Plan-Apps, the Operating System for Retail Media from Threefold, is an end-to-end solution that enables retailers and their supplier brands to plan and evaluate retail media campaigns. With efficiency and optimization built at every step, retailers and brands can rely on data to make retail media work harder and drive sales.
Plan-Apps assists retailers and brands evolve retail media strategies by closely examining what has worked – and what has not – to create long-lasting retail media strategies. Plan-Apps hosts a suite of crucial campaign management and measurement modules, each offering a unique proposition in the retail media cycle.
Threefold operates Retail Media Networks in partnership with major retailers, including Boots Walgreens, Co-op, Morrisons, The Very Group and Asda, and Plan-Apps is the power behind these best-in-class networks.
1. Start with data-driven planning
Plan-Apps is powered by over $1.7 billion worth of evaluated retail media. It eliminates the need for manual reports, dashboards and spreadsheets, as it aggregates all measured retail media data by key factors including KPI, category and channel, which can be leveraged when building media plans within Plan-Apps.
Plan-Apps enables sales teams to build consistent, insight-led plans in minutes, taking out the guesswork. This efficiency allows retailer teams to present numerous options to supplier brands. For example, retailers can leverage Plan-Apps to showcase multiple versions of a campaign plan with different budget allocations, demonstrating how spend impacts total campaign performance.
Plan-Apps offers a simple, consistent format for CPG brands to create media plans with all relevant data, enabling efficiency and transparency during the planning stage.
For CPGs, the impact is clear.
"Plan-Apps has revolutionized our internal campaign planning process, providing unparalleled insights into our evaluations. They truly lead the market, saving time, improving communication with retail media networks, and helping us achieve our KPIs with precision."
2. Automate timely processes
Activating a consistent and connected retail media campaign can be challenging enough, but that challenge is multiplied when looking to activate across thousands of stores. There’s so much to consider, from logistics, SKU distribution, competitors, campaign objectives and more. Before implementing Plan-Apps, RMNs can spend hours formulating store lists to distribute their media by cycle.
Allocator is Plan-Apps’ inventory tool that not only algorithmically ensures that campaigns are only sent where the product is distributed but ensures a ‘fair share’ of store footfall across multiple competing brands. When retail media teams book their data-planned campaigns in Plan-Apps, they simply click the allocate button. This allocates the media in the back end based on: number of stores, product distribution and bespoke rules that can be put in place on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
For our retail media partner Morrisons, for instance, the addition of Allocator saved their retail media teams over 2,600 hours over the course of a year compared to its previous manual process. The reclaimed time allows it to focus and flourish in other key areas to grow Morrisons Media Group.
3. Improve the client experience
Historically, RMNs have developed from retailer teams who are experts in selling groceries but lack key experience in selling media. With the explosive growth of RMNs, retailers and brands have had to rethink their relationships. In the retail media world, the CPG is the client and the retailer is the advertising business.
Plan-Apps enables clear and timely communication between retailer and brand. The Campaigns module allows media sales teams to build consistent data-led plans in minutes, providing a brilliant service for suppliers. With Plan-Apps, an RMN can build the campaign and a brand can approve it all on the same platform, limiting email chains and documents.
Creating a one-stop shop has significantly improved the client experience for Threefold’s partners, with brilliant feedback from partner CPGs. For retail media sales teams, it’s reduced proposal development time from 10 days to three, with plans created and delivered with consistency and a data-led approach.
Bonus: Transparency
Plan-Apps is a cloud-based Operating System, meaning anywhere, at any time, a CPG team can log in to approve, manage, download and evaluate campaigns.
Whether approving campaigns, monitoring performance, or accessing aggregated benchmarks, CPGs enjoy unprecedented collaboration and transparency with retailers in a secure environment. Plan-Apps has saved hundreds of hours for all stakeholders, simplifying processes and improving cash flow for brands like P&G and for our partners at Boots Media Group.
By centralizing planning and measurement activities, Plan-Apps facilitates seamless collaboration, empowering brands to expedite payment processing and streamline operations. This enhanced transparency fosters stronger partnerships between retailers and brands, ensuring smoother workflows and accelerated growth in the retail media landscape.
In the dynamic world of retail media, Plan-Apps stands as a transformative solution, empowering retailers and brands with data-driven efficiency and unparalleled transparency. With its innovative features like Allocator and the Campaigns module, Plan-Apps streamlines processes and saves time, fostering stronger partnerships. As retailers embrace Plan-Apps, they gain a strategic advantage, driving sales, enhancing client experiences and navigating the retail media landscape with confidence. Plan-Apps is not just a tool; it's a catalyst for growth and innovation in retail media.
Want to chat about how Plan-Apps can revolutionize your Retail Media Network? Send me a note at ella.rice@threefold.team.
About Ella Rice
Ella Rice is a client manager in the Threefold North America team, where she supports CPGs in planning, building and measuring retailer campaigns. Prior to her role at Threefold, Ella spent three years on the Plan-Apps team within SMG, supporting CPGs with insights on campaign performance and building consultancies that leveraged Plan-Apps data. Ella previously worked as an account manager for a digital marketing agency. Want to chat about how Threefold can supercharge your retail media strategy? You can reach her at ella.rice@threefold.team.
About Threefold
Founded in 2008, Threefold is the world's leading Retail Media Network (RMN) specialist, headquartered in both New York and London. As part of the SMGÂ agency network, which employs over 380 retail media experts, Threefold's primary mission is to unlock incremental CPG budgets, curate media campaigns that supercharge sales and elevate its retail partners into top-tier omnichannel media owners, spanning in-store, off-site and online.
Threefold's services include consultancy, evaluation, and a white-label in-house solution that has seen the agency build, run and operate over 10 Retail Media Networks to date. In the UK, Threefold runs and operates Walgreens' Boots Media Group and Morrisons Media Group and additional live partners include major retailers like Asda, The Co-op and The Very Group.