Through its fuel, coffee, groceries and cult-favorite pizza, Casey’s General Stores has spent the last 55 years growing the business and building shopper loyalty at its now 2,500-some convenience stores in Midwest communities across 16 states.
While the Iowa-based retailer has had its share of wins — including becoming a Fortune 500 company as well as America’s third-largest c-store chain and fifth-largest pizza chain — it’s the future that has Casey’s executives preoccupied.
“We had this reflection period where as a leadership team we looked ourselves in the mirror and we asked the big question: How do we remain relevant for the next 50 years?” says Art Sebastian, vice president, omnichannel marketing, at Casey’s. “We told ourselves that, in the next couple years here, we need to be bigger, bolder and more contemporary.”
In May, Casey’s debuted its retailer media network, Casey’s Access, which lets CPG brand companies leverage the retailer’s shopper data to deliver relevant promotions, offers and marketing content across digital and in-store touchpoints. The retailer partnered with its first brand in February as part of a plan to build case studies to share with the industry, and it invited three brands to participate as beta partners in May, during which it has provided white-glove service. The network is rolling out to all brands in July.
“The advertising landscape is ever-evolving,” Sebastian says. “We know the challenges of reaching consumers will continue to increase in the coming years. We also know our [shoppers] and brand partners are seeking a deeper, more personalized experience, and we feel strongly that this is what Casey’s Access will provide.”
The network’s launch is a continuation of the retailer’s “digital transformation” initiative, Sebastian says. Casey’s spent the last four years establishing its technology stack, building an API-first approach, growing and enriching its first-party data, and developing its digital experiences and touchpoints.
“What I led when I first joined the company is an assessment of where we stood relative to digital experiences, and I can tell you we had none, or the ones that we had were not that great,” recalls Sebastian, who joined the c-store chain in 2018 after previously working at Meijer, IRI and Kraft Heinz. “They were like white-label applications, and they just weren’t that good.”
Casey’s now partners with SAP for e-commerce, Salesforce for marketing technology and MuleSoft for APIs. The retailer also enlists CitrusAd for on-site media, LiveRamp and The Trade Desk to activate off-site, and IRI for closed-loop reporting.
Implementing the technology, connecting the systems and setting up the company to be future-proof via this API-led approach was a big job, explains Sebastian. Also significant is the work that went into bolstering the company’s first-party data, which Sebastian says he was “obsessed with.” Since he joined, Casey’s database has grown from 300,000 records to 14 million.
“It’s not the biggest database, but we’ve come a long way in terms of growth,” Sebastian says. “What I love about what we set up is it’s organized, it’s unified, [and] it’s very clean because I essentially built it from the bottom up.”
Having spent 20 years working in grocery, Sebastian says the c-store chain presents a unique opportunity for brand advertisers. In his experience working at other companies, they were thrilled to see shoppers every 7-10 days. Casey’s, on the other hand, has more than 80 million monthly shoppers in its stores, mobile app and website, and its best shoppers visit stores more than five times a week.
“Our ads are in close proximity to when those best guests are in the store,” Sebastian says. “See ad Tuesday, shop Wednesday, see another ad Wednesday, I’m shopping Thursday. In the grocery space, see an ad Tuesday, forget about the ad Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, [and] Sunday maybe shop.”
The Casey’s Access ad solutions will reach active, highly engaged shoppers on owned and operated digital channels, including on-site display, sponsored products, sponsored search, email, SMS, app push, in-app messaging, app takeovers and dedicated brand pages. On-premise opportunities include fuel pump screens, digital menu boards, point-of-sale pin pads, self-checkout and coffee screens. The network will also activate through off-site channels, including paid social and programmatic digital media.
“[Our shoppers] rely on Casey’s for food, for milk, for bread, and it really is special,” Sebastian says. “We won’t ever be the biggest. I’m not delusional about that, but I think if we can build this really special bond, if we could build a relationship with guests based on everyday moments — you start your morning with coffee, you feed your family a pizza ... we’ve created an ecosystem [where] brands can also tap in to those relationships all powered by data.”
