MediaMarktSaturn and the AI hub Dishbrain are taking off with the introduction of the "Dishbrain Awards". Unlike previous awards, the new award focuses for the first time on practical benefits as well as intelligent and user-friendly AI solutions for end consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises. Prizes will be awarded for ideas and application examples that make everyday life easier, more efficient and more cost-effective and solve complex problems. The application phase begins in fall 2024.

"MediaMarktSaturn has been supporting customers with technical innovations for over 40 years. It is therefore our duty to show them which AI solutions make sense for them and how they can positively change their lives. We want to help ensure that the use of AI applications progresses quickly and becomes a natural part of everyone's life. With the Dishbrain Award, we not only want to honor outstanding innovations, but also create a platform for new ideas and exchange," says Dr. Karsten Wildberger, CEO of MediaMarktSaturn. 

Six awards for AI entrepreneurs

The Dishbrain Award provides an opportunity to spotlight outstanding projects and applications of artificial intelligence in the business world and private life. In contrast to other awards, which focus on professionals and large companies, the award concentrates on users and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Companies and private idea providers are invited to submit their innovative solutions and successes for the following categories:

The goal is clear: a modern shopping experience for our customers across all channels. Omnichannel, the networking of online and offline channels, is MediaMarktSaturn's great strength, as is the focus on the customer and their needs. The company's motto is: the right format in the right place in order to be even closer to the customer and respond more individually to their needs. The stores and personal advice are MediaMarktSaturn's ace up its sleeve compared to its major competitors. MediaMarktSaturn also offers its partners unique opportunities to present their products. The Lighthouse, Core, Smart and Xpress store formats are being continuously developed and rolled out step by step in all countries; the second Lighthouse in Austria recently opened in Graz.
 

Since October 2022, MediaMarktSaturn has been using the term "Experience Electronics" to describe its repositioning - and at the same time the range of services for its customers. To accompany this, the Company has initiated a comprehensive marketing transformation. The award of the international media budget to the Publicis Group not only creates new synergies: MediaMarktSaturn is taking marketing to the next level of customer-centric and even more personalized communication. 

The right content, the right advice and the right service: In autumn 2022, MediaMarktSaturn launched its first international campaign concept for all countries in which the Company operates.

The Company has created strong proof points for its experience strategy with storytelling campaigns on the topic of mindfulness, such as for Valentine's Day or Christmas, colorful Black Friday communication and a new brand design for the digital age with an emphasis on the iconic "brand swirl". Hence, the focus is on the customer experience and personal advice. 

Michael Schuld, CCMO of MediaMarktSaturn, emphasizes: "Our brand is the centerpiece when it comes to further strengthening our brand purpose 'We create Experience Electronics to enrich people’s life'. Now we are taking the next logical step towards becoming an Experience Champion, also in regard to media."

Further development towards even more personalized and data-supported communication

The Company has just completed the tendering process for a new media agency, at the first time Europe-wide, to exploit the full opportunities also in the area of media, like MediaMarktSaturn did with the brand. The decision is the result of an almost eight-month, multi-stage process to which four major media agency networks were invited. This was the largest international pitch in MediaMarktSaturn's history. The aim of was to further optimize strategy and planning, increase efficiencies, and develop cutting-edge capabilities through data-driven, personalized communication.

The new set-up with the international Publicis media network ensures the right balance between global, efficient media management and locally adapted tactical implementation. Thanks to a new data-based platform, the full potential is exploited: from the creation and use of insights for optimized planning, to perfect targeting across channels, to comprehensive analytics and reporting. 

The consolidation of the agency network makes a new level of exchange between MediaMarktSaturn’s eleven countries possible. New technological possibilities in the ad-tech-stack area should also ensure more efficient use of the media budget and continuous optimization of campaign performance in real time. "We are creating a perfectly networked foundation that gives us new intelligence and new access to analytics. This will further boost our marketing in a data-driven way," explains Michael Schuld. 

The new media agency will manage a budget in the three-digit million range and will launch in October 2024. The pitch was accompanied nationally and internationally by the media management consultancy BRAIN, Munich.

Sponsored Brand Ads can now be booked in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands. MediaMarktSaturn is thus adding another attractive option to its product range and enabling its partners to leverage the entire funnel and increase brand awareness and visibility. The international roll-out of the new product is another important step towards achieving MediaMarktSaturn's goal of expanding its Retail Media business to € 45 million in sales by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.

"We have had a very good start to 2024 and have grown strongly. In our recently released Q2 results, we reported a fivefold increase in revenue for our Retail Media division. With our new Sponsored Brand Ads product, we want to continue this growth and offer our partners the best possible selection of products and services across the entire funnel," said Torsten Ahlers, Managing Director of Media-Saturn Marketing GmbH.

