Interview with Daniel Heer, CEO and Co-founder of Zeotap
In recent times, Retail Media has emerged as a prominent and relevant advertising strategy. It’s not just about providing brands with a unique opportunity to engage with their customers meaningfully; it also offers a robust advertising approach built upon first-party data. This becomes even more significant with the impending deprecation of third-party cookies and the growing demand for privacy-conscious targeting.
The success of a retail media strategy relies on striking a delicate balance between user experience and commercial objectives. Yet, achieving this equilibrium requires the deployment of the right tools, and this is where Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) come into play.
In this article, we delve into the crucial role of CDPs in shaping successful retail media strategies with Daniel Heer, CEO and co-founder of Zeotap.
Let’s explore why choosing the right tool is paramount and how Zeotap CDP stands out as the ideal solution for retail media.
What’s the importance of choosing the right tools for a successful Retail Media strategy?
“There are two tools that are fundamentally important to have a successful retail media campaign executed. One, the ad server; two, a CDP. On one hand, you need an ad server that is able to take the assets that come in from advertisers and orchestrate and show them in real time when a certain audience hits the website or the inventory. Two, a CDP is the foundation to unlock the data value that large retailers sit on and provide attractive segments to retailers to find the right audience.“
How would you describe the key role of a CDP in a Retail Media strategy?
“For retailers that want to invest in scaling their retail media business, it’s important to consider choosing a CDP. Why? Retailers usually sit on a plethora of very wealthy and rich data. This data can be of high importance to advertisers because it helps them make the right call in investing a budget in the inventory offered by the retail media vendor. It’s all about personalised marketing, and a CDP can create simple audiences based on fully unified consolidated data that can power a better experience and more cost-effective campaigns for advertisers.“
What are the primary challenges that Retail Media faces, and how does a CDP address these challenges?
“CDPs primarily address a technical challenge by providing easy-to-use, simple, but powerful and fully unified audiences that advertisers can tap into when they want to reach their target audiences across retail media inventory. However, a significant challenge is also the change in selling routines for retail media sales teams. They need to rethink how they sell, focusing on personas or unified audiences. A CDP can make this transition smoother by offering a simpler audience creation process, making it easier for sales teams to adapt.“
How does Zeotap CDP contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of Retail Media campaigns?
“Zeotap CDP is the right choice to power your retail media campaign for several reasons. Firstly, we offer a simple user interface that allows business teams to be independent and autonomous from resource-constrained IT teams. Secondly, we provide the full power of your first-party data to get advertisers excited, enriching it with our high-quality, privacy-compliant Zeotap data. This yields more compelling and richer audiences, ultimately increasing CPMs. Lastly, Zeotap prioritises privacy compliance, ensuring that your data and campaigns are in line with global privacy regulations.“
How does Zeotap CDP help retailers maintain compliance and ensure data privacy in their Retail Media efforts?
“Zeotap ensures full privacy compliance by incorporating GDPR and other privacy regulations into our product from the ground up. Our focus on privacy and enterprise-grade security is ingrained in our DNA, our employee onboarding, training, and company processes. Features like consent orchestration further ensure compliance, making Zeotap a trusted partner in safeguarding data privacy.“
How does Zeotap CDP stand out as the best CDP for Retail Media?
“Zeotap sets itself apart as the right partner for your retail media strategy. We simplify the complex world of CDPs, ensuring adoption across your teams. We empower marketing teams with strong, compelling audiences, enhance your first-party data with Zeotap data, and prioritise privacy compliance. But beyond that, we aim to be more than a vendor; we strive to be your trusted partner, supporting you through every step of your retail media journey.“
ABOUT DANIEL HEER
Daniel is the founder & CEO of Zeotap. Being a second-time entrepreneur, Daniel used to work for the board at Vodafone and took his learnings about the power of 1st party data to build Zeotap into Europe’s leading Customer Data Platform. Daniel has raised $110 million in capital to fund Zeotap’s growth from international institutional investors and actively helps enterprises across the globe to drive commercial outcomes and evolve their operating models by making customer data front and centre
