How Juice Brand Martinelli’s Gets To The Core Of Retail Media Incrementality

Why It Matters

Incrementality metrics give brands a clearer view of genuine growth, preventing overspend on ads that only shift existing purchase behavior. This insight is critical for grocery advertisers seeking real customer acquisition.

Key Takeaways

• Martinelli’s achieved 33% sales lift using iROAS methodology
• 65% of sales came from new‑to‑brand buyers
• iROAS can swing up to 6.5× versus traditional ROAS
• Albertsons’ match‑control tests isolate true media lift

Pulse Analysis

Retail media has long relied on ROAS as the headline KPI, but the metric’s attribution focus can mask whether ads truly expand a brand’s customer base. Incrementality—measured through iROAS—adds a causal layer by comparing exposed shoppers with a statistically similar control group. This approach filters out sales that would have occurred anyway, delivering a more realistic picture of media effectiveness. As grocery shoppers exhibit high purchase intent, distinguishing lift from baseline behavior becomes especially vital, prompting platforms like Albertsons Media Collective to pioneer match‑control testing.

Martinelli’s recent holiday campaign illustrates the power of iROAS. Leveraging Albertsons’ control‑group framework, the juice brand recorded a 33% uplift in overall sales and a striking 65% of those sales from first‑time buyers, translating into $7.45 iROAS. These figures demonstrate that the campaign not only drove volume but also expanded household penetration—a key strategic goal for a brand still seeking broader reach. The iROAS result, which can differ by up to 6.5× from conventional ROAS, gave Martinelli’s the confidence to justify increased media spend and to replicate the methodology across other channels.

The broader implication for the grocery sector is a shift toward measurement rigor that aligns spend with genuine growth. Advertisers that adopt iROAS can better allocate budgets, focusing on media placements that attract new customers rather than merely rewarding loyalty. As more retailers publish lifetime‑value data and refine control‑test designs, incremental metrics are poised to become the new standard for retail media dashboards. Brands that act now will gain a competitive edge, turning media spend into a proven engine for acquisition rather than a vanity metric.