How David’s Bridal is using a retail media network to spur its transformation
David’s Bridal is building out a new retail media network catering to its audience of brides-to-be as it looks to create new, stable revenue streams
Pearl Media Network launched in December as a way for the company to help monetize the millions of brides that come to its website. Kelly Cook, the president of brand, technology and finance at David’s Bridal, told Modern Retail that David’s Bridal has an edge over other retail media networks because of its breadth of first-party data that can help advertisers directly connect with brides. “We are the largest bridal retailer from an awareness perspective,” she said. “We already have her, not somebody like her.”
Cook said there are already thousands of advertisers using the network, spanning wedding vendors in a variety of locations, such as photographers, venues, florists and caterers. It also includes other wedding-related brands. And, while such companies might have to segment or find like audiences while advertising elsewhere, Cook said the unique thing about David’s Bridal is that they can advertise directly to a bride.
If someone searches for outfits for a flower girl, for example, David’s Bridal might also serve that person ads for its boy’s formalwear brand, Little Tuxedo, “because the likelihood of you having a ring bearer with a flower girl is high,” she said. “We actually can put a Little Tuxedos ad directly into the feed, and that’s the difference between having first-party data and trying to go to like audiences and other kinds of like segments.”
Retail media is one of the biggest growing advertising mediums as retailers start to get creative about revenue streams, and brands start to look for new ways to tap potential customers. EMarketer estimates advertisers will spend about $62 billion on retail media networks this year and nearly $100 billion by 2028. But as the space grows, it’s likely to see more specialty retailers and niche sectors getting involved — whether Home Depot, Wawa or Chase Bank.
For David’s Bridal, building out a media network is part of its overall transformation strategy. The company filed Chapter 11 in 2018 and again in 2023 as it struggled to regain a solid revenue footing in the post-Covid environment. The pandemic disrupted wedding timelines and led to more non-traditional ceremonies like elopements or micro weddings. This left wedding industry players scrambling to find ways to serve the new modern bride.
Cook said the company’s transformation has three main pillars. One is to differentiate its products to more brides across price points. It also plans to create a booking service for bridal salons to use. It will also be looking to establish itself as an event, appealer and planning marketplace, which is where the retail media network comes in. Around 90% of brides come to David’s Bridal in some form while planning for their wedding, and that creates an opportunity for more advertising from other partners.
“In order to implement the strategy of being the largest online event, planning, apparel marketplace, we needed a way to integrate communications in those journeys, whether they’re ads or offers or whatever it may be, in order to give her the best experience possible,” she said.
The Pearl Media Network will deliver ads with multiple placements across the David’s Bridal network, including its wedding website service, its registry service, its planning service and vendor marketplace. It’s also inside the David’s Bridal e-commerce website. Together, the network represents around 175 million visits a year. “You just have to have the technology to put the ads in the right place to serve her the right way,” Cook said.
Cook said the Pearl Media Network is another part of David’s evolution as a 75-year-old company. The company tapped a Meta veteran to help build Pearl Media Network in-house.
“It actually has been a much, much easier evolution to bring the company together towards a common goal to transform and have a sort of modern renaissance of the brand than some companies may experience,” Cook said.
Donna Sharp, managing director of marketing consultancy Medialink, expects to see more verticals crop up in the retail media world. The appeal is clear, as retail media can be a massive margin driver and incremental growth opportunity for companies, she said. Many could use the networks to tap into larger publishing opportunities, she said, similar to how Best Buy partners with tech media outlet CNET for shared ads in front of a combined audience of around 50 million unique visitors.
But Sharp said it can be a tall order to set up an operation that can scale profitably and tap enough advertisers to be successful. It requires a tech stack and data infrastructure that’s either created in-house or uses an outside vendor.
“It requires a lot of investment and cultural change. It’s really hard if you can’t give a level of freedom and autonomy for that team to grow,” Sharp said.
A company like David’s Bridal, Sharp said, has the opportunity to build a successful network, in part by tapping non-endemic opportunities — or, ads that go beyond the bridal world. That might look like insurance companies, home improvement brands or travel businesses that people might be thinking about as they get married and start a new chapter of life.
Still, she cautioned that retailers shouldn’t expect to see limitless growth.
“While there is certain growth, we have retailers who also have a bit of an outsized power relationship there. When [a large retailer] says you need to spend 30%, 40%, 50% more with RMN this year or you’re losing shelf space, you usually say yes,” she said. “At some point, one might argue it’s hard to keep increasing time and time again year over year.”