Channel 4 and Nectar360 sign pioneering data partnership

17 November 2022

PepsiCo, McCain and L’Oréal first test partners

Channel 4’s award-winning commercial division, 4Sales, today announces an innovative new data partnership with the UK’s leading loyalty programme, Nectar360 that will revolutionise advertiser targeting on Channel 4’s streaming platform, All 4.

For the first time, FMCG brands will be able to tailor their adverts on All 4 to groups of users based on their recent shopping habits within Sainsbury’s supermarkets, meaning users will be shown more relevant adverts from brands they like and want to see.­­

PepsiCo brands Walkers Baked and Pepsi Max are the launch test partners for the product, with OMD as their media planning and buying agency - alongside McCain and L’Oréal with media agencies PHD and Essence.

A key benefit for advertisers who use the Nectar360 segments is the amount of in-depth measurement that will be on offer. At the end of the campaign, once a brand has served viewers with its targeted adverts, Channel 4 and Nectar360 can provide data to show how many customers purchased the product after seeing it on All 4. 

The partnership is the first product from 4Sales' new dedicated Commercial Innovation team. Its purpose is to help foster a culture of commercial change, putting customers' needs at the heart of new product development for advertisers and viewers. Led by Jonathan Lewis, Channel 4’s Head of Commercial Innovation and Partners, the function will help deliver both ‘core’ ad products including social, digital and data innovations, and ‘diversification’ projects such as viewer engagement and new technology products.

Jonathan Lewis said: “This partnership is another example of 4Sales’ dedication to offering market-leading addressable advertising innovation. Strategic partnerships like this collaboration with Nectar360, are a key pillar in our Future4 strategy, which is driving Channel 4’s transformation into a digital-first PSB while retaining its distinctive brand and public service impact.

“By being able to better target viewers, we hope to improve the effectiveness of our advertising partner’s brand campaigns whilst offering All 4 users a more tailored advertising experience.”

Amir Rasekh, Director of Nectar360 said: “Our partnership with Channel 4 allows us to further our ambitions to grow our digital retail media proposition. This creates value for our customers through highly targeted relevant advertising, and our brands through creating new ways for them to reach in market customers for their products.”

“We’re really excited to see the output of the trial with 4Sales before we roll out to the wider market.”

Ed Sanderson, Head of UK Media & TCP at PepsiCo said:” The core of what we do at PepsiCo is being consumer-centric and a data-driven approach is a crucial part of maintaining a consumer-centric strategy. We’re looking forward to expanding our targeting and personalisation at scale through Channel 4’s partnership with Nectar360, and assessing the business impact” 

As the youngest-profiling UK PSB streaming service, All 4, provides unique advertising opportunities for brands. Alongside tools like the ENG4GE creative suite, this partnership further helps brands unlock the full potential of the platform’s database of 25m registered viewers, which includes 80% of the UK’s 16-24 and 16–34-year-olds.

Under this addressable advertising deal, Channel 4 and Nectar360 have employed similar technology to Channel 4’s industry-leading BRANDM4TCH product, innovatively matching consumer data between the two organisations within a secure “clean data room” environment managed by InfoSum.

As a result, brand new audience segments have been created at a product category level, enabling brands to identify and market to audiences that have a higher inclination to purchase their product, thereby increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the adverts.

The innovation enables FMCG clients to accurately target customers in a GDPR compliant way, utilising segments created by Nectar360 which groups customers with similar buying habits. With the deprecation of third-party cookies that track consumers across websites, this data partnership offers advertisers a solution to better interact with customers in a privacy-first, cookieless way. 

The long-term ambition is to have an always-on, strategic collaboration through an industry-leading data and media partnership, which further helps Channel 4’s ongoing strategy to accelerate digital across the business.

Ends.

Notes to editor

About Nectar360

Nectar360 owns and operates Nectar, the UK’s largest loyalty programme, helping some of the UK’s biggest brands to build impactful relationships with their customers. It manages Sainsbury’s shopper marketing services, utilising its own insights and media expertise to connect the Sainsbury’s businesses, FMCG brands and their customers.

Through the unrivalled data provided by the 17.5 million members of the Nectar loyalty programme, Nectar360 understand consumers better than anyone else, offering brands a clear view of exactly who their customers are and what they buy.

About OMD UK

OMD UK is an integrated media and marketing company that represents some of the world’s biggest brands, including PepsiCo, Barclays, McDonald’s, Channel 4, Lidl, British Gas, Clarks and easyJet. OMD UK is Media Week’s Media Agency of the Year 2022 and is part of the global OMD network, the most awarded media network globally with more than 8,500 people in over 120 offices.