Christian Raveaux Discusses REWE Group's Retail Media Evolution | NRF 2025 Insights

Hello, everyone, this is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton.

And I'm Anne Mazinga.

And we are coming to you live once again for our final interview from NRF 2025 from the Vuzion Group's podcast studio in booth 4938.

And standing between us is Christian Revo, the head of Retail Media Connect for the Revo Group.

Christian, welcome to omnitalk.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, it's great to have you.

Sure.

We're really excited to have you today.

Tell us a little bit about you and your background first before we get started.

Sure.

So I've been with the Rewe group now for 15 years.

Started as a consultant there, moved up the ranks, started and helped to install the first loyalty program.

And this eventually went to retail media in a sense that I'm now since 2020, responsible for the retail media of the Riva.

And yeah, it's a lot of fun.

And for our audience who is in the U.S.

can you just remind them who Reva Group is?

Sure.

Reva Group is one of the largest trade and tourism companies in Europe.

So we have a sizable number of stores in Germany.

We have a discount format, we have a supermarket format.

We are in Austria, we are in East Europe and we are the second largest tourist operator in Europe as well.

I didn't know about the tourist part of it.

I didn't either.

That's cool.

Yeah, and a very innovative retailer too.

So Ann and I got a chance to see one of your automated stores, automated grocery stores in.

Yeah, it's very cool.

Yeah, very cool.

Out in Hamburg, I think we were right.

Or Cologne.

Yeah, Hamburg.

Yeah, Cologne.

Cologne.

In both cities.

Both cities, yes.

Right, yes.

Couldn't remember where we were.

Now, you spoke at the retail Media Symposium here on Saturday.

I did.

What did you share with the audience?

Mixed messages.

I think one of my key message really is to say that especially in Europe, as we were behind on the traditional parts of retail media, which is on site and a little bit of off site, we kind of doubled down on in store retail media and basically had lots of interesting stuff to share with the audience there and that that was a good pickup point from there to discuss with the other retailers there in the room.

Really?

Really.

So what did you share in terms of in store media in particular?

I'm very interested to learn more.

So what basically our situation was at the River Group is when we looked at our strategy, we found out or we realized that only 3% of our sales more or less go through E commerce or that's the general share in Germany in the grocery market.

Right.

And on the other hand, that means that 97% go through in store.

And we wanted to find a solution that first of all helps customers navigate, find the right prices, you know, get the marketing messages out in a very agile way, but then ultimately also get retail media messages.

We did this.

We've erected three and a half thousand 65 inch screens in the front of our stores and we are now doing more both at the the Reva supermarket format as well at our discount format.

And we really thinking that this is one of the greatest endeavors in retail media to reach the customer where he's basically close to shopping.

So, you know, that's interesting because I think a lot of the when you talk to people about retail media in store, execution is usually the first thing they think of.

So where do you think that opportunity lies both in.

In store and then even online?

Like where are the retail media opportunities still?

I think we have the chance to excel as an omnichannel retailer by having consistent messages being played across multiple instances.

Be it off site, through connected tv, be it on site, and then basically in our store.

And if we can combine these dots together in a meaningful way, customers will really want to shop the product because they're already all set for it.

Yeah.

And what do you think it takes to do that?

Well, because I think that makes sense that you want to have a connected experience from any point that your customer is shopping with you.

But what needs to be true for that to be successful?

So I learned two quotes on my way here.

One is that loyalty is the new cookie.

Okay, that's pretty much true.

That's a good quote for combining it.

Offset.

And the second thing is that if you have a loyalty program, you can be a great retail media network.

If you don't have a loyalty program, you can be a good retail media network.

It makes quite a difference because that's for me, the means to connect the dots.

Right.

That's a really great point.

That's a really good nugget.

So as you're activating all those screens in the store, it sounds like you guys are further along on that endeavor than say, most of the grocers here in the United States.

Although some people are starting to experiment with that.

What does it take to do that?

Well, how do you activate those screens in store?

How do you think about things from a content perspective?

How do you think about things from an execution perspective?

Let me come from a completely different angle here.

Okay.

I think you have to do it well by really explaining and convincing it to the media agencies that this is an ideal part of their media strategy and that it's moving picture.

You know, you can really, you know, start substituting, substituting linear TV budget, giving it to in store, which is another moving image format.

And that worked really well.

So we see that this is especially an opportunity for media agencies.

And so therefore I'd encourage anyone to kind of convince them.

Got it.

So you got to take the media agencies on the journey with you here to be successful.

That's a key point here.

Got it.

Okay.

How do you see retail media continuing to evolve, especially in this year?

Both, both here and across the seas in Europe?

So what I learned, I'm pretty convinced that what I learned here is that I really believe that the US will catch up on in store retail media.

So I've heard a lot of initiatives that are about to come up or that are starting in a pilot phase.

And what I heard also is that they, they really have the assets there, that they're really doubling down in terms of IT priority and everything.

And so I think there's a good chance we'll see a lot more of that next year when we talk here.

And then from Europe, it's really about going more omnichannel, really trying more and more to connect the dots.

I think closed loop measurement is more difficult in Europe than it is in the US because of the GDPR guidelines there.

But I'm sure we will see progress there as well.

How do you think about.

I'm just curious.

At the Reva Group, are you separated as media company on one side and retailer on the other, or is retail media one larger group?

At Reva Group, so we're not separated in terms of another company, which is a good thing for me because I don't have to do balance sheets and all that.

Wonderful.

I'm happy for you.

But I behave like I were.

So I pretty much obviously also discuss everything with the key stakeholders in the company, be it marketing, be it category management, be it sales, but still keep an independent stance.

Although I am just in the middle of the company.

Okay, interesting, interesting.

Got it.

So if we're to.

So if we're to meet with you again at say Shop Europe in June or maybe here at NRF again next year, what are you hoping to accomplish?

Like what do you want to get done?

What can I say?

Public?

What does success look like?

Yeah, I think the River Group, Retail Media Connect, they are on a good way and we've really had a great year 2024.

I believe we'll have a great year 2025.

I can't tell you all the good things now that we have that we are cooking right now.

But I'm pretty sure that you will see a stronger retail media network next year versus this year.

Nice, Nice.

So he's got confidence, Ann.

He's confident.

Confident in the future.

Confident in the future.

All right.

Well, Christian, thank you for joining us today.

Thanks so much.

Absolute pleasure to have you and for all you out there.

That concludes our coverage from nrf.

Ann and I are signing off.

Thank you to the Vuzion Group for supporting our coverage all show long.

They're great partners of ours.

We cannot thank them enough.

And Ann, until our next conference which is in a few weeks.

Yes.

Be careful out there.

All right, cool.

Thanks, man.