Retail Media Networks & Retail Media (not the same thing)
- Scott Davis
- Jan 9, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 10, 2025
So, a little bit of everything today from a news source perspective. Funny story - I searched for "Retail Media" on Spotify and landed two podcasts - one that discusses Retail Media Networks and the other that discusses Retail Media. Then after listening to both, I realized, not the same thing.
You can check out the growing list/menu of sources here as a one-stop shop for industry sources (if you're like me and have a thousand bookmarks all over the place):
#1 Source:
Podcast, "Retail Media Breakfast Club" by Kiri Masters, Episode: "What does it take to lead an RMN?" (This podcasts meets everyday @6am EST)
Summary:
Kiri goes over leadership in Retail Media and name drops:
Cara Pratt, SVP Kroger Precision Marketing
Brandi (Ferguson) Pitts, SVP Brand Marketing and Media at Ulta Beauty
Paul Kotas, SVP Amazon Ads
Mentions the fact that out of 24 retailers, 33% RMNs are led by women.
Career backgrounds and skills for people who became heads of RMNs:
Cross-functional Leadership - over 60% of RMNs hold titles lilke GM or VP (need to know how to manage a P&L, almost as if the RMN is it's own profitable business) Strategy and Operational expertise are a must.
Traditional Digital Marketing & Advertising - ability to understand your customers and partners
Digital Transformation - 35-40% of RMN leaders have built or led digital/eCommerce businesses in their past.
Data Driven Leadership - 25-30% of RMN leaders emphasized data and analytics in their backgrouns (attribution, performance metrics, ROI)
#2 Source:
Summary:
Daniel tells his story of how he got into retail media and name drops:
Daniel cut his teeth in retail media at Staples and then at Sephora. In his own words, retail media for him is an ad on Netflix, an influencer showing a product on TikTok, searching for a product on a retailer site... it's "the hottest thing in media and marketing". It's changing search, social, and tv. It's the process by which brands are developing closer relationships with customers and it's the best form of marketing on the planet.
Great examples of campaigns - just getting started, anyone can do a retail media campaign. Answer two things - what's the product you want to promote and what's the audience you want to reach? Amazon is biggest retail media network with 70% of all RM spend. Amazon realized they didn't need to make money off of product margin (buy wholesale and markup retail) but instead get brands to invest in promoting their items on the site and take a cut from the promotion spend.
What the retailer has that's so valuable to the marketer, is the audience. The first-party data.
Retailers know the customer search history, purchase history, LTV is...
Two big buckets for retail media - onsite properties and offsite properties.
A lot of retailers will make their audiences reachable via a DSP like The Trade Desk (see here for all major DSPs) or self-service platforms they own.
Retail Media is full funnel... originally just showed sponsored items or banners but now have display banners offsite on social, ctv, audio, influencers.
Sephora's crown jewel is their loyalty data.
Buzz words:
Non-endemic Retail Media - products the retailer doesn't sell
Endemic - products the retailer does sell
Listen to the full episode for remaining insights
#3 Source:
Summary:
Retail Media involves brands showing ads across a retailer or ecommerce property such as a website, mobile app, marketplace, CTV (connected tv), audio services, DOOH (digital out-of-home), and email list. It's similar to traditional display and search but focuses on retail and ecommerce products/services.
Retail Media vs Commerce Media vs eCommerce:
Retail Media - involves a brand displaying ads for products or services on a retailer's property to influence the customer at the point of purchase (mid-to-low funnel)
Commerce Media - an extension of retail media allowing retailers and brand partners to reach audiences across other properties using the brand's and retailer's first-party data, to communicate with the target audience across the entire purchase path showing relevant and personalized ads
Ecommerce - places where customers conduct online transactions
Buzz Words: First-party data, data clean room, closed-loop measurement
#4 Source:
Summary:
First, I have to say, I love Nikki's blunt, no fluff, style. Very crisp! Essentially, Media Networks leverage their first party data of customers' past purchases which is valuable in a cookie-less world. They use this to sell advertisement to their own partners and suppliers/sellers. This data is also valuable because the customers' intent is already known - they are on the digital property because they want to shop. Nikki identifies the spenders for RMNs to be CPGs (Consumer Packaged Good companies). Nikki shares the PPT deck from Wakefield Research, "Specificity & Scale: The Future of RMNs Means Providing Both". Ad spend on RMNs is growing a lot due to this valuable data. However, there's a caveat here - a sort of shell game...
While spend is growing, the source of spend isn't necessarily growing but rather shifting. CPGs are dipping into their existing trade funds (the deals, placement fees, and other incentives used between CPGs and retailers).
Nikki also covers: challenges by traditional retailers, Amazon, the upper limit of ad inventory and advertisers, the upper limit of consumer receptivity, the marketing funnel itself... I suggest you set aside the time to read this full article. Very Good Read!! Grok Summary Here.
#5 Source:
I put in the prompt for "Latest Trends in Retail Media Networks" and got this Storm Compiled Article downloadable below:
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