REWE – RTRDP-DCO
Submitted by OMD Germany
Case Study Summary
REWE, one of Germany’s largest supermarket chains, turned a traditional media channel—newspaper ads—into a high-performance, hyper-personalized marketing tool using AI and real-time retail data. In a country where print remains a critical driver of grocery shopping decisions, REWE faced a challenge: how to ensure every shopper saw the most relevant local deals in their preferred newspaper.
The solution was RTRDP-DCO: Real-Time-Retail-Data-Print-Dynamic-Creative-Optimization. By combining the precision of digital Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) with AI and checkout data from over 3,600 stores, REWE created the world’s first AI-powered print DCO campaign. This enabled personalized deal ads in 138 newspapers, tailored weekly to 49 media cells across Germany. AI selected relevant products, automated layout generation, and even adjusted messaging based on local factors like weather, paydays, or vacation season.
This hybrid of human creative strategy and AI-driven efficiency led to:
- A 600% increase in deal variety
- A 900% boost in personalization factors
- A 1%+ revenue increase, a major impact for a billion-euro retailer
And it proved that with the right tech, even “old-school” print can perform like a digital medium.
Key Insights:
- Print is powerful in Germany, especially for grocery deals—yet previously lacked personalization.
- AI unlocked hyper-localization by processing massive volumes of retail data in real time.
- Bringing DCO to print proved not only possible but profitable.
- Seamless integration of print, app, in-store media, and digital positioned REWE as a leader in omnichannel retail marketing.
Why was AI used?
AI was essential to analyze vast amounts of retail data—including purchase trends, local preferences, item sizes, timing cues (like pay cycles or holidays)—and to automate deal selection and creative layout generation across 49 media cells. Human teams and Excel simply couldn’t keep pace with the complexity or speed required for weekly newspaper print runs.
How did AI work with human creativity and insights?
Human insight defined the strategy—knowing that regional, personalized print deals could drive action. But AI made it scalable and dynamic. While robots handled deal selection and automated layout, creative teams were freed to focus on higher-value storytelling and brand expression. It was a true human-machine partnership.
Would this have been possible without AI?
Not at all. The scale, speed, and personalization required would have overwhelmed traditional media planning and creative processes. AI wasn’t just helpful—it was the enabler.
