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Talking With: Stratacache VP Jeff Griffin on digital media trends, the game-changer to come

Retail experience industry expert Lyle Bunn talks with Jeff Griffin as Griffin joins forces with Stratacache,

June 20, 2016 by Lyle Bunn — Strategy Architect, BUNN

Jeff Griffin is now executive vice president at Stratacache, an in-store/branch media supply and operations provider. Griffin is one of the most experienced digital place-based media executives having helped lead the creation of the largest digital place-based media network with over 150 million weekly viewers across two continents, the largest mobile proximity network at retail reaching an audience of 2 million-plus daily shoppers, and the first national beacon-enabled digital place-based network. Griffin has more than 25 years of experience at both Fortune 50 CPG and emerging media companies with merchandising experience from his time at Kellogg's, Nabisco, Nestle and P&G. He was also a co-creator of the original shopper insights behind Google's 'Zero Moment of Truth' for IPG Shopper Sciences. He holds a Bachelor's in media and journalism from the University of North Carolina and an MBA from the Ross School of Business.

What inclined you to join Stratacache?

Jeff Griffin:  I've known and worked closely with Stratacache in the design of digital retail strategies and operations for years. Chris Riegel, Stratacache founder and CEO, and I have shared many experiences (and have the war stories to prove it) in the place-based media world, and really are of one mind in bringing the enabling value of digital media to customer-facing media innovation. Chris has mobilized an excellent team toward our current installed base of 1.4 million devices in 300,000-plus venues in 28 countries. Being able to reach 500mm+ consumers every day is truly remarkable.

More important is that I strongly believe, and Chris and the team have proven through the Stratacache approach, that the thoughtful total contribution of media in retail far exceeds the sum of the parts. We share the experiences of serving the largest retail organizations in the world with high value, customer-facing deployments. That combination of a holistic strategic approach and vast operational experience really is behind my move to Stratacache.

What is your outlook for bricks and mortar retail?

Griffin: As much as we love to complain about it, we all love to shop! And even if we don't love it, physical retail is — and in my humble opinion will remain — key to consumer discovery, product selection, experience, brand contact and immediate fulfillment of products across all categories. There is no better way to impact the influence nodes that move a shopper ‘from undecided to decided than the tactile experiences of sight, sound, and motion in a store.

Of course, retail (and I mean that in its broadest sense: from fast moving consumer goods outlets to foodservice to financial services) is in the grips of the financial reality of having to cross the generational chasm from boomers to millennials as we speak. Many billions of dollars were, and continue to be, invested by shareholders to build physical spaces to sell goods, and the store is a prime element of marketing that must produce in order to justify the invested capital.

What will drive the next level of shopper-enabling in-store media?

Griffin: All media has typically followed enabling tools and platforms from our homes to our cars to our stores, where the narrative is ultimately about solving problems for the shoppers, retailer and brands simultaneously. Retail media platforms are so numerous but most (and I mean Most with a capital M) are self-serving, operating as a "hammer" where all of us shoppers are the same "nail."

The 'good old days' of using push media by brands has been shifting (finally) toward the shopper being the ultimate arbiter of what will be said and done, to whom, and how. The in-venue media experience must be compelling but also very flexible to help in moving the 'undecided' shopper to being a 'decided' shopper who can finally become a consumer.

The media experience itself must be compelling, and digital place-based media is obviously very important to high consideration, high data-need products and categories, where shoppers need real help not only in product selection but to help mitigate purchase risk. But it can be just as important — and enabling — of a shopper making a last second menu decision for lunch while waiting in line or at the drive through.

Digital place-based media has evolved from a potential tool to serve shoppers and brands to a trusted tool based on proven practices. The early "hammers" (hanging screens as solutions, literally looking down on shoppers for a problem to solve) is giving way to analytics-driven, targeted messaging that integrates with and supports other channels, as part of the physical flow of the shopper through the store and their day.

Retailers have to make the 'gift' of a retail visit by the consumer — and make no mistake, with almost every single physical retail channel losing trips year-over-year, a trip really is a gift to the retailer — a rich experience. Retailers who do so will outperform, while legacy businesses that are not able or willing to evolve will be culled. Arrogance is the greatest enemy of retail progress, as shoppers have a funny way of not rewarding you tomorrow for something you did well enough yesterday.