Four Retail Media products already available internationally

If a partner wants to highlight a special product via the search function in the MediaMarktSaturn webshops, Sponsored Product Ads are the right choice. In eight out of eleven countries, this is already available to partners as a self-service option. Partners or advertising agencies can manage and monitor their own budgets. The second product in this onsite area is the recently launched Sponsored Brand Ad. It allows partners to focus on their entire brand, e.g. an entire product line, to increase brand awareness (see image). Following a test phase, the SBA product will also be available in self-service. MediaMarktSaturn is marketing both products in cooperation with Criteo.

"For some time now, brands have been able to successfully run lower funnel campaigns with Sponsored Product Ads (SPA) to increase their sales on MediaMarktSaturn's websites. We are very proud to extend our partnership with MediaMarktSaturn with the launch of Sponsored Brand Ads (SBA). This display ad format combines branding and awareness elements with product images, enabling brands to activate awareness and branding campaigns on the retailer's sites. Brands and their agency partners can now run full funnel campaigns from a single platform and through their preferred booking channel, and track the impact of both formats together in a closed-loop attribution," said Sander Mes, Managing Director for Central Europe & MEA Enterprise at Criteo.

In addition, MediaMarktSaturn offers its partners detailed reports to give them a precise insight into the customer journeys. The fourth product is A+ Content, which is available in nine out of eleven countries. This allows partners to create even more exclusive and targeted product detail pages.

But this is just the beginning, Torsten Ahlers is already pointing the way forward: "With our four available retail media products, which we have rolled out in almost all countries, we have created a strong foundation and an attractive offering for our partners. Now we need to focus on other areas, such as Audience Extension, which we will continue to expand and standardize to define relevant audiences for advertisers based on our site visitors' data. In the future, we will also increasingly leverage our strengths as an omnichannel platform in retail media and offer our advertisers the opportunity to increase awareness of their brands and products directly at the POS through in-store advertising. We also see further economies of scale within the company, such as being able to offer our Retail Media products to our Marketplace sellers."

Ingolstadt, May 02, 2024

Europe's largest electronics retailer is setting an example with the opening of its first pop-up store in Germany dedicated to sustainability on May 2, 2024. In the centrally located boutique in the heart of Tübingen, customers will find a portfolio of particularly sustainable products, which the retailer identifies with its own BetterWay logo, refurbished electrical appliances and sustainable offers that can otherwise only be found on the online marketplace.

"In line with the 'Experience Electronics' strategy, our new pop-up store is the ideal opportunity to show customers live and in color what we offer in terms of sustainability. At the same time, we want to gain new experience of how we can integrate the online marketplace with its products and sellers into our stores", explains Hubert Kluske, COO MediaMarktSaturn Germany.    

The new store concept is part of the omnichannel strategy that MediaMarkt-Saturn is pursuing on its way from a pure product seller to an integrated solution provider. The Marketplace plays an important strategic role in improving the company's profitability, concentrating its own core range on selected growth areas and offering customers an even more extensive product range at the same time. The pop-up store brings the previous online-only offering to the physical sales area and provides sellers with a new presentation platform. 

Sustainable product range and lots of advice

In the pop-up store, customers can find offers from various product groups such as smartphones/tablets/smartwatches and e-mobility. For better orientation, MediaMarktSaturn labels particularly sustainable products with its own BetterWay logo. The company adheres to the criteria of independent testing organizations such as the Blue Angel, EPEAT and TÜV Rheinland and has also defined its own criteria. So-called refurbished devices, which are professionally refurbished and reconditioned, can also be purchased. 

MediaMarktSaturn's own purchase service also offers customers in the pop-up store the opportunity to simply exchange used electrical goods for gift cards. In cooperation with the provider Foxway, the devices are refurbished or repaired and any existing data is deleted. This means they can be resold and given a second life in the spirit of the circular economy.

The employees in the store are specially trained in sustainability and can also inform customers about opportunities to get involved in local sustainability projects on request.

Pioneering work in green Tübingen

When it came to choosing a location for the store, the decision was quickly made in favor of the environmentally conscious, tech-savvy university city of Tübingen. Centrally located in the city center, the store is easy to reach even without a car - in keeping with the concept of sustainability. The sustainable approach is also stringently pursued in the store design: Everything from the previous store infrastructure to the existing furniture in the store space used will be reused for the store. 

The concept is also to be launched in other cities in Germany. Further information on the MediaMarktSaturn BetterWay initiative can be found here.

The Marketplace is an important factor for MediaMarktSaturn in expanding its core assortment and offering its customers an even more extensive assortment. At the same time, the company wants to further improve its profitability through the additional sales channel. By the end of the 2025/26 financial year, the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of the Marketplace is expected to amount to 750 million euros. After EUR 65 million in the 2021/22 financial year, the Marketplace's GMV amounted to EUR 137 million at the end of 2022/23. As a country with a strong online affinity, the Netherlands is another important building block in achieving the target set.

