News
1 October 2025
Iceland and The Food Warehouse expand retail media network with offsite, video and auction-based capabilities
Iceland Foods is enhancing its retail media capabilities through a new partnership with Epsilon, the global data, technology and services company. The move will introduce offsite media, onsite video formats and a new auction-based buying model, making it easier for more brands to engage with Iceland’s nine million annual shoppers in smarter, more relevant ways.
· New partnership with Epsilon unlocks offsite media and onsite video formats
· Auction-based model opens up advertising to a wider range of brands
· Builds on work with GIG Retail as Iceland Foods continues to scale its retail media offering
Adam Smith, Head of Retail Media, Iceland Foods, commented: “Our partnership with Epsilon is a big moment for us. It ultimately gives our brand partners more choice, more channels, and the ability to reach our customers in a smarter, more dynamic way. It also means we can now open up our media to more types and sizes of brand advertisers. Today’s announcement is our latest commitment to providing a retail media platform that works for all brands and delivers value back to our shoppers.”
The new capabilities are announced within a year of Iceland’s partnership with GIG Retail, which enabled onsite display ads and in-store digital screens. Now, with Epsilon onboard, Iceland is adding to the scale and maturity of its retail media offer, offering advertisers the ability to bid in real time for both onsite and offsite placements, including video.
According to IAB Europe’s latest ‘Attitudes to Retail Media’ report, off-site investment has grown significantly; 46% of buyers allocated more than 41% of their digital spend to off-site in 2025. Despite this, only 30% of retailers and RMNs currently offer offsite ads. For brand partners, this will unlock greater flexibility and reach.
Offsite capabilities allow campaigns to extend across wider digital environments, including online video and display channels, while onsite video placements offer richer ways to connect with shoppers directly in the purchase journey.
Iceland represents a uniquely valuable audience in UK grocery, with an estimated 7% share of the online market. The expanded retail media network opens the door to brands looking to reach more price-sensitive and underrepresented consumers, broadening the types of advertisers who can participate and benefit from people-based media.
Tim Frankcom, President, Europe and APAC at Epsilon, said: “Iceland has a clear ambition to build a modern, inclusive retail media offer and we’re proud to support that journey. By adding offsite scale, launching new formats like video, and introducing a flexible auction model, we’re helping unlock the full potential of people-based advertising. This gives brands a route to real people, not proxies, with measurable results across every touchpoint.”
The partnership marks a further step towards Iceland’s ambition to build one of the most extensive full-funnel retail media propositions in the UK. Future phases will include connected TV and broader video activation, giving brands more ways to reach verified audiences across more screens and channels.
13 May 2025
Iceland and The Food Warehouse partner with GIG Retail to accelerate retail media growth
Iceland and The Food Warehouse have partnered with retail media growth specialist, GIG Retail to fast-track their retail media ambition: to deliver the best possible customer experience through targeted brand inspiration and media innovation.
Offering one of the most extensive, full-funnel retail media portfolios in the market, Iceland Retail Media enables brands to reach, engage and influence the purchase decisions of a vast audience of over 9m monthly shoppers, enhancing the customer journey at every touchpoint, from sofa to store.
Adam Smith, Head of Retail Media at Iceland said: “We are excited to be partnering with Gig Retail to further our retail media capabilities. The partnership will deliver strong results for our suppliers, with new ways of working and embracing new approaches set to deliver the strongest retail media network of any UK retailer.”
Media innovation is high on the agenda, digitising the store experience with the imminent rollout of in-store screens incorporating audience tracking technology, in partnership with Stratacache, while the introduction of ad-served media online will increase ad relevancy and targeting capability. Iceland’s end to end retail media operations will be managed through a new purpose-built platform - allowing real-time inventory management, automated artwork approval, and robust media measurement and reporting, enabling brands to easily track campaign performance and ROAS.
Not restricted to supplier investors alone, Iceland’s media portfolio is available to non-endemic brands who can benefit from a huge, valuable audience of active consumers. The first of these partnerships delivered by GIG Retail, has already gone live with Smart Energy GB.
GIG’s experience in managing large scale retail media complexity means that advertising brands will benefit from simplified processes from concept to activation, a renewed focus on full-funnel omnichannel media planning that puts the customer first through relevant, inspiring content, while maximising campaign performance through in-flight optimisation.
So, what else can brands look forward to?
Whilst frozen food is at the heart of Iceland and The Food Warehouse, their extensive range of chilled, ambient and non-edible SKUs make it a growing destination for the full household shop. Partnerships with well-known brands such as TGI Fridays, My Protein, Harry Ramsdens and Greggs add further appeal, while free home delivery and their reputation for great value drive basket size growth.
While many of the other supermarkets wrestle with their identity and what they stand for, Iceland is steadfast in its position: doing the right thing by its customers – offering great products and great quality, at great value. Recent store upgrades and an attractive brand portfolio make shopping at Iceland a celebration – an experience that increasing numbers of shoppers choose to enjoy each week. Iceland is a retailer in sharp growth, seen to be doing the right thing by its customers, creating a brand-safe environment where advertising can have an immediate impact on shopper’s purchase decisions.
Iceland’s collaboration with GIG Retail means that brands can easily access consumers through an easy to understand and easy to buy media proposition. GIG Retail have a strong track record of retail media delivery, most famously during their 10-year partnership with ASDA, as well as providing retail media services for some of the world’s biggest retailers.