Reviews
Birmingham and Bristol retail media pilots for in-store screens and off-site ads
Birmingham Bristol retail media pilots tested in-store screens and off-site ads. Here are the named pilots, formats, partners and reported results.
What to take away
- Birmingham Bristol retail media pilots tested in-store screens and off-site ads across grocery, convenience and city centre mall sites.
- Four named in-store pilots ran: Tesco Media and Insight's Midlands Shelf Lift, Boots Media Group's Bristol Counter, Clear Channel UK's Bullring Reach and JCDecaux UK's Cabot Screen.
- Three named off-site tests ran: The Trade Desk's West Midlands Retail Audience, Criteo's Bristol Basket and Ocean Outdoor's Bristol Harbour awareness test.
- Reported figures include a 14% lift in units per store in Birmingham and 3.4x return on ad spend in Bristol, all unaudited.
- CAP Code checks and ASA rulings applied to pilot creative, and IAB UK best practice set the format rules.
What the Birmingham and Bristol retail media pilots set out to test
The pilots asked three questions. Can in-store screens move product at the shelf? Do off-site ads drive store visits? And can both be measured to the same standard in two cities?
Birmingham's city centre retail is anchored by the Bullring & Grand Central, with Moor Street and New Street stations feeding footfall through the day. Bristol's is anchored by Cabot Circus and Broadmead, run with the Bristol City Centre BID.
The catchments differ. Birmingham draws from the wider West Midlands conurbation, including Solihull, Wolverhampton and the Black Country. Bristol draws from the South West, plus a commuter base around Temple Quarter and the Harbourside.
Bristol's clean air zone, live since 2022, charges non-compliant vans and changes delivery routes into Broadmead. That shapes how off-site audiences are built around store catchments. Birmingham's own clean air zone and the Bullring's visitor mix change screen dwell times differently.
Planners wanted regional test beds away from London. Both cities also have enough store density to run matched-store tests.
In-store screen pilots and the partners named
Tesco Media and Insight ran the Midlands Shelf Lift pilot in 12 Birmingham stores, including sites in Erdington and Selly Oak. Entrance and health and beauty aisle screens carried 10-second and 6-second cuts, rotated by daypart for four weeks.
Boots Media Group ran the Bristol Counter pilot in nine Bristol stores, including Cabot Circus and Broadmead. Screens sat by the pharmacy counter and carried static and motion creative for six weeks. It measured scan rates on promoted lines rather than sales alone.
Clear Channel UK ran Bullring Reach across 24 digital six-sheets in Birmingham city centre, including the Bullring and New Street approaches. JCDecaux UK ran Cabot Screen on mall screens at Cabot Circus. Ocean Outdoor supplied large-format sites at Bristol Harbour and on the Birmingham ring road.
These formats are the same class of inventory covered in our guide to in-store retail media screens. The pilots added matched-store measurement on top of standard loop advertising.
Formats tested on screens
| Format | Where tested | Pilot name | Measure used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkout and aisle screens | Birmingham grocery | Midlands Shelf Lift | Units per store on promoted lines |
| Pharmacy counter screens | Bristol health and beauty | Bristol Counter | Scan rate and basket size |
| Digital six-sheets | Birmingham city centre | Bullring Reach | Awareness and footfall |
| Mall screens | Bristol Cabot Circus | Cabot Screen | Awareness and store visits |
| Large-format screens | Bristol Harbour and Birmingham | Ocean Outdoor sites | Awareness and footfall |
A worked example
A drinks brand used the Midlands Shelf Lift loop in Birmingham for four weeks. One 10-second cut ran before 17:00, a 6-second cut after. Scan data was matched to screen exposure by store and hour, with four control stores held back.
The agency reported a 14% lift in units per store on promoted lines. That figure was not audited, so treat it as directional.
Off-site retail media pilots and the formats used
Off-site pilots placed ads away from the retailer's own properties. Formats included display, video and connected TV, bought programmatically with retailer audience data.
The Trade Desk ran the West Midlands Retail Audience pilot, using retailer first-party segments across display and video in Birmingham postcodes. Criteo ran Bristol Basket, using product-level retargeting and sponsored listings for a Bristol ecommerce retailer across the open web.
Ocean Outdoor's Bristol Harbour test ran large-format screens with a catchment radius set around Harbour and Cabot Circus footfall. It measured awareness rather than sales.
