Earlier today Best Buy held its first-ever showcase for Best Buy Ads called “We Got Next.” The streaming event brought media partners, advertisers and industry leaders together for a look at the future of our retail media network with some exciting new announcements, including the unveiling of a new opportunity for brands to take advantage of our store footprint like never before.
From new creative tools to powerful data insights and exciting partnerships, we brought to life how Best Buy is helping brands connect with millions of tech-loving shoppers in smarter, more meaningful ways. The theme, “We Got Next,” reflects our ambition to lead the way — not only in retail media but across the entire media landscape.
Unlocking the magic of technology
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry opened the event by underscoring our unmatched understanding of today’s tech consumer and our leadership in the market. She went on to highlight how Best Buy is uniquely positioned to unlock the magic of technology — showing consumers the possibilities it brings to their lives, in every moment. At Best Buy, our customers’ shopping journey begins long before and lasts far beyond a single transaction. This foundation of trust and connection is what makes Best Buy Ads so powerful.
“We know our partners want to be in business with brands that are trusted, bold and forward-thinking … because the best brands want to work with the best brands,” said Barry.
And before other leaders took the stage to unveil the exciting things ahead, complete with new capabilities and opportunities, deeper insights and a sharper focus on the entire customer journey from start to finish, Barry reminded the audience one important thing: “We are just getting started.”
Building on a strong foundation
Lisa Valentino, president of Best Buy Ads, then showcased how Best Buy’s decades of expertise will fuel our ongoing growth and success. With more than 60 years in business, 1,000+ stores, approximately 80,000 employees across North America and a powerful digital presence touching millions every day, our reach is undeniable.
Valentino introduced the three pillars driving the strength of Best Buy Ads: scale, partnerships and innovative experiences. She also outlined how we’re already harnessing our unmatched first-party data and proven capabilities to deliver measurable outcomes including reach, incrementality and sales attribution — not to mention an average incremental return on investment of more than 3.75x. Then, she set the stage for what was next, leaving the audience with this important proof point: “At Best Buy we can connect 93% of our transactional revenue back to a customer ID.” Now that is true power.
Creative that connects
Our chief marketing officer, Jennie Weber, shared how we’ve built a state-of-the-art in-house creative agency and 70,000-square-foot hub called Best Buy Studios. From the studio itself, she showcased some of the incredible, results-driven work and more than 3,000 campaigns her team created last year alone, including our campaigns with Microsoft around Copilot+ PCs. She went on to say that these creative chops, combined with our distinct knowledge of the tech consumer, are exactly what sets us apart from other retail media networks. Highlighting that Best Buy shoppers are 26% more likely than the general population to be sports lovers, she also announced the expansion of our work with professional sports organizations, NFL and TGL.
Weber announced that as the Official Home Entertainment Retailer of the NFL, we’re expanding our reach beyond the football season to stretch across the entire year. And also shared that we’ll be partnering with the Sports and Entertainment Group, Dude Perfect, in the coming year. They are one of the top content creators — starting with TGL season two and spanning across the entire NFL and holiday season. This means there are more opportunities for more brands to partner with us, and an even longer runway to make an impact.
Smarter, data-driven campaigns
Best Buy Ads head of product, Milena Krasteva, then gave a first look at our activation platform, which combines innovative ad experiences, first-party data, and lays the foundation for advanced measurement. She outlined how, over the course of next year, we will continue to enable additional channels and campaign reporting on a self-service basis. This means brands can see clear and real-time results allowing them to optimize campaigns, making them smarter, faster and more effective.
Krasteva also touched on our unique audience graph, bringing to life how our distinct customer journey provides real value to our advertisers. As an example, she shared how audiences leveraging our first-party data outperform third-party audiences by 2x. Then, she gave a glimpse into what we’re building and how we are partnering to drive performance on a full-funnel basis, grow scale and drive a transparent view of campaign metrics, all on a self-serve basis, making it easier than ever to work with us.
Bringing ads to life in stores
And Jason Bonfig, our chief customer, product and fulfillment officer, closed out the day with a deeper look at our emphasis on the customer experience and how we’re leveraging one of our greatest assets — our stores — to provide even more value for partners. Calling out some key strategic partnerships with brands like IKEA and Meta, he spoke to the importance and relevance of our store footprint and illustrated some key examples of how we’re bringing customers new ways to experience the technology they love in person.
In one of our biggest announcements of the day, Bonfig unveiled a new way for our advertising partners to work with us. Starting next year, we’re offering “takeover packages” to endemic and non-endemic brand partners that would help maximize their exposure across our stores through premium and highly visible placement opportunities both on the exterior and interior.
“Picture walking into a store and seeing your brand front and center — on the windows, at the entrance and throughout the space. As you shop, your brand appears on our TV walls, PC monitor displays and across numerous physical and digital touchpoints,” said Bonfig.
It was huge day for Best Buy and Best Buy Ads and we have so much more to come.
