Mondelez Matches Brands With Startups To Spur Retail Tech

The continued embrace of technology while shopping means less time spent waiting to checkout – and that means less time dawdling over the candies, cookies and other temptations that lie in wait right at the register.

Still, Mondelez, which owns a stable of brands ranging from Trident to Cadbury, may find some salve in tech, reports Advertising Age in a June 3 article.

“The biggest battle we are fighting right now is one for attention,” said Laura Henderson, head of U.S. media and communications for Mondelez, who noted that tech holds sway as fewer people actually went their way through checkout lines.

And, according to the executive, “it’s clear that we need to be really disruptive to gain and hold attention.”

Mondelez is seeking to combat the tech-driven sugar ennui by developing new technologies itself, in tandem with several startups. The company said it would launch “Shopper Futures” in August, holding a startup pitch day at its New Jersey offices. Setting focus on the total checkout and shopping experience – running the gamut from mobile payments to inventory data to interactive displays – Mondelez will choose nine startups with what it deems to be the best ideas. Then each startup will work with Mondelez marketing professionals and one retailer, with joint efforts tied to retail and Canadian brands with a 90 day pilot program. Ad Age said that Albertson’s and QuickChek have joined the program.

The company has been down this road before, with a 2012 program called “Mobile Futures” that sought mobile marketing innovation. The resulting process brought forth Betabox, which tied brands to eCommerce – and Mondelez wound up selling Betabox to VaynerMedia for an undisclosed price, reported Ad Age.

Henderson told the publication that Mondelez has been making efforts in both eCommerce and mobile, emphasizing that the company is close to a goal of funneling half of its North America media spending to digital by 2016. Those efforts have yielded “Buy Now” buttons linked to 25 markets and 130 retailers’ websites.

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For more on the impact of digital and other innovations in the retail industry, join PYMNTS this August 3-5 in Chicago for Retail Reinvention, a two-day experience designed to help merchants navigate the current and future wave of disruption across the retail payment and commerce landscape.

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