By: Ana Laura Zain
Grocery was slower than other categories to adopt eCommerce, but when it comes to retail media, it’s now leading the way. According to Pentaleap’s latest Sponsored Products Report, grocery is neck-and-neck with Fashion as the category with the most in-grid sponsored product coverage.
It’s an area I’ve been curious to explore more closely, so I connected with Joell Robinson, Senior Director of Retail Media at Giant Eagle, to learn how she is leading her team in growing Giant Eagle’s retail media network, and the challenges they face as they work to balance scale, community, and purpose.
- What inspired you to build a retail media network at Giant Eagle, and how did your earlier roles shape your approach to grocery media?
My journey at Giant Eagle has been both challenging and rewarding. I originally joined to transition all our paid media for Giant Eagle and GetGo from external agencies to an in-house operation, something I had successfully done at other organizations. At the time, retail media was more of a side project. To be candid, I didn’t fully grasp its scope at first, but I welcomed the challenge and jumped in headfirst.
Within the first year, I brought all digital and linear media buying in-house and built a strong, capable planning and buying team. As I deepened my understanding of retail media, I became increasingly convinced of the need to establish a solid internal foundation. I focused on testing technology and demand partners with distinctive, high-value offerings. Fortunately, my leaders supported this vision, and together we began putting structure and strategy around the retail media network.
- What makes grocery a powerful retail media environment, and what challenges come with it?
Grocery already has the infrastructure and relationships that create a lot of opportunity for advertisers and retailers. Shopper marketing, for example, was happening long before retail media even had a name. The real momentum happens when you build programs and strategies that deliver on customer, supplier, and shopper goals, and that’s also where the challenges begin.
When we first started our retail media journey, we were looking at it in a silo. Over the last couple of years, we’ve shifted toward building a more integrated network. Once we embraced a more cross-functional approach, we started to see the integration points that hadn’t been connecting before.
One of the first things that stood out to me was our Giant Eagle paid campaigns. We knew there was a way to bring enterprise marketing and retail media together and that integration would ultimately create a better experience for the entire organization. We’ve continued making progress toward that connected vision.
Being siloed is easier because you can operate independently, but integrating retail media across enterprise marketing and merchandising requires thoughtful collaboration. We made a conscious decision to pivot and take the longer, harder path, but for regional grocers especially, I think it’s the necessary one.
- How are you using Giant Eagle’s first-party data to create more meaningful connections between brands and shoppers?
For us, it’s about using the Giant Eagle platform to create meaningful experiences, not just viewing our guests as data. We lean heavily into our myPerks loyalty program. It sits at the core of our retail media network and gives us the ability to deliver truly personalized experiences.
We have the channels to connect directly with customers and an internal team that deeply understands Giant Eagle running our media. There are many times when someone on my team or a cross-functional team will say, “Hey, we have this campaign, and I see potential connection points, but it feels fragmented.” That’s when we do the hard work to bring it all together and set our egos aside.
It’s exciting to see a seasonal campaign come to life where Giant Eagle marketing and our advertisers are aligned with key merchandising priorities. We start with a message that already matters to our guests and then find meaningful ways for brands to participate. It sounds simple, but it takes real discipline and coordination to bring a cross-functional team together and execute with excellence.
- What role do in-store experiences play in your broader media strategy?
Over the last year, in-store has been a major priority for us. We’ve expanded our tactics across the store; everything from audio and in-store digital screens to product sampling.
Since our guests are still primarily shopping in-store, ignoring that environment would mean missing a key touchpoint. It’s an opportunity to share value like loyalty point multipliers on gift cards or spotlighting unique brand offerings.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was balancing the desire to preserve the shopping experience while enhancing it with in-store media. Take our partnership with Grocery TV, for example. We made it a point to keep the guest experience front and center, so we surveyed our shoppers to see how they felt. What we found was that the screens didn’t bother them, in fact, many felt they enhanced the experience.
Internally, we often say, “Think like a guest, not for the guest.” This was one of those moments where we stepped back, got out of our own way, and simply asked our guests what they thought and that made all the difference.
- As a regional grocer, how do you approach scaling Giant Eagle while staying true to the communities you serve?
The checkpoint we often use to make sure we’re staying true to ourselves while running a media network is simple:
“Is this campaign or effort good for the guest, the advertiser, and Giant Eagle as a business?“
If the answer is yes, then let’s go.
We don’t just run media campaigns with brands, we also work cross-functionally to support efforts that reflect our commitment to the community. Most recently, we partnered with one of our brands and worked across merchandising, marketing, and our business resource group to donate a K9 to a veteran in our community. That’s just one example. Our team is regularly involved in community-focused programs and helping brands participate in local events. It’s how we show up.
As a regional grocer, you have to build your own playbook and be willing to rewrite it, over and over again. We test and learn constantly. It used to be hard for me to admit when something didn’t work (hello, imposter syndrome from a recovering perfectionist), but I’ve learned to get comfortable in that discomfort.
- Which women in the retail media industry inspires you, and why?
This might be a cliché answer, but my team is roughly 70% women, and they inspire me every day. They’re constantly looking for ways to improve the experience for our guests, our advertisers, and Giant Eagle as a whole. They show up with authenticity, speak with transparency, and lead with purpose.
What’s even more meaningful is that the leadership team I’m part of is also mostly women. Seeing leadership that truly believes in us and invests in us is incredibly powerful especially in an industry that’s historically been male-led.
Outside of my immediate team, I’ve always admired Charlene Charles. What she built at Dollar General was remarkable. She created something from the ground up and shaped it into a success. Her technical expertise and operational mindset really stand out to me because the strength of a network often comes from the unglamorous, behind-the-scenes work. It takes a lot of patience and discipline to stay focused on that kind of planning and execution, and I deeply respect that.
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About us: The Women in Retail Media Collective (WRM Collective) is an industry-first network dedicated to empowering women in the retail media sector. By providing resources, thought leadership, and community, WRM Collective creates pathways for women to lead, innovate, and drive change in this booming sector. Founded by two industry leaders, WRM Collective is committed to fostering a more inclusive and equitable retail media landscape. For more information visit www.wrmcollective.com.