Executive Summary
The Challenge:
Prove that predictive retail media activations in-store could drive faster, measurable sales results, capturing 35% of digital conversions and growing sales by 2%.
The Insights:
Snack purchases are mission-driven and life-stage-dependent. Shoppers act differently when stocking up versus buying for special occasions.
The Strategic Build:
Use Footprints AI's in-store profiling, predictive analytics, and real-time measurement to target shoppers at the right moment—before and during shopping missions.
Bringing the Strategy to Life:
Mobile ads seeded intent before store visits; in-store digital screens and radio dynamically reinforced offers by life stage and shopping mission.
The Results:
Sales volumes rose by 12%, ROAS reached 16×, and 48% of digital conversions came from retail media—outperforming traditional digital channels.
Introduction: Predictive In-Store Retail Media That Delivers Real Results
In a saturated salty snacks market, where traditional advertising struggled to cut through the noise, Chio Chips chose a different path: precision in-store retail media, powered by Footprints AI.
Footprints AI’s platform profiled shoppers at scale—analyzing real-world behavior, life stages, and shopping missions—then predictively engaged them before they even reached the store. Mobile ads primed key segments—Young Singles, DINKs (Dual Income No Kids), and Families with Kids—for specific missions like Replenishment and Special Occasions, activating intent while still at home or on the move.
Inside stores, dynamic digital screens and audio ads seamlessly continued the experience, delivering tailored messages when purchase decisions happened.
Unlike traditional media that waits months for results, Footprints AI connected media exposure to actual SKU-level sales in real time, delivering immediate insights, optimizing live, and directly attributing spend to impact.
This is the story of how Chio Chips, with a fraction of the usual media spend, redefined retail media success—turning every moment, every mission, and every store into a high-performance sales engine.
The Challenge: Closing the Gap Between Media and Sales, In Real Time
In the highly competitive Romanian salty snacks market, brands face a triple challenge: oversaturation in traditional media, declining consumer engagement, and a two-month delay in sales reporting through standard retail measurement tools.
Chio Chips, already a leader in the category, needed to find an edge. Traditional advertising could no longer provide real-time feedback or actionable optimization during campaigns. They faced a critical business problem:
- How to drive immediate, measurable sales impact during the campaign, not after.
- How to capture consumer attention exactly when and where purchase decisions are made—in-store.
- How to attribute media investments directly to sales, SKU by SKU, location by location.
Recognizing that in-store was still where most snack purchases happened, but that traditional in-store promotions lacked personalization, Chio Chips set out to prove that predictive retail media could achieve:
- Precision targeting based on life stages and shopping missions.
- Real-time measurement and immediate optimization.
- Direct, verifiable media-to-sales attribution at SKU level.
It wasn’t about spending more; it was about spending smarter, moving from guesswork to data-driven action in the real world.
Business and Marketing Objectives
Business Objective:
Achieve a minimum 2% uplift in sales volumes during the campaign period while optimizing media spend efficiency.
Marketing Objective 1:
Capture at least 35% of all digital conversions through retail media channels (vs. traditional digital channels).
Marketing Objective 2:
Boost in-store traffic and impulse purchase behavior across targeted life stages and missions without increasing total footfall artificially.
Activity (Campaign) Objective:
Prove direct SKU-level media-to-sales attribution across in-store screens, in-store radio, retailer apps, and mobile advertising.
Why It Mattered
For Chio Chips, the stakes were high. Success would not just improve quarterly sales—it would prove that real-time predictive targeting, in-store profiling, and media-to-sales attribution could outperform traditional models, setting a new industry benchmark.
It would turn retail media from a “nice-to-have” into a core driver of profitable growth.
Insights & Strategy
Understanding the Shopper: Life Stages and Shopping Missions Drive Behavior
Footprints AI’s in-store analytics revealed a key truth: snack purchase behavior isn't primarily about demographics—it’s about life stages and shopping missions.
Using anonymized mobility, Wi-Fi tracking, transaction, and behavioral data, Footprints AI profiled Chio’s shopper base in real time, identifying:
Top life stages for Chio Chips:
- Young Singles – impulsive, last-minute snackers, often shopping alone late afternoons after work.
- DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) – premium seekers, shopping together on Saturday mornings, looking for high-quality treats for weekend relaxation.
- Families with Kids – weekend planners, shopping in bulk Friday evenings or Saturday mornings to prepare for family time.
Top shopping missions linked to snacks:
- Replenishment:
Stock-up trips for regular groceries. Example:
A Young Single picks up favourite snack brands during a Thursday evening mini-shopping trip.
- Special Occasions:
Party and event-driven snack buying. Example:
A Family with Kids stocking multi-packs on Friday to prepare for a birthday party or weekend gathering.
Behavioral patterns emerged:
- Replenishment missions peaked Thursday-Friday afternoons and evenings.
- Special Occasion missions surged Friday evenings and Saturdays before noon.
- Life stages shaped urgency, basket size, and premium product selection.
This segmentation provided the blueprint for precise predictive targeting—not based on assumptions, but on real, observed behavior across thousands of shopping trips.
The Insight: Predict the Why, Not Just the Who
The core insight driving the campaign was simple but transformational:
"Understanding why people shop today is more powerful than knowing who they are."
Rather than blanket demographics, the predictive model focused on the emotional and functional needs linked to each shopping mission:
- Replenishment shoppers were seeking efficiency, trusted brands, and everyday favorites—e.g., quick reminders to stock up.
- Special Occasion shoppers looked for excitement, premium packaging, bundle deals—e.g., "Ready for the party?" messages tied to large multipacks.
