Orange Apron Media, the retail media network for The Home Depot, was using different systems for its on-site and off-site advertising businesses until it decided to unify them in October 2024 — and it’s now reaping the benefits through partnerships with Reddit, Pinterest’s Media Network Connect, Yahoo and The Trade Desk.
Using the different systems “was the catalyst for the investment” in Home Depot updating its retail media network infrastructure, according to Stephanie Cattonar, senior director of strategy, product and analytics at Orange Apron Media. Cattonar told Digital Commerce 360 that Home Depot uses its unified data sources in its advertising process.
The first-party data, which it collects from its ecommerce business, loyalty program and elsewhere, powers the audience targeting for on-site and off-site advertising. It enables both sellers whose products are at Home Depot and those who don’t sell through the retailer to advertise to Home Depot customers. In each case, Home Depot is using its wealth of customer data to help advertisers reach their target audiences with precision, Cattonar said.
And unifying the on-site and off-site systems means giving Home Depot’s advertisers “the ease of orchestrating” their media, she specified. Home Depot sought to eliminate the need for an advertiser to work through multiple systems with separate logins, she added.
“We wanted it to be something that was truly unified and seamless and, most importantly, useful. People have limited time,” Cattonar told Digital Commerce 360. “How do we make it easier for you to do what you need to do?”
The Home Depot ranks No. 4 in the Top 2000 Database. The database ranks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales and more. Additionally, Home Depot is the top-ranked retailer in the Top 2000’s Hardware & Home Improvement category.
Endemic vs. non-endemic advertising through Orange Apron Media
Brands that sell their products through Home Depot and use Orange Apron Media are endemic advertisers. Those who don’t sell through Home Depot but still want to reach the retailer’s customers are non-endemic advertisers.
Endemic advertisers can track their business performance using the Orange Access platform that powers the retail media network. There, sellers will see a curated dashboard specific to the SKUs they promote, Cattonar said. That includes both how those products are performing online and from an in-store retail perspective, she specified.
Non-endemic advertisers use the same system, but they would not have the business performance data.
“There’s just a different flavor of reporting,” Cattonar added. “In that instance, it’s going to be more specific to your traditional media metrics. We do our best to support our non-endemic in ways around how best to enable whatever specific type of reporting that they may want to curate on their end.”
Furthermore, this is the same system Home Depot’s internal associates use for all their managed service activities as well, she said. The advertising network’s offerings branch into managed services and self-service.
In the former offering, Home Depot’s team handles the ads for its respective advertisers. Meanwhile, the self-service option allows advertisers to make changes to their ad campaigns on their own.
“What that creates is speed and access when it’s on a supplier’s own timetable,” Cattonar said.
All the while, Home Depot is using that same set of data in its own marketing efforts.
How is Home Depot advertising through Reddit?
Home Depot and Reddit have partnered to enable Orange Apron Media advertisers to place advertisements directly on the social media platform. Advertisers can create visuals using Orange Apron Media and directly post them to Reddit as ads. From there, they can monitor the advertising metrics.
In connecting their audience data, Reddit and Home Depot enable the retailer’s suppliers to connect to customers outside of HomeDepot.com.
“Reddit is an integral part of the customer journey,” Cattonar explained. “It is a trusted platform that helps in the discovery and ultimately the decision-making process. Reddit and Home Depot brilliantly align in terms of the way that we see our ability to be radically helpful to our customers, especially as it pertains to embarking on projects that may have a lot of unknowns.”
Cattonar noted that this falls under Orange Apron Media’s self-service offerings. Advertisers can select which Home Depot audience to target. Then, they can choose the creatives they want to deploy. They also choose the ad formats. Upon deciding those, Home Depot syndicates the ads to the Reddit platform.
“And then, within Orange Access, we would curate what was the measurement — the closed loop — that goes along with that,” Cattonar said. “That way, our suppliers can holistically understand how Reddit is helping drive the full-on marketing effectiveness alongside all the other campaigns they may be running.”
Home Depot’s multi-partner retail media network approach
Cattonar said The Trade Desk and Yahoo “offer tremendous scale” opportunities for Home Depot. She explained that the retailer sees the partnerships refine how non-endemic advertisers reach Home Depot customers. Working with them “made natural sense” for the retailer, she added.
“And then when you think about that it’s a natural progression to start thinking about it from the lens of, ‘Okay, what about social?’ And when we think about that funnel, Pinterest has such a rich ability on the inspiration front, as well as just curating all the way through to conversion, that it was just a natural extension,” Cattonar stated.
She referred to the partnerships as facilitating “a true omnichannel strategy.” From an advertising standpoint, that refers to reaching each part of the marketing funnel, she said. And Home Depot wants to do so “with as much scale as possible,” she added.
Each platform offers different demographics, too.
“We want to be where our customers are,” Cattonar said. “And we know that our customers can be across so many different areas across the internet.”
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