Albertsons Runs a Scripted Micro-Drama Inside Retail Media
Albertsons Media Collective and Procter & Gamble just put a 22-episode scripted series on grocery store screens, betting that retail media can carry brand storytelling, not just item-and-price ads.
Key takeaways
- Albertsons ran 'Rico's Tacos,' a 22-episode micro-drama under three minutes per episode, across in-store screens, its e-commerce platform, and social
- Procter & Gamble sponsored the series to reach Hispanic shoppers, reviving the 'soap opera' sponsorship model in short-form, vertical format
- Grocery TV found shoppers are 2.5 times more likely to consider a brand when creative matches the surrounding store environment
- Albertsons plans screens in about 1,000 stores by year end, with new episodes running twice weekly since June
- No sales data has been released yet; QR code scans in-store are the only engagement signal shared publicly so far
What happened
Albertsons Media Collective and Procter & Gamble just ran the first scripted, episodic series built specifically for retail media, and it's a signal worth pricing in now. As Digiday's Modern Retail first reported, 'Rico's Tacos' is a 22-episode 'micro drama,' each under three minutes, following a multigenerational family running a taco stand outside an Albertsons near Venice Beach, California. Production company Minivela, which has made similar short-form content for Verizon and Warner Bros. Pictures, built it for U.S. Hispanic audiences based on shopper insights from both Albertsons and P&G.
The series has run two episodes every Tuesday since June, across in-store screens, the Albertsons e-commerce platform, and social. QR codes on the in-store screens link back to a video portal on the Albertsons site, and Brian Monahan, svp of retail media at Albertsons Media Collective, said shoppers are actually stopping to scan them mid-cart, something the team wasn't sure would happen in busy stores.
How much more likely shoppers are to consider a brand when creative matches the store environment
Grocery TV, via Digiday, 2026
Why it matters for CPG marketers
This is P&G, not a scrappy DTC brand, committing to custom scripted content in a channel most CMOs still treat as item-and-price real estate. Monahan called it internally 'soap opera 2.0,' a nod to P&G's long history sponsoring daytime dramas, now rebuilt as short-form vertical video that runs from social all the way into store screens. Grocery TV founder Marlow Nickell said most brands are still repurposing creative built for programmatic video, digital out-of-home, or CTV, and that the ones building custom retail media content are seeing meaningfully better results.
No sales numbers exist yet, and Albertsons has been careful to say this format isn't for every brand. Monahan declined to share how many stores currently have screens installed, only that the company is targeting roughly 1,000 by year end. Marketers weighing retail media budgets should treat this as an early, unproven signal rather than a template to copy wholesale this quarter.
What to watch next
- Ask your retail media partners whether they can support custom episodic content, not just repurposed CTV or DOOH creative
- Track QR scan rates as an early engagement proxy while sales attribution data remains unreleased
- Watch whether Albertsons expands 'soap opera 2.0' to other categories once its 1,000-store screen rollout completes
For marketers building out full-funnel measurement across formats like this, our breakdown of attribution models for 2026 budgets is worth a look, as is our guide to out-of-home costs and formats for benchmarking screen media spend generally.
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