The focus of the Marketplace products is on expanding the core assortment, which is sold directly via MediaMarktSaturn in over 1,000 stores or in the MediaMarkt or Saturn online stores. In addition, MediaMarktSaturn is further expanding its product portfolio on the Marketplace in areas such as gaming, fitness, health, e-mobility, refurbished products, trend products and seasonal products. The availability of goods will also be further improved with the Marketplace: if a particular product is temporarily not available in MediaMarktSaturn's core assortment, the online store will automatically refer to the matching product in the Marketplace.

"The launch of the Marketplace in the Netherlands as the fourth country after Germany, Spain and Austria is an important step in our omnichannel platform strategy. In the Netherlands in particular, we are seeing above-average online demand from customers compared to other countries - the Marketplace has great growth potential here and fits perfectly into our strategy, which focuses on the customer and their needs," explains Christian Kollesch, Director International Marketplace at MediaMarktSaturn.

Customers can rely on the high-quality standards of MediaMarktSaturn as the market leader for consumer electronics in Europe for the products and processes on the Marketplace. Sellers are intensively checked by the Marketplace team and it is ensured that the specified quality standards are met. For the roll-out in the Netherlands, additional new Marketplace sellers from the Netherlands were also added, who can also guarantee 'next-day delivery'.

Generative AI is on everyone's lips, in the news, on social media and now also freely accessible to everyone on the web. Some see it as a revolution in the way we will work, live and interact with each other. Others are skeptical and still see many unanswered questions.

In February 2023, an earthquake destroyed large parts of south-eastern Turkey. MediaMarktSaturn and the Turkish subsidary responded immediately and sent first relief supplies by truck to the affected regions. MediaMarktSaturn decided to expand its aid there on a sustainable basis.

To do this, the company entered into a partnership with TEGV (Turkey Education Volunteers Foundation). TEGV is one of the best-known NGOs that are experts in providing various educational programs for children in need, especially in disaster areas. They have their own program with mobile education units called "Fireflies". In the second half of 2023 MediaMarktSaturn expanded these mobile educational units for children with four themed MediaMarkt trucks and various learning modules in the areas of informatics, art and creativity. The support is planned over four years, the company aims to reach more than 24.000 children, and it includes the trucks as well as all the necessary technical equipment, aids and the educational program. 

“It is important to us to be directly and sustainably involved in our social commitments and donations - both on the company side and in the many campaigns initiated by our employees. We are therefore very happy that we can now further expand our support there,” says Karsten Wildberger, CEO of MediaMarktSaturn.

Omnichannel advantage: Marketplace sellers at MediaMarktSaturn benefit from an enormous reach, a high awareness level and a top infrastructure in the online shop, in the app and now also in stationary stores. In a pilot project in the Tech Village at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, a fitness equipment provider from the Marketplace is using around 22 square meters of floor space to present its products in the perfect light. In line with its omnichannel strategy, the pilot is a further step for MediaMarktSaturn to become even more attractive for its partners and customers.

In an initial test phase from November 2023 to January 2024, the fitness provider will be exhibiting various products across 22 square meters. The entire range of topics will be covered: from "Get started" with body analysis and consultation to "Get better" with training equipment and wearables to "Recover" with products for muscle therapy and wellness. In most cases, these are products that require comprehensive advice and that customers would like to test and experience live on site before buying. To this end, the store has its own fitness expert who provides information about the products, answers questions, assists with the online ordering process and also offers personalized fitness analysis and consultation.

In addition to the expert on site, tablets are available as digital touchpoints in the exhibition area. Visitors can thus get an initial overview of the products and technical data themselves at any time. On a landing page specially designed for the "Fitness & Wellness" theme world, the products on display are not only highlighted in the store, but also online. The purchase is also concluded via the digital touchpoint directly via the seller's online offer in the Marketplace.

"With our Space-as-a-Service offering, we want to provide our Marketplace sellers with a new platform that has a particularly strong presence. We are combining offline and online perfectly by taking advantage of our omnichannel strategy and presenting the products in the best possible way both online and in-store," explains Christian Kollesch, Director Marketplace International at MediaMarktSaturn.

"We are starting with a pilot in the fitness and wellness sector in Germany and want to roll out this concept in other countries in future and extend it to other categories that perfectly complement our core assortment. This will enable us to offer our customers an even more extensive product portfolio," adds Marius Lückemeyer, CEO Marketplace at MediaMarktSaturn.

Marketplace as a growth area

The Marketplace plays an important role in MediaMarktSaturn's strategy to improve the company's profitability, focus its own core product range on selected growth areas and at the same time offer customers an even more extensive assortment of products online. To this end, MediaMarktSaturn is continuously expanding its Marketplace offering, with around 1,000 sellers offering more than one million items (as of June 2023; an update will be provided on 18 December at the annual press conference). At the Capital Markets Day (2 June 2023), the company announced its goal of achieving around 750 million euros in GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) via the Marketplace in the 2025/26 fiscal year. In addition to Germany, the Marketplace is already live in Spain and Austria, and is set to go online next in the Netherlands and Italy in the current 2023/24 fiscal year.