Nectar360 Pollen buzzes into the retail media market

Nectar360, the Sainsbury’s-owned loyalty, insights and media business, is set to launch a unified retail media platform – backed by generative AI – which it claims will redefine how the sector works day-to-day, offering the “easiest-to-use platform” on the market, making retail media campaigns “simple, seamless and always customer-first”.

Nectar360 Pollen is designed to solve the industry’s biggest pain points and to support the company’s mission to create valuable relationships between customers and their favourite brands.

Built in-house by Sainsbury’s and Nectar360 and co-created with partner brands and agencies, the proprietary platform is due to launch in late 2025 and will further advance Nectar360’s ambition to be a world-class leader in the growing retail media industry.

The system combines audience insights, media planning and activation, optimisation and measurement into one single platform. Whether brands and agencies are running instore, online or offsite campaigns, Sainsbury’s insists Nectar360 Pollen will connect these environments in a truly omnichannel approach to retail media.

The GenAI facility will help brands and agencies optimise their campaign creative in the moment, build hyper-relevant audiences and plan media, simplifying the process and enabling Nectar360’s clients to get more effective campaigns live, quicker.

A multi-touch attribution model and visualisation tool within the platform will also allow tracking and analysis of all media touchpoints, showing the impact of each channel on overall campaign performance.

This means marketers and media professionals can optimise their campaigns faster and customers benefit from more relevant advertisements and an improved shopper experience, the company insists.

Nectar360 managing director Amir Rasekh said: “Our ambition is to be a world-class leader in the retail media industry, which is why we’re launching Nectar360 Pollen – the most advanced platform of its kind in the UK.

“Retail media’s pace of growth is outstripping traditional advertising, but with this rapid development comes growing pains. While retail media has transformed how brands engage customers, it can be complicated and difficult to navigate.

“Taking on feedback from our clients and the market, we’ve created Nectar360 Pollen to help solve for this. It will allow brands and agencies to easily navigate the potential of retail media, create omnichannel experiences, and deliver enhanced measurement.”

Unilever UK is one of the key partners; the head of the company’s digital retail media division, Charlotte Murphy commented: “Being part of the early test group for Nectar360 Pollen has been incredibly valuable. What sets this platform apart is how genuinely user-first it is. It seamlessly brings together all Nectar360’s media capabilities in one place and gives marketers the tools they’ve been asking for: simplicity, speed and smarter decision-making. It’s a real step change for how we plan and activate retail media.”