Last week, Associated Food Stores crossed a threshold that had been months in the making. The first weekly ad published under its newly unified advertising structure, the AFS Performance Group, went to market.
Behind the May 18 posting date were months of cross-departmental coordination, one-on-one retailer conversations and a ground-up rethinking of how AFS promotes, merchandise and partners with vendors on behalf of its independent retailers.
As previously reported, AFS combined its former ACG and APG advertising groups into a single structure designed to simplify operations, strengthen vendor partnerships and deliver a more consistent experience for retailers and their shoppers. That transition, communicated through retailer calls, committee meetings and Food Show sessions, is now a reality.
Jessica Cronin, performance group manager, said the groundwork started well before the first ad was ever built.
“Across AFS, there were, and still are, many teams involved,” Jessica said. “It started with our advertising team reviewing our ad process, retail needs and AdStudio updates over the last six months. We looked at the reach we are building, what options we needed and what each retailer’s needs were before settling on the levels we are offering today.”
That review process didn’t stop with the advertising team. Jessica said her group held meetings with each department to work through store lists, deal entry, future buying as stores were transitioning, and dozens of other operational details that had to be resolved before the first unified ad could go out the door.
Allen Christensen, retail marketing group manager, has been one of the team members fielding calls from store owners across AFS’ service area. He said the response has been encouraging.
“Our retailers understand the need for the ‘One Ad’ direction,” Allen said. “They’re asking great questions about where their store fits in this new advertising direction, how tech stack levels apply to them and what training opportunities are available to help this effort succeed.”
Allen noted that retailers have also been vocal about wanting to maintain a differentiation factor, something AFS has committed to supporting through tools like AdStudio, Birdzi-powered personalized digital ads, rewards and digital coupons and CoreStack technologies. Those platforms give store operators the ability to customize their customer experience without requiring separate ad builds.
From a merchandising standpoint, the unified structure is already having a positive impact.
Gordan Welch, advertising and merchandising manager, said combining the ad groups directly supports how AFS executes both in-store and online.
“The unified ad group supports digital merchandising by bringing all the stores together that can perform on digital coupons and rewards,” Gordan said. “We can create collections of items to be merchandised on retailers’ eCommerce sites. With two ad groups, many times we executed the same items, but they were on separate ad weeks. Moving forward as one ad group, we can function like a large chain in the eyes of our vendors but remain fiercely independent.”
While the first new ad is in the books, the work is far from over. The Performance Group is built on tiered levels that reflect the different customer-facing programs and technologies retailers use today. AFS has emphasized that ad planning, promotional strategy and weekly execution will continue as they have been. What changes is the structure behind the scenes, reducing exceptions and workarounds while restoring consistency across the system.
Glen Keysaw, executive vice president of value chain, said the accomplishment reflects AFS’ broader commitment to operating as one.
“By aligning our vendors, retailers and our internal processes, our new approach will bring the most value to our guests,” Glen said. “It will also bring efficiencies along the way that will allow us to be more agile and simplify our processes, allowing us to focus on the creative value, reduce busy work and deliver the most compelling offers to our retailers and their customers.”