The speed of content creation and activation is essential to maintaining competitiveness. Consumers demand personalised, timely, and relevant content, and retailers who can’t keep up with these expectations risk losing valuable customer engagement – and, ultimately, falling behind more agile competitors.
At ITG, we understand that agile content creation is not just a buzzword – it’s a fundamental strategy for thriving in the retail sector in 2025. We work with brands like Co-op, Waitrose, John Lewis and M&S, helping them to embrace agile methodologies and deliver smarter, insight-driven, contextually relevant content that connects with their customers.
But what does embracing agility in content production really mean for retailers and grocers, and how can they harness it to stay ahead in an increasingly crowded market?
The traditional content cycle is too slow for retail
For many retail and grocery brands, content creation still follows a slow, traditional process, often working in siloed teams with a series of time-consuming approval stages. From initial concept to publishing, this linear process can take weeks or even months. By the time a promotion is live, it may already be outdated, and the content may no longer resonate with consumers.
Retailers need to react quickly to changes in demand, local offers, and seasonal trends, meaning the slow pace of traditional content production is simply unsustainable. Consumers now demand personalised content, delivered in real-time across every channel they engage with, from in-store to mobile and online. As McKinsey notes, 71% of customers expect a personalised experience. If one retailer doesn’t deliver, then they can easily go elsewhere.
Why retailers and grocers need agile content creation
Agile content creation allows retail and grocery brands to create and deploy content in real-time (or near-real-time) without sacrificing quality. By adopting AI-enabled, data-driven methodologies, they can bring campaigns to life quickly, tailoring each piece of content to current consumer preferences and localised needs.
In 2025, agility will be even more essential for retailers who need to provide seamless, omnichannel shopping experiences. Whether it’s a time-sensitive promotion for fresh produce, a new product launch, or a seasonal campaign, these brands must be able to create content swiftly and efficiently, ensuring it is relevant and seamlessly connected across every customer touchpoint.
See agile content in action
A great example of agile content creation is how we supported Co-op in the launch of its new multichannel marketing campaign. This initiative involved creating personalised, timely content that resonated with customers across multiple touchpoints. Learn more about how we applied agile principles to achieve significant results for Co-op below.
The benefits of agile content creation for retailers and grocers
1. Faster turnaround times: With agile content creation, retailers and grocers can launch campaigns in days, not weeks. This helps them stay ahead of trends and respond to changing consumer behaviour, offering time-sensitive promotions that drive sales.
2. Improved personalisation: By adopting agile, AI-enabled processes, retailers and grocers can create content that is tailored to specific customer segments, based on data around location, buying habits, or preferences. This personalisation leads to deeper engagement, stronger customer loyalty, and increased conversions.
3. Enhanced cross-functional collaboration: Agile workflows break down the silos between different teams – marketing, design, and content creators – enabling them to work together more closely. This tighter collaboration fosters more cohesive campaigns that are executed with speed, efficiency and precision.
4. Better resource management: Agile workflows reduce the need for long-running projects, helping teams focus on completing tasks quickly and moving on to the next one. This improves overall productivity, reduces resource strain, and ensures campaigns are delivered on time (and on budget).
5. Increased content reusability and efficiency: Truly agile processes enable content reusability and repurposing across multiple channels, reducing the need to create new assets from scratch for every campaign. This increases efficiency and maximises ROI from each piece of content you create.
How ITG supports agile content creation for retailers and grocers
At ITG, we’re helping retailers and grocers to streamline their content creation processes with advanced tools and strategies. Our Hero to Halo solution, powered by Storyteq, allows brands like Co-op, M&S and John Lewis to create, automate, and personalise content at scale. This AI-enabled approach ensures that content production is not only faster, but also more relevant and tailored to consumer needs, wants and behaviours.
We work with major retail and grocery brands to build agile content workflows, integrating platforms like HubSpot to automate processes, optimise delivery channels, and personalise customer interactions. From campaign creation to email marketing and social media engagement, ITG’s solutions empower grocers to meet the high demands of modern retail marketing.
The future of retail: Agility as the competitive edge
As we head into 2025, retailers and grocers who embrace AI-enabled, agile content creation will have a clear advantage. The ability to quickly adapt to consumer needs and market changes will define retail success. However, achieving this agility requires more than just adopting new tech tools – it requires a shift in mindset and culture within retail marketing teams.
That doesn’t mean adopting technology for technology’s sake. Brands can easily get caught up in what Gartner terms the ‘AI hype cycle’, where they take on new AI-powered tools that – while offering interesting and exciting functionality – don’t deliver the business value that they’d hoped or anticipated.
AI can be transformative for marketers, but we believe it’s in operationalising this technology that they’ll see the biggest impact. For example, integrating content intelligence into workflows will allow you to tell the perfect story for every possible user interaction, automatically tailoring content to ensure you reach the right customer, with the right message, on the right channel, delivered at exactly the right time.
By fostering agile workflows, leveraging cutting-edge technologies, and continuously optimising content strategies, these brands can stay ahead of the curve and build stronger, lasting relationships with their customers.
In an era where speed is critical and consumer preferences evolve constantly, agile content creation is no longer optional, it’s essential. Retailers and grocers who act now to optimise their content workflows will not only survive in 2025, but thrive – delivering the right message to the right customer, in the right place at exactly the right time.
Meet us at the Live Event – Discover how ITG’s Hero to Halo solution can transform your grocery marketing
As networking sponsors at the upcoming LIVE 2025: Retail Week x The Grocer event in London, we invite you to connect with us and explore how ITG’s Hero to Halo solution can revolutionise your retail and grocery marketing strategy. Learn how our AI-powered platform can help you create personalised, high-impact content at scale, optimising your resource allocation and staying ahead of the competition in 2025.
Reach out today to schedule a meeting with us at the event and discover how Hero to Halo can help your business thrive in the fast-paced world of modern retail.