Publicis Sapient Builds WaWa the First Retail Media Network of its Kind in its Vertical
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Publicis Sapient Builds Ground-breaking Media Network
wawa, Inc.
Digital Experience Strategy & Design
Personalization
Custom Development
Backend Integrations
Omnichannel Strategy
commercetools
RECOGNITION
Background
WaWa is a beloved chain of convenience stores and gas stations known for its quick-service food menu, which offers hoagies and comfort food options that customers order through a touch screen. WaWa began in Philadelphia and is primarily an East Coast brand. Despite its regional scale, WaWa is the 34th largest privately owned company with nearly $10 billion yearly revenue.
With touchscreens being such an important part of WaWa’s business model, they recognized a need to update and optimize their omnichannel capabilities for commerce and advertising. They chose Publicis Sapient and the Power of One philosophy to deliver a transformative solution to their digital approach.
Together, Corra &
WaWa
achieved:
Challenge
TAKE A GREAT DIGITAL EXPERIENCE AND MAKE IT BIGGER AND BETTER
WaWa needed a platform-agnostic digital network that could leverage first-party data into personalized advertising across multiple platforms and offer intuitive and performant experiences, both transactional and not, across Google, social media, VOD, fuel pump screens, touch-screen kiosks, and more.
With so many partners' products and services using WaWa’s touchpoints for customer outreach, WaWa needed a unified reporting and attribution system that collated all the data from various touchpoints and correctly attributed which touchpoints were performing for which brands. The attribution system needed the capability to take that diffuse data across various brands and touchpoints and synthesize it into a frequent, and accurate, revenue sharing model.
Solution
PUBLICIS SAPIENT USES POWER OF ONE TO BUILD MEDIA NETWORK WITH REVENUE SHARING
Publicis Sapient’s Power of One is a strategy that integrates all the resources, capabilities, and expertise of Publicis Groupe to deliver comprehensive solutions. The media platform is powered by Epsilon, which allows Wawa to leverage the massive amount of first-party data their touchpoints receive into personalized and targeted experiences for customers.
The platform-agnostic approach allowed WaWa’s services to be fully omnichannel, capable of being accessed on various devices across various channels, like Google, social media, VOD platforms, and screens attached to gas pumps. The advertising ecosystem is beneficial to WaWa’s partners, and it creates a wide network of touchpoints for WaWa to promote their products and services as well. With a modular architecture in place, the network is agile and flexible allowing WaWa to quickly scale promotional material for flash sales, limited-time offers, and new product launches.
The in-store advertising network allows WaWa to monetize their brand reach and share that revenue gain with partners. Through a robust tracking and attribution system, WaWa can see which partners are performing on which channels and correctly distribute revenue according to each partner or products performance.
Solution
PUBLICIS SAPIENT IS A FULL-SERVICE PARTNER
By providing a full-service management solution for the media network, WaWa could focus on its core business while reaping the benefits of the media network. Services Publicis Sapient provides include outsourced sales and brand management functions, creative operations, campaign management, integrating data services into existing and new technology, and full-service reporting. Publicis Sapient offers scalable services that are designed to be any kind of partner a brand needs.
Solution
BUSINESS IMPACT OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The initiative effectively enabled WaWa to harvest customer data from its roughly 1 billion yearly transactions and to build loyalty and engagement driving personalized experiences from that information. The modular architecture employed in the digital transformation increased operational efficiency and facilitated the use of reusable components which reduced the number of design story points to launch new experiences by nearly 50% and increased frontend developer efficiency by 25%. The overall delivery velocity was increased by 30% and the number of business-critical errors or issues in the digital ecosystem was decreased by 90%.
Solution
Results
The partnership between WaWa and Publicis Sapient resulted in the implementation of a first-of-its-kind retail media network. By leveraging the Power of One strategy and a comprehensive, platform-agnostic approach, Publicis Sapient built a value-creating media network for WaWa and their partners. The network enhanced customer engagement and loyalty and contributed significantly to the brand’s EBITDA, ensuring its long-term success in the competitive retail landscape.
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