PwC agrees partnership with retail media platform Zitcha

Aiming to capitalise on a local retail media market tipped to double in size to $2 billion over the next few years, PwC has forged a collaborative partnership with Zitcha.

Recently co-founded by The Pistol executive director Troy Townsend and Hatched Media managing director Jack Byrne, who serve respectively as CEO and COO, Zitcha was launched last year with the aim of “empowering retailers to become publishers” in just four to six weeks.

The software platform can link a retailer’s entire media ecosystem before then automating media purchasing across all channels. This helps retailers monetise their digital media channels through targeted brand advertising.

According to the agreement, which is non-commercial in nature, PwC and Zitcha will work together to introduce the platform to retailers and media agencies while offering complementary services.

“Many retailers sell catalogue placement or in-store display but do so manually which is time-consuming, difficult to scale and misses out on the opportunity of the wider ecosystem,” Townsend said at the time of Zitcha’s launch. “By opening up all assets and automating that process the sky's the limit, meaning all of a retailer’s suppliers can benefit, not just the top ten percent that currently does.”

Townsend also pointed to a local retail media market tipped by PwC to grow to $2 billion by 2026. Now, after gaining the interest of large-scale retailers such as New Zealand’s Warehouse Group during the development phase, and landing a $4.7 million investment from capital firm OIF Ventures toward the end of the year, the burgeoning platform’s collaboration with PwC represents another major coup.

“We were attracted to collaborating with PwC by their industry-leading corporate governance credentials which we think will provide invaluable insights for our joint clients,” Townsend told Mumbrella. “PwC is very careful about who it collaborates with so we’re really proud Zitcha is the right fit and that they took the time to understand the platform and what we can do for retailers.”

According to reports, the collaboration agreement will see the two entities offering complementary services spanning strategic business planning through to execution and implementation. PwC CMO advisory director Dan Robins noted that local retailers were beginning to cotton on to the high margin potential of their media assets and the ability to reach a broader range of advertising buyers.

“Advertisers want engaging media placements with customer data insights where they can link the delivery of ads to sales outcomes. Retailers with multiple touch points are ideally positioned to provide it. Furthermore, this is not necessarily limited to grocery and consumer goods retailers – there are opportunities for a big spectrum of businesses who have real and digital-world connections with consumers.”