CVS takes on Amazon, Walmart in retail digital ad market

CPG companies have gained another retail partner in their efforts to reach consumers with digital ads.

CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health, is introducing CVS Media Exchange (cMx). This new digital advertising platform is designed to enable CPG supplier partners to efficiently reach existing and potential customers. CVS is rolling out cMx following Walmart’s recent launch of on-demand performance dashboards for CPG advertisers. Walmart and now CVS are attempting to establish footing in a retail digital advertising marketplace currently dominated by Amazon, Google, and Facebook/Instagram.

Participating brands have access to a 360-degree suite of on-site and off-site channels spanning consumers’ path to purchase – from in-store advertising and banners on CVS.com, to programmatic display, online video, social media and search engines. CVS estimates 76% of the U.S. population lives within five miles of one of its brick-and-mortar stores. 

CVS bases the cMx platform upon more than two decades’ worth of unique insights from in-store and online transactions, which the drugstore giant leverages to help brands accurately target the most appropriate audience and media platforms for a specific campaign. As a result, CVS intends to serve personalized and relevant ads and offers to customers who are most likely to be interested in them.

The platform also offers a closed-loop (in-store and online) measurement system, plus value-addition metrics including brand sales lift, new buyer growth and brand health.  

“cMx allows brands to focus their ad spend on reaching the right customer at the right time, with maximum efficiency,” said Norman de Greve, chief marketing officer of CVS Health. “We take an audience-first approach, and can target both loyal and category shoppers and accurately validate the effectiveness of a campaign by measuring both online and offline sales.”