Examples of behavior-driven insights:
- Targeted Young Singles on Thursday nights with mobile ads promoting "Snack & Chill" bundles, boosting small trip value.
- Targeted DINKs on Friday mornings with offers for Chio offers to enjoy during relaxed weekends.
- Activated Families with Kids with in-appp promotions about "stock up for the weekend" deals on Friday afternoons.
These tangible targeting insights helped turn generic snack buying into mission-driven, life-stage-specific activations.
Strategic Build: Predict, Target, Measure, Optimize—Seamlessly
With Footprints AI, Chio’s retail media strategy was engineered as a closed-loop performance system:
- Predict:
Identify future shoppers based on life stage, shopping mission, and propensity models—e.g., spotting DINKs likely to shop Saturday morning for weekend snacks.
- Target:
Prime intent before shopping through mobile ads:
- Young Singles received snack promos on retailer's mobile app on Thursdays.
- Families with Kids received in-app bulk-buy offers for weekend shopping.
- In-Store Activation:
Serve dynamic digital screen and radio ads inside stores:
- Promote "Chio Offers" at snack & complementary purchases aisles during Special Occasion peaks (Friday 5-8 PM, Saturday 10-12 AM).
- Measure:
Track audience exposure, shopping trips, and SKU-level sales uplift by life stage and mission type—at each store.
- Optimize:
Shift media weights mid-campaign:
- Increased investment toward DINKs aged 30–40, where highest ROI was observed mid-way through.
The result was a truly predictive retail media engine—moving from mass guessing to precision influence at every step of the shopper journey.
Bringing the Strategy & Idea to Life
Predictive Omnichannel Activation: Priming and Converting Shoppers
Footprints AI orchestrated a full path-to-purchase journey for Chio Chips, using predictive data models to intercept shoppers at the right moment, through the right touchpoints.
Before the Store Visit – Mobile Priming:
- Young Singles received in-app ads on Thursday evenings featuring snack offers with messaging like “Ready for a movie night?”
- DINKs were targeted via retailer app & direct communications (like WhatsApp, in-email banners & SMS) on Friday mornings with snack offers, aligning with their Saturday shopping trips.
- Families with Kids received offers through direct communications & in-app on Fridays after 4 PM, reminding them to stock up on multipacks for the weekend.
At the Store – In-Store Dynamic Activation:
- Digital Screens: In snack aisles, personalized dynamic content based on time, day, and mission type (e.g., "Celebrate Big This Weekend with Chio Party Offer" on Saturday mornings).
- In-Store Radio: Reinforced messaging during peak traffic hours to trigger recall and encourage impulse purchasing.
- Shopping Mall Screens: Broader branding touchpoints on weekends, linking the Chio brand to entertainment and group fun moments.
Live Data Feeds:
- Real-time footfall tracking, SKU sales uplift monitoring, and dynamic reallocation of screen inventory based on hot zones inside the stores.
"Footprints AI orchestrated a seamless path-to-purchase: sparking intent before trips, engaging shoppers during key moments in-store, and optimizing results live based on real sales data."
Dynamic Creative Optimization: Life-Stage and Mission-Aligned Messaging
The creative assets were modular, flexible, and dynamically served based on life stage and mission triggers:
Example Messaging:
- Replenishment Mission (Young Singles):
"Your weekend snack run made easy. Grab Chio now!"
- Special Occasion Mission (Families with Kids):
"Big packs. Big parties. Bigger smiles. Stock up with Chio!"
- Premium Relaxation (DINKs):
"Indulge your weekend vibe. Discover Chio flavors."
Each piece of creative content was optimized to:
- Match the emotional tone of the mission (fun, convenience, indulgence).
- Activate visual triggers aligned to the audience’s mindset.
The Channel Strategy: Precision Over Scale
Rather than spreading media thin across broad channels, the campaign focused on channel precision:
Mid-campaign optimization was a critical lever:
- When SKU-level data showed higher conversion rates among DINKs and premium SKUs, creative weights shifted to favor premium positioning.
- Underperforming channels received reduced inventory in favor of higher-performing store locations and time slots.
Through dynamic channel orchestration, Chio Chips achieved laser-targeted delivery without increasing media budget—proving that smarter beats louder in retail media.
Results
Clear Business Impact: Sales Growth, Conversion Share, and Superior ROI
The predictive, in-store-driven retail media approach delivered measurable, outstanding business results for Chio Chips:
Key Observations:
- Campaign stores saw a 12% sales volume growth, while control stores grew only by 9% .
- Nearly half of all digital conversions originated from retail media activations—outperforming YouTube, Facebook, and influencer marketing .
- Real-time SKU tracking enabled budget shifts mid-campaign, maximizing profitability without increasing total spend.
How the Results Were Achieved
The results didn’t happen by chance. They were the direct outcome of:
- Precise shopper profiling (life stages, missions) rather than broad demographics.
- Predictive priming using mobile ads before store visits.
- Dynamic, in-store real-time engagement with screens and audio based on actual foot traffic and mission timing.
- Continuous optimization—pivoting resources mid-campaign to amplify high-performing segments like DINKs aged 30-40.
This was the first time in Romania’s salty snacks category where every media impression was tied back to live, in-store sales with SKU precision, offering unmatched visibility into retail media effectiveness.
Why It Matters
This campaign proved that in-store retail media, powered by predictive data and real-time optimization, is not just an experimental channel—it’s a direct growth engine for CPG brands.
For Chio Chips:
- Every media investment became a sales driver.
- Every shopper touchpoint was meaningful.
- Every decision was backed by live performance data.
And for brands seeking measurable, immediate growth:
Footprints AI offers the platform to make it happen—seamlessly, predictively, and profitably.
