Dive Brief:
- RaceTrac launched its own retail media network, the company announced on Tuesday.
- Trac Media group will initially run brand integrations at its 600-plus RaceTrac branded locations, with long-term plans involving expansion to RaceWay, Potbelly and Gulf sites, according to the announcement.
- Retail media has been slowly gaining steam across the c-store industry over the last few years and provides retailers an additional revenue stream at a time when store traffic has slowed.
Dive Insight:
RaceTrac’s Trac Media Group allows CPGs and other companies “to plan, buy and measure campaigns in one place,” according to the announcement. It connects many of the touchpoints shoppers are already used to seeing, including digital channels and in-store options like fuel pumps and checkout.
It also leverages the company’s RaceTrac Rewards loyalty program, which the company updated earlier this year with the ability to stack and combine offers and serve up more tailored promotions.
“RaceTrac is part of our guests' daily routine,” said Jamie Miller, vice president of marketing for RaceTrac Convenience Retail. “Trac Media Group is built on that frequency. It gives brands a way to show up in those everyday moments with something genuinely useful to the guests most likely to act on it.”
If the network expands across all of RaceTrac’s companies, it could eventually reach more than 850 RaceTrac and RaceWay c-stores, about 1,200 Gulf-branded locations and more than 445 Potbellys.
The three largest c-store companies in the U.S. — 7-Eleven, Circle K and Casey’s General Stores — all have retail media networks, but the trend is expanding across regional operators as well. In addition to RaceTrac, Loop Neighborhood Market’s LoopConnect Media, Weigel’s Milk Crate retail media network and Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores’ Love’s Media Group were all announced over roughly the past year.
