Dive Brief:

• Convenience store chain Wawa has unveiled Goose Media Network, the convenience retailer’s retail media platform, according to a company announcement this week.
• This new offering will allow product and brand partners to connect with Wawa customers through custom ads on the company’s website and mobile app, as well as via videos at the pump. 
• Wawa joins Casey’s General Stores and 7-Eleven as one of the few major c-store operators to have its own retail media network as the industry continues to assess these programs.

Dive Insight:

While retail media remains an untapped resource for most c-stores, the industry has some unique advantages it can leverage in the growing space, including fuel pump displays and prominent sales in snacks, candy and packaged beverages, experts have said.

For Wawa, launching a retail media network allows the company to better target its customers and “build new connections” with both customers and partner brands, Melissa Seabright, advertising manager for Wawa, said in the announcement. The c-store chain is popular with consumers and rapidly expanding into new markets — making it an enticing choice for CPG firms evaluating where to spend their media dollars.

“This new opportunity will help connect our customers with new and relevant offers from brands they love while allowing us to increase visibility for our product partners,” Seabright noted.

Wawa is partnering with several digital businesses to bring Goose Media Network to fruition, including Publicis Sapient, the digital business transformation arm of communications firm Publicis Groupe, as well as retail media-focused tech companies CitrusAd and Epsilon.

“We are excited to extend our partnership with Wawa,” said Ganesh Rangarajan, group vice president and managing partner at Publicis Sapient. “Brands will reach shoppers and customers [and] will more easily find products, try new products and discover new brands.”

Outsourcing aspects of a retail media network is not unusual. In a panel at the NACS Show in October, 7-Eleven’s Director of Brand and Customer Insights Ben Tienor noted that the company’s Gulp Media network was “very outsourced at the moment.” He also said that if he could start over, he would outsource more of the work from the beginning. 

Grocery chains that operate convenience stores have launched their own retail media networks recently. This includes Giant Eagle, which debuted Leap Media Group last year, and Hy-Vee, which launched RedMedia last fall.

Wawa operates over 1,000 stores across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington D.C.