, Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research, will emcee and feature on the judging panel of Groceryshop 2022’s “Shark Reef” startup pitch competition, which will see 12 early-stage innovators compete to win the Judges’ Choice and Audience Choice awards. In the lead-up to the event, we are profiling the participating innovators. 

This report forms part of our Innovator Profile series, which focuses on emerging technologies that are disrupting traditional retail and fuelling innovation across the retail value chain. We present Brandcrush, developer of an omnichannel retail media platform aimed at unlocking the media potential of businesses globally. Coresight Research collaborated with Brandcrush to offer insights into its capabilities and offerings.

Areas of Innovation

Coresight Research categorizes the 12 participating innovators into three areas of innovation in retail: fulfillment and sustainability; product marketing and merchandising; and AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning) and automation. Brandcrush falls under “product marketing and merchandising.”

Brands and retailers are increasingly finding innovative ways to expand their marketing reach and brand awareness. Advances in retail technology and accessibility to shopper data are supporting omnichannel marketing and merchandising strategies to achieve growth.

Brandcrush: In Detail 

Headquarters 

South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 

Funding Stage 

Series A 

Company Description

Founded in 2017, Brandcrush has developed an omnichannel retail media platform that powers shopper marketing, retail media and business-to-business (B2B) partnerships between retailers and brands. The company helps retailers buy and sell via in-store, out-of-store and online media channels by enabling businesses to sell their owned media channels to companies looking to capitalize on the sellers’ existing audience and marketing reach. 

The company’s software enables businesses to unlock and grow their media revenue via self-serve media portals, sales and inventory tools, and workflow management solutions. With Brandcrush’s platform, retailers can grow their revenue and maximize their media opportunities, while brands can fuel product discovery through effective marketing via retailers’ in-store, out-of-store and online media channels. 

What Problem Is the Company Solving?

Businesses and retailers have a gap in their ad-tech stack—while many retailers have numerous owned media channels, leveraging and scaling these channels has proven challenging. The biggest hurdle companies face is the complicated nature of managing media channels—many of which include multiple stakeholders and disparate processes, including outdated document-based marketing and spreadsheet tracking—which make owned media channels more complex and less productive. 

Brandcrush’s platform allows businesses to maximize their owned retail media channels by connecting them with brands whose products are well suited to be integrated into said media channels. At the same time, via the Brandcrush platform, brands can drive higher and more effective product discovery by partnering with companies with a similar target audience, but larger marketing reach. The company hopes to align marketing efforts between brands and retailers and drive productivity and conversions through a combination of in-store, out-of-store and online media. 

Market Opportunity 

More and more companies are looking to strategic retail media and advertising as a way to leverage the plethora of shopper data available, discover innovative marketing solutions and raise brand awareness. Factors driving this trend include the growing awareness of retail media’s revenue opportunities, the rise of e-commerce and technology, created by companies such as Brandcrush, making it easier for brands to connect with retailers. As a result, we estimate that the global retail media market will expand to $75.1 billion in 2022, up 80.1% versus 2021. 

In 2021, Amazon and Walmart reported global retail advertising revenues of $32.1 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively, highlighting the massive market for retail advertising. However, smaller companies can also utilize first-party data to bring in more advertisement dollars from potential partners. A 2021 Coresight Research survey found that the top three benefits reported by organizations that use first-party data for marketing purposes were: driving online sales, providing relevant information at the right time through the right medium and building brand recognition. 

What We Think

We believe that, as the global retail media market continues to expand, brands will look for strategic methods of increasing their marketing reach; at the same time, retailers will look to capitalize on their owned media channels, driving higher top- and bottom-line revenues. As the retail media opportunities crystallize, deployment of retail advertising is likely to trickle down from the very largest retailers, such as Amazon, to less sizeable companies. In turn, those companies are likely to seek out solutions that will enable them to compete, with sophisticated retail media services.