Finally, suppliers to retailers are just driven by survival and many, including Stratacache and our partners, are taking their game to new levels.

What do you see will differentiate the next level of in-store digital media?

Griffin: Retail digital place-based media must also be very flexible and express appreciation for the 'gift' of a store visit that is being given by the shopper. This expression of thanks, along with helping to fulfill the needs and wants, differ from patron to patron. Analytics have advanced to the point where suppliers and merchants know absolutely what is moving the branding and product purchase needle, and these insights will become the new backdrop to more flexible digital media operations.

A learning attitude and behaviors by brands means that they welcome insights into not just what must be done and how something will be accomplished. Rapid learning and quick innovation is the key to all technology and data-enabled success.

Is the role of the merchant changing in the face of in-store digital capabilities?

Griffin: Let's start with some definitions:

• A merchant (the category buyer in a retail organization) is the standard bearer for commerce done in stores. It's usually a holistic term that really means the business owner for a set of products or categories.
• Suppliers, (the providers of the products we all buy as consumer) and merchants will grow closer in the partnership of customer engagement success.
• And that success is defined as simply more store trips and/or greater comp sales/trip.

Since digital place-based media brings extremely high value to high consideration products, where shoppers need help in product selection, merchants and their suppliers are and will increasingly tap into this powerful marketing instrument.

But for many fast moving, lower priced consumer goods, generating brand and product awareness is hugely expensive. Where large-scale reach and frequency communications is essential to brand success, merchants and their suppliers will increasingly use the reach, frequency, recency (time proximity to the purchase moment), managed costs and value provided by in-store digital media messaging and engagement.

And analytics have advanced to the point where suppliers and merchants know absolutely what is moving the product purchase needle.

What is your outlook on in-store media investment by retail?

Griffin: The greatest change in technology has been advancements in investment validation and financing approaches by retailers. Better access to retail financial metrics is better informing investment validation.

The increasing pressure on the labor line item of retailers' P&Ls means that the efficiency of the one-to-many messaging of in-store is increasingly attractive to product promotion.

Because so many media choices are available, thoughtful messaging will drive success through natural moments of messaging and information exchange. Contextual and situational awareness will improve, especially as marketers (and we as suppliers of in store digital media) learn to weave together the tools that shoppers use simultaneously, like mobile and in store POP.

Is there a game-changer for in-store digital media investment?

Griffin: Yes, definitely. It is both evolutionary and revolutionary.

Not the least of these factors has been the proving of the medium by innovators and early adopters as they have exploited its enabling effect. In doing so, we have moved beyond the one-size-fits-all, "hammer and nail" approach so that wider and deeper benefits can serve the full range of stakeholders better.

As an example, beacons had an incredible rush of deployment and advertising investment due largely to the easy vision of delivering a promotion right to someone's phone in the aisle. And while that's possible, many retailers have quickly realized that it is not about the push of one message, it is about the conversation that pays back over increased visits and larger baskets driven by messaging away from the store that motivates the trip.

Also, the generation of professionals who are now positioned for the top retail c-suite and executive roles were many of the same professionals who were previously denounced for their championing of digital tools in retail. They have been proven to be correct and enthusiastic proponents of retail and brand success using all the tools that the shopper herself wants to employ today, not just those we've seen for a generation.

Finally, the customer experience function in retailers is moving from pure analysis toward insights generation and execution management that drives practical innovation. The care that is expressed in making retail execution happen in the aisle every week must now find its way to care of the customer relationship before, during, and after the trip. Relationship has always been and will continue to be the core enabler of retail success. 

What final advice do you offer given your extensive experience?

Griffin: Responding to need and opportunity at the speed of shopping are the most winning approaches and always will be. That doesn't mean pulling out every tool you have and swinging away, but pulling out the right tool, at the right time, for the right need of the shopper + the retailer + the brand.

Lyle Bunn is an analyst, advisor and educator in the digital media industry focused on owned media and its convergence with paid and earned in the media model for patron, shopper, traveler, staff and student communications.