Criteo Acquires Brandcrush to Accelerate Offline Retail Media Solutions

Acquisition creates holistic omnichannel media-planning and activation platform

3/9/2023

The Criteo and Brandcrush partnership allows retailers to efficiently leverage a purpose-built solution for retail media orders.

Criteo S.A., a global commerce media company, has acquired Brandcrush, an Australia-based company whose platform enables the buying and selling of omnichannel retail media, including offline media channels. With this acquisition, Criteo will be able to provide a holistic omnichannel monetization solution globally for retailers to manage their entire media inventory across both e-commerce and physical retail while enabling brands and agencies to seamlessly discover and purchase omnichannel media from leading retailers. Additionally, the acquisition expands Criteo’s client footprint and capabilities in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific retail media market.

Insider Intelligence recently released a report about retail media becoming digital advertising’s third – and largest – wave of digital advertising. It forcasted that retail media will be a $45 billion market this year and will continue to grow by about $10 billion in 2024.

[Read more: “The Grocer’s Guide to Tech”]

Although retail media has become a multibillion-dollar revenue opportunity for retailers, many either rely on antiquated processes such as emails and spreadsheets to manage the packaging, availability and purchasing of their media inventory, or are forced to adapt their legacy customer relationship management (CRM) systems to fulfill the unique needs of their retail media operations, according to Criteo.

The Brandcrush platform provides 360 degrees of media asset management and activation, ranging from in-store activations such as digital screens, point-of-sale displays, and sampling to out-of-store activations like inbox sampling and inserts, and online activations such as digital circulars, email and social. Combined with Criteo’s retail media solutions, including sponsored ads, on-site display and off-site ads, advertisers can now scale their campaigns across the entire omnichannel retail media environment.

"As marketers continue to invest in retail media, offline is emerging as the new frontier – and brands and agencies must be able to effectively plan, execute and measure their campaigns in an integrated way," said Sherry Smith, general manager of global enterprise at Paris-based Criteo. "Brandcrush directly addresses the current market need for consolidated offline and online advertising management, and our combined solutions will make omnichannel retail media strategies a reality, empowering retailers to own their entire retail media ecosystems."

"By combining forces, we’re bringing together our platform with Criteo’s best-in-class retail media technology to create the most effective monetization platform for retailers," said Teresa Aprile, co-founder and CEO of Melbourne-based Brandcrush. "With Criteo’s retail media client footprint of 175-plus retailers and nearly 1,800 brands – unlike any others in the industry – we’re also tapping into their unique scale to truly harness the power of omnichannel across the entire advertising ecosystem."

Brandcrush’s globally available platform is currently undergoing integration with Criteo’s retail media solutions to provide a seamless experience for retailers and their advertisers. Brandcrush will also continue to support integrations with financial, digital, audio and commerce platform partners in retailers’ ecosystems.