Today, Recess is announcing an exclusive category partnership with Dollar General Media Network (DGMN), that will allow DGMN advertisers to use experiential sampling partnerships to reach Dollar General shoppers in their local communities. This latest partnership will enable DGMN’s brand partners to use the Recess Experiential Network to hyper-target Dollar General’s more than 90 million customers in their everyday lives through community-driven sampling programs to build brand trust.
This is the first major category partnership for DGMN to reach Dollar General customers in-person and out-of-store. Experiential marketing is a $128 billion dollar industry, and marketing investment in this upper funnel activity has increased 10.4% in the last year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. DGMN is uniquely positioned to capture these national brand dollars and use its retail media network to see measurable impact on both the brands’ and the retailer’s reach to drive volumes.
This first-to-market experiential media unit from Recess will allow DGMN’s brand partners to hyper-target Dollar General shoppers in their everyday lives: at K-8 schools, colleges, co-working offices, youth programs, and gyms nationwide. The Recess platform boasts audience-targeting technology that advertisers can use to target locations with a high index of shoppers that frequent over 6,000 retailers. Plus, advertisers can hone in further with advanced demographic filters, like ethnicity, household income, age, gender, and education levels. Recess’ vast targeting capabilities allow advertisers to execute experiential sampling programs in targeted communities where community members and leaders distribute products to its members–creating an endorsement halo around the trial experience.
“The best way to build brand loyalty is during lifestyle moments, not when you’re doing a routine stock-up at the store,” says Jack Shannon, CEO and co-founder of Recess, “When you’re out of that checklist-driven shopping mindset, and at your kid’s Back to School Night event, you’re more open to trying new things, especially when your PTA leader hands you a sample. There’s something magical about discovering new products in your everyday life, from the people you trust.”
This partnership between Recess and Dollar General will launch DGMN’s experiential marketing offering to advertisers. Recess’ experiential sampling programs will enable brands to integrate products into consumers’ daily lives, and build top-of-mind awareness and product recognition before shoppers enter the store.
For example, in a recent campaign, a multinational pharmaceutical brand wanted to increase awareness of their latest OTC medication with younger consumers and drive conversion to their key retailer partner, Dollar General. With Recess, this global brand targeted younger Dollar General shoppers with multi-channel programs that spanned across experiential sampling, social, and digital – all managed and boosted by their local communities. Eventually, Recess and Dollar General will integrate closed-loop measurement capabilities to the offering, creating the industry’s first-ever fully attributable experiential marketing program.
“We’re excited to offer this first-to-market experiential retail media unit that will allow our advertisers to reach more than 90 million Dollar General customers in their daily lives,” said Charlene Charles, Head of DG Media Network Operations. “Having a predominantly rural footprint with approximately 80% of stores serving communities of 20,000 or fewer people, Dollar General stores serve as a local pillar, and Recess will help extend DG’s reach deeper to support advertisers in building brand loyalty and awareness.”
You can read more about the announcement on Progressive Grocer – Dollar General Integrates Sampling Into Retail Media Efforts.
News also available on PR Newswire.