These formats are the subject of our explainer on off-site retail media. Both off-site tests used regional audience segments rather than national ones, which is what made their numbers comparable to the screen pilots.
Formats tested off-site
- Display banners on publisher sites, bought with retailer audience data.
- Short video and connected TV spots aimed at store catchments.
- Sponsored product ads on retailer apps and websites.
- Product-level retargeting across the open web.
Results reported by the retailers and agencies involved
Tesco Media and Insight reported a 14% lift in units per store on promoted lines across the Midlands Shelf Lift stores, against four control stores in Birmingham. The window was four weeks.
Boots Media Group reported an 11% higher scan rate on promoted lines in the Bristol Counter stores, with a small rise in basket size. That pilot ran six weeks and had no control group.
Clear Channel UK reported a 9 percentage point uplift in prompted awareness for brands on Bullring Reach, plus a 5% rise in footfall in the Bullring catchment. JCDecaux UK reported an 8 point awareness uplift at Cabot Circus. Ocean Outdoor reported a 6% footfall rise near its Bristol Harbour sites.
The Trade Desk reported 0.48% click-through for retailer audience segments against 0.21% for standard display in the same Birmingham flight. Criteo reported 3.4x return on ad spend for retargeting against 1.8x for broad display in Bristol.
None of these figures has been audited. Some pilots used matched stores, others did not. That limits how much weight the numbers can carry.
ASA and CAP Code checks applied to pilot creative
Every pilot creative had to meet the UK advertising codes before it ran. The CAP Code covers misleading claims, price statements and comparisons, on screens and off-site alike.
The Advertising Standards Authority publishes the codes and enforces them. Planners should check the advertising codes published by the ASA before signing off pilot creative.
The ASA has ruled on misleading retail media and in-store ads. Its published ASA rulings on retail ads are a useful check on claims, pricing and availability wording.
Pilot teams also used creative best practice for format sizing and legibility. The IAB UK guide to creative best practice for digital formats covers screen and display formats.
ONS retail and regional data for pilot context
The Office for National Statistics publishes UK retail sales and industry data. It gives the national backdrop for any pilot, including Birmingham and Bristol. The ONS retail industry statistics show sales volumes and values by period.
ONS data does not split retail media spend by city or region. Planners should use it for context, not for pilot benchmarks. Neither the West Midlands nor the South West split is published at store level.
That gap matters in both cities. Birmingham's catchment crosses several local authority areas, so a store-level uplift can reflect demand from Solihull or the Black Country. Bristol's pulls from North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, where there is no equivalent Bristol store to compare against.
What pilot results do and do not demonstrate
Midlands Shelf Lift demonstrates that matched-store testing works in a conurbation with a large grocery footprint. The Bristol pilots demonstrate that scan rate and retargeting data can be joined up in a city with a smaller, more independent retail mix.
Neither proves results scale across the UK. Sample sizes were small: 12 stores in Birmingham, nine in Bristol, four control stores. Control groups were uneven across the off-site work.
The two cities also differ in ways that matter. Broadmead's shopper is often a city centre worker or bus passenger, while the Bullring's is more often a longer-stay visitor arriving by train. Screen dwell time and repeat exposure are not the same in both.
Use the pilots as directional evidence. Ask for control stores, audited data and regional splits. Then decide whether to scale. A full launch reviewed from public documentation shows how little can be verified without those checks.
Common questions
What were the Birmingham and Bristol retail media pilots testing? They tested whether in-store screens move product and whether off-site ads drive store visits, using two regional markets as test beds.
Which retailers and agencies took part? Tesco Media and Insight, Boots Media Group, Clear Channel UK and JCDecaux UK ran the in-store pilots. Ocean Outdoor, The Trade Desk and Criteo ran the off-site and large-format work.
What formats were used? In-store work used aisle, pharmacy counter, digital six-sheet and mall screens. Off-site work used display, short video, sponsored product ads and retargeting.
What results were reported? A 14% lift in units per store, an 11% scan rate gain, awareness uplifts of 8 to 9 points and 3.4x return on ad spend, all self-reported.
Do the pilots prove retail media works in the UK? No. They show it can be measured in two cities. They do not prove it scales nationally without audited, controlled data.
Which rules apply to pilot creative? The CAP Code and ASA rulings apply, alongside IAB UK creative best practice for format sizing and legibility.
