Recipe for success
Publicis brings the industry expertise to the table. With its acquisitions of Epsilon (2019), CitrusAd (2021), as well as Profitero (2022), it gained know-how in data-driven personalization, retail media adtech, and e-commerce intelligence. Knowledge, skill, and technology allow Publicis to create a solid fundament for the partnership. Carrefour brings in what the agency is missing. According to press releases, Unlimitail will work with Carrefour data based on eight billion transactions and on 80 million consumers worldwide, most likely collected over the retailer’s e-commerce business and loyalty program. This means that Unlimitail will be based on first-party data and will be unswayed by the tremors caused by Google’s third-party cookie deprecation of 2024.First testers
Carrefour properties will not be the only businesses to profit. The platform was from the onset meant to serve other online retailers as well. Within the first six months, Unlimitail won 13 partners willing to put the new solution to test. Six are French, a further five are based in other European countries, including Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain. However, the attractiveness of the platform reached beyond European borders, drawing companies from Israel and Morocco to join. The former is represented by the Electra Group and Electra Consumer Products, the latter by Carrefour’s franchise partner LabelVie and the Moroccan branch of Bringo – Romanian on-demand delivery services specialized in supermarket goods.Notably, Latin American names were missing. Companies from that region might be less willing to take a risk betting on a new player, especially one that is not local. They might prefer to hold their investments, knowing that Mercado Libre, with an almost universal presence in Latin America and a profound understanding of the market, expressed ambitions to diversify its operations and become a media platform.
