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Last year, JPMorgan Chase launched an ad business that allows marketers to target ads using the bank giant’s data.
Dubbed Chase Media Solutions, the ad product lets brands promote Chase Offers, targeted discounts related to Chase customers’ spending habits, that appear on its app and website. Advertisers only pay for such ads if the customer uses the Chase Offers deal to make a purchase.
The infrastructure behind Chase’s ad business stems from the company’s 2022 acquisition of marketing platform Figg.
Since then, Chase has been working to scale its ad platform to compete against other commerce media networks. In 2024, Chase powered 18 billion offers equivalent to $12 billion in customer spend—a 31% year-over-year increase, according to the company. Chase’s ad platform also had 800 million monthly views from its 71 million digital banking users.
Chase declined to say how much the company makes from its advertising business.
The bank is one of many companies across sectors that have started commerce media businesses over the past year in hopes of cashing in on the retail media boom. PayPal, American Express, Uber, and Lyft have also started selling ads that promise advertisers precise targeting and measurement using first-party data. Emarketer expects advertisers to spend $62 billion in the space this year.
IRL promotions
This year, Chase hopes to make Chase Offers more personalized to customers, Rich Muhlstock, president of Chase Media Solutions, told ADWEEK. Because Chase owns its own platform, it can control the relevancy of ads users see, he said. For example, someone who regularly shops at Nordstrom could be served deals for similar fashion brands.
Muhlstock said that Chase plans to more heavily promote Chase Offers beyond its digital banking properties in its 4,700 physical banks, more than 15,00 ATMs, and via emails.
The bank is also using its sponsorships with stadiums and venues to help advertisers reach larger audiences, for instance through its Madison Square Garden billboard in New York and around New York’s Occulus transit hub, he said.
“It’s evolving to where it gives brands an opportunity to do more interesting integrations with us,” Muhlstock said.
Differentiating in commerce media
Muhlstock acknowledged that “there is a lot of confusion” around commerce media because of the nuances in how companies pitch their advertising solutions.
“It is a complicated category when you have so many entrants,” he said. “The reality is, most brands may only pick five retail media networks to run on, so how do we get into that mix?”
One way Chase wants to differentiate is by focusing broadly on merchants that sell items both online and in stores, since Chase Offers apply to both types of shopping. Chase can also fine-tune offers to only find new customers or retarget existing customers based on where people use their Chase accounts to shop. Unlike individual retailers with media networks, Chase’s data includes shopping across multiple retailers.
Chase also works with other brands like DoorDash and Southwest Airlines to promote Chase Offers, which could open a new way to sell ads off of its own properties in the future, Muhlstock said. The key, he said, is keeping customers’ data secure.
“I can see a day where we will expand into other channels,” Muhlstock said. “There are ways that we can start to do that, and I think with our co-brand partners, it becomes a lot easier.”
