Data Enablers: Triad Tailors Ad Experience

Advertising only works when the right eyes see the product. The experts at Triad Retail Media are there to make sure that happens.

Triad customizes and manages digital media programs to transform busy websites like Walmart.com into publishing properties that benefit the advertising brands, host retailers, and shoppers who use them with a perfectly calibrated pitch.

The ad experience is tailored to each customer, with first-party data constantly being fed back to retailers so they can better understand their customer base. For growing brands, Triad offers a unique opportunity to get their message in front of the right shoppers at the right time.

Conceived in 2004 and launched on Walmart.com, Triad Retail Media now has 13 offices worldwide with more than 600 global team members. The team produces global campaigns that touch more than 15.8 billion global shopping visits on clients’ websites annually.

Randy Malluk, Triad’s Senior Vice President of Analytics and Insights, attributes the company’s growth and success to its emphasis on human connection at all levels of the business.

“Triad Retail Media’s success has come from nurturing partnerships with its retailers and advertisers,” said Malluk. “We need to anticipate trends and understand where the market is moving toward. By staying abreast of consumer trends, Triad is able to provide high returns for its clients and consistently enrich the shopping experience.”

PYMNTS caught up with Malluk to hear his thoughts on the burgeoning business. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

PYMNTS: Can you explain your business, please?

RM: Triad Retail Media helps the world’s leading retailers and brands create, manage and operate digital media programs, turning highly trafficked eCommerce sites into valuable publishing properties.

We create advertising and marketing campaigns that are personalized for the shopper, at scale.

Triad maximizes the value of every website visit by enabling its retail partners to leverage unique first-party data and large-scale audiences to tap into the $200B+ global digital advertising market.

Triad enables brands to drive and activate sales by reaching the right shoppers, at the right time, with the right message on the path to purchase.

PYMNTS: How does your business overlap with the payment processing or e-merchant world?

RM: Triad Retail Media helps retailers understand their customers and create better shopping experiences. In addition, Triad utilizes retail data to optimize how consumers pay and at what frequency. Looking into consumer trends around online and mobile payments allows Triad to layer this data into e-commerce solutions and target shopper buying habits strategically. It’s a better way to understand the customer while helping the retailer grow its program.

PYMNTS: Can you give the history on the founding and launch of the company? Why was the company founded? What was the grand idea that sparked it?

RM: In 2004, Triad Retail Media approached Walmart with an idea that would better connect brands, retailers and customers online.

At the heart of the pitch was the concept of turning Walmart.com into a publisher to attract national brand ad dollars, create personalized experiences for shoppers, increase online and in-store conversion and create new revenue streams to be reinvested back into the retailer’s business.

Intrigued, Walmart decided to give this new way of online advertising a shot — and Triad became the pioneer in digital retail media.

PYMNTS: Can you show us some data or proof points on how the company has helped retailers?

RM: No data point speaks more for itself than growth, and Triad continues to forge ahead. From starting with a single campaign at one publisher, we now help more than a dozen major retail partners globally. Our clients include Walmart, Asda, Toys”R”Us, CVS, Kohl’s, Dollar General, Sam’s Club, Redbox, Staples, Sears, and others. Today we bring those retailers more than 1,000 advertisers and more than 3,000 advertising campaigns annually.

PYMNTS: What has been the biggest hurdle? How did the company overcome?

RM: The largest hurdle for the company has historically been operating in an environment in which each retailer has very different and unique data sets, each according to their industries and customers. By constantly asking ourselves how we can take this data to create scalable solutions, we have consistently overcome this hurdle. We have taken some great strides to overcome many obstacles and offer great products for our clients.

What’s the company culture like?

RM: Innovative, rewarding and fun! Triad’s culture comes to life through our core values and passion in every aspect of our work. We’re committed to fueling that passion for creativity, community involvement and work/life balance. While our unique culture has earned us accolades such as Top Workplace and Coolest Office Space, we’re most proud of the loyalty and dedication it inspires from our team members. After all, it’s our people that take us from great to incredible.

PYMNTS: What is next? What does the future look like?

RM: We and many others in the industry must learn how to turn big data into small data — isolating key behaviors that lead to successful conversions and engagements and ignoring the rest of the noise to help us move even faster.

Because data is compiled daily, we must sift through what is the most useful to each audience. By working directly with retailers and advertisers, data is brought to the forefront and creates a new level of personalization to the overall native shopping experience. With this shift, retailers have begun to activate a change in strategy with targeted, performance-based marketing.

As shoppers turn to the Internet of Things, it will be important for the technology to embrace advertising. Both Amazon and Google operate advertising businesses, and marketers are always looking for new ways to get in front of potential customers.

As more data is used to create the very best campaigns, marketing will continue to be more targeted, personalized, relevant and efficient.