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

Chris Walton: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone, this is Omnitalk Retail.

Chris Walton: 00:00:02

I'm Chris Walton.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:03

And I'm Anne Mazinga.

Chris Walton: 00:00:04

our final interview from NRF: 2025

Chris Walton: 00:00:15

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

Chris Walton: 00:00:20

Christian, welcome to omnitalk.

Christian Revo: 00:00:21

Thank you for having me.

Chris Walton: 00:00:22

Yeah, it's great to have you.

Christian Revo: 00:00:23

Sure.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:24

We're really excited to have you today.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:26

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

Christian Revo: 00:00:31

Sure.

Christian Revo: 00:00:31

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

Christian Revo: 00:00:34

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

Christian Revo: 00:00:42

in a sense that I'm now since: 2020

Christian Revo: 00:00:51

And yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:53

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

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:56

can you just remind them who Reva Group is?

Christian Revo: 00:00:58

Sure.

Christian Revo: 00:00:59

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

Christian Revo: 00:01:04

So we have a sizable number of stores in Germany.

Christian Revo: 00:01:09

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

Christian Revo: 00:01:12

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

Anne Mazinga: 00:01:21

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

Chris Walton: 00:01:22

I didn't either.

Anne Mazinga: 00:01:23

That's cool.

Chris Walton: 00:01:23

Yeah, and a very innovative retailer too.

Chris Walton: 00:01:26

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

Chris Walton: 00:01:32

Yeah, it's very cool.

Chris Walton: 00:01:32

Yeah, very cool.

Chris Walton: 00:01:33

Out in Hamburg, I think we were right.

Chris Walton: 00:01:35

Or Cologne.

Chris Walton: 00:01:36

Yeah, Hamburg.

Chris Walton: 00:01:37

Yeah, Cologne.

Chris Walton: 00:01:37

Cologne.

Christian Revo: 00:01:38

In both cities.

Chris Walton: 00:01:39

Both cities, yes.

Chris Walton: 00:01:40

Right, yes.

Chris Walton: 00:01:40

Couldn't remember where we were.

Chris Walton: 00:01:42

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

Christian Revo: 00:01:47

I did.

Chris Walton: 00:01:47

What did you share with the audience?

Christian Revo: 00:01:50

Mixed messages.

Christian Revo: 00:01:52

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.

Christian Revo: 00:02:19

Really?

Chris Walton: 00:02:19

Really.

Chris Walton: 00:02:19

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

Chris Walton: 00:02:22

I'm very interested to learn more.

Christian Revo: 00:02:25

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.

Chris Walton: 00:02:39

Right.

Christian Revo: 00:02:40

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

Christian Revo: 00:02:44

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.

Christian Revo: 00:02:57

We did this.

Christian Revo: 00:02:58

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.

Christian Revo: 00:03:11

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.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:21

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.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:32

So where do you think that opportunity lies both in.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:35

In store and then even online?

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:37

Like where are the retail media opportunities still?

Christian Revo: 00:03:42

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

Christian Revo: 00:03:54

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

Christian Revo: 00:04:01

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.

Anne Mazinga: 00:04:11

Yeah.

Anne Mazinga: 00:04:11

And what do you think it takes to do that?

Anne Mazinga: 00:04:13

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.

Anne Mazinga: 00:04:22

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

Christian Revo: 00:04:27

So I learned two quotes on my way here.

Christian Revo: 00:04:31

One is that loyalty is the new cookie.

Chris Walton: 00:04:36

Okay, that's pretty much true.

Christian Revo: 00:04:38

That's a good quote for combining it.

Christian Revo: 00:04:40

Offset.

Christian Revo: 00:04:41

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

Christian Revo: 00:04:48

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

Christian Revo: 00:04:52

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

Chris Walton: 00:04:56

Right.

Chris Walton: 00:04:57

That's a really great point.

Chris Walton: 00:04:58

That's a really good nugget.

Chris Walton: 00:04:59

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.

Chris Walton: 00:05:06

Although some people are starting to experiment with that.

Chris Walton: 00:05:10

What does it take to do that?

Chris Walton: 00:05:12

Well, how do you activate those screens in store?

Chris Walton: 00:05:14

How do you think about things from a content perspective?

Chris Walton: 00:05:16

How do you think about things from an execution perspective?

Christian Revo: 00:05:20

Let me come from a completely different angle here.

Chris Walton: 00:05:22

Okay.

Christian Revo: 00:05:23

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.

Christian Revo: 00:05:38

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

Christian Revo: 00:05:52

And that worked really well.

Christian Revo: 00:05:53

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

Christian Revo: 00:05:58

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

Chris Walton: 00:06:03

Got it.

Chris Walton: 00:06:03

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

Chris Walton: 00:06:07

That's a key point here.

Chris Walton: 00:06:08

Got it.

Chris Walton: 00:06:09

Okay.

Chris Walton: 00:06:09

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

Chris Walton: 00:06:13

Both, both here and across the seas in Europe?

Christian Revo: 00:06:16

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.

Christian Revo: 00:06:28

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

Christian Revo: 00:06:36

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.

Christian Revo: 00:06:46

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

Christian Revo: 00:06:52

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

Christian Revo: 00:07:04

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

Christian Revo: 00:07:14

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

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:17

How do you think about.

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:19

I'm just curious.

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:19

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?

Christian Revo: 00:07:30

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.

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:41

Wonderful.

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:41

I'm happy for you.

Christian Revo: 00:07:43

But I behave like I were.

Christian Revo: 00:07:45

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.

Christian Revo: 00:08:00

Although I am just in the middle of the company.

Anne Mazinga: 00:08:03

Okay, interesting, interesting.

Chris Walton: 00:08:04

Got it.

Chris Walton: 00:08:05

So if we're to.

Chris Walton: 00:08:05

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?

Chris Walton: 00:08:12

Like what do you want to get done?

Christian Revo: 00:08:18

What can I say?

Christian Revo: 00:08:18

Public?

Chris Walton: 00:08:21

What does success look like?

Christian Revo: 00:08:23

we've really had a great year: 2024

Christian Revo: 00:08:33

lieve we'll have a great year: 2025

Christian Revo: 00:08:36

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

Christian Revo: 00:08:41

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

Chris Walton: 00:08:47

Nice, Nice.

Chris Walton: 00:08:48

So he's got confidence, Ann.

Chris Walton: 00:08:49

He's confident.

Chris Walton: 00:08:50

Confident in the future.

Chris Walton: 00:08:51

Confident in the future.

Chris Walton: 00:08:52

All right.

Chris Walton: 00:08:53

Well, Christian, thank you for joining us today.

Christian Revo: 00:08:55

Thanks so much.

Chris Walton: 00:08:55

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

Chris Walton: 00:08:58

That concludes our coverage from nrf.

Chris Walton: 00:09:00

Ann and I are signing off.

Chris Walton: 00:09:01

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

Chris Walton: 00:09:04

They're great partners of ours.

Chris Walton: 00:09:06

We cannot thank them enough.

Chris Walton: 00:09:07

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

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:10

Yes.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:11

Be careful out there.

Christian Revo: 00:09:14

All right, cool.

Chris Walton: 00:09:15

Thanks, man.