Just in case you haven’t noticed, retail media is transforming the marketing and advertising landscapes in a not-so-subtle way. While started as a way for CPGs to ensure they had a prominent space in the aisle with a route to the customer for offers, retail media has now commanded its way into a fundamental part of how businesses interact with consumers and earned its place in brands’ campaign plans.
At its core? Data collaboration and programmatic ads. And the players? Not just grocery chains anymore — luxury brands, home improvement, and other industries you wouldn’t typically associate with commerce media are all jumping into the pool.
But why does this matter? Why should you care if you’re a brand, retailer, airline, or delivery service? And what’s the now and the next for retail media?
LiveRamp’s UK Managing Director, Hugh Stevens, was recently asked these questions. Let’s delve a little deeper into his thoughts.
Transforming the Place of Retail Media on the Media Plan
Retail Media, once the marketers’ realm for targeting and activation strategies to reach people in the ‘buy now’ mindset, has shifted into a data era with a quest for in-depth, actionable insights and measurable outcomes. Now that retail media has taken this data leap, it’s a treasure trove of insights into customer purchasing habits and brand preferences, actionable insights, and transparent full-funnel attribution to prove the efficacy of effective media strategies.
This emphasis on insights and measurement is now paramount in the retail media industry. Brands are now looking for information that quantifies their incremental return on investment, aiming for a deeper understanding of customer relationships beyond activation metrics. This shift, driven by a desire to be more customer-centric, is compelling brands, retailers and data collaboration partners to concentrate on building long-term strategies that optimise every aspect of the retail media ecosystem.
The Rise of Retail Data Networks Emerging into New Industries
Retail media is no longer confined to the grocery and beauty sectors. The rise of retail data networks will inevitably reshape multiple industries, expanding beyond traditional retail categories. Anywhere an organisation’s owned data could be seen as a mutual benefit to another party – such as new sectors like DIY, entertainment, travel, and luxury – brands are beginning to explore how they can leverage retail media to drive growth.
As organisations increasingly realise the value of their data, retail data networks will naturally emerge. By pooling their data, retailers can offer more personalised and impactful media solutions, benefiting from insights that drive both performance and customer loyalty. As this trend continues, we can expect to see retailers in various industries using data to unlock new opportunities, transforming how brands connect with their customers.
TV Collaboration: Expanding Retail Media’s Reach
Television remains one of the largest channels for media spend, commanding an expenditure of approximately 4.9 billion British pounds in 2023. With that in mind, it’s important for retailers to develop an increasingly collaborative relationship with the TV platforms. There’s a demand from brands for retail media networks to expand partnerships with TV platforms, and for retailers to explore ways in which they offer cohesive audience planning, buying, and measurement. Focusing on TV partnerships is vital to this strategy.
Addressable TV, in particular, holds exciting potential for retail media, particularly for CPG brands, where almost 60% of their ad spend is invested in TV (including connected TV). By combining TV’s reach with retailers’ rich data, advertisers can create highly relevant campaigns that enhance both brand awareness and performance. Drawing on LiveRamp’s partnership with Sky combined with retail media collaboration, CTV not only provides the ability to understand viewing habits for precise audience targeting, but to what extent TV media placements played a role in the customer buying journey and therefore, media campaign performance.
The Future of Programmatic Retail Media
The growth of programmatic advertising in retail media presents a significant opportunity for brands. As programmatic channels evolve, retailers are finding new ways to bring their data and audiences to market, leveraging the flexibility and precision that programmatic platforms offer.
The rise of shoppable media is a key driver of e-commerce growth. Programmatic approaches will become even more critical as digital media continues to transform, with more addressable approaches entering the game. While leveraging the ability to reach precision audiences at scale through programmatic on the open web, budgets will spread wider across more addressable media, driving both efficiency and effectiveness for advertisers.
Building Strategic Alliances for Growth
At the heart of this retail media transformation is the need for strategic alliances between retailers and brands. Both parties could see stronger incremental results by focusing beyond transactional, campaign-driven approaches and, instead, on long-term partnerships focused on optimising media across all channels—owned and paid.
Retailers and brands are increasingly combining their data to create mutually beneficial partnerships. By sharing insights and aligning on measurement, they can deliver better results for both parties. This collaborative approach also enables brands to better understand their audiences and how they deepen their strategic relationships with retailers, fostering a more personalised and cohesive customer experience and flowing retailer insights through their business decision-making.
The Evolving Future of Retail Media
Digital and data has been the catalyst for retail media expanding exponentially over the last few years. The shift from targeting to insights, the rise of retail data networks, TV collaboration, programmatic innovation, and the importance of strategic alliances, are reshaping the landscape. Brands that embrace these changes will be well-positioned to thrive in the future of retail media, while those who lag behind may struggle to keep up with an increasingly competitive and data-driven marketplace.
LiveRamp remains at the forefront of this transformation, helping retailers and brands navigate these new opportunities and build the partnerships needed to unlock sustainable growth through data collaboration. If you want to explore the LiveRamp Clean Room, you can now demo the platform.
Want to hear more of what Hugh has to say about the evolution of retail media? Watch the full video here.