Retail Media is no longer the unruly toddler. But we spend so little time thinking about what Retail Media should be as a fully-formed adult with a driving license and an ability to buy booze. What might a well-adjusted adult version of Retail Media look like (if we, as its parents do our job properly)?

Article by Viv Craske , Partner at sister company Grace & Co & podcast host of Retail Media Therapy

Quick re-cap:

Retail Media is the reincarnation of Shopper Marketing. Shopper Marketing was invented in the late 1990s by Procter & Gamble as a strategic approach to influence purchasing behaviour at the point of sale by understanding their mindset and path to purchase.

I worked in a Shopper Agency 2013-2016, then managed a 'retail media' business in 2017-2019. We talked about cardboard POS in store, about online ads, and about translating above-the-line creative to a below-the-line proposition. At best it was about making sense of a messy shopper journey – omnichannel and spaghetti-like – and at worst it was printing a load of shelf barkers to tick the 'shopper marketing' box. What it was never about was any of the current obsessions of many in the retail media space: It was not about putting Sponsored Products at the centre of the universe. It was not about iROAS.

Retail Media is a different youngster to Shopper Marketing's snotty adolescent desperate for attention. Retail Media is the doted-upon nepo baby of our media culture. And, as always when we're raising kids, time flies by so bloody fast, that before you know it you hardly recognise the little rascal. So before Retail Media becomes bigger than TV, destroys the global media agencies and turns every retailer into a media powerhouse, perhaps it's time to ask:

"What do we – as responsible grown ups – want Retail Media to be when it's all grown up?"

Here's some thoughts to consider of how we might want to influence little Retail Media before our little child stops calling us "Mummy" or "Daddy" and starts calling us "bruh":

1. Building Brands We've got to stop thinking small and saying what retail media is good at is lower funnel and driving sales. Being close to the shopper means we understand them and how to influence them everywhere, because commerce is now everywhere. Saying that retail media is mostly Sponsored Products and driving sales is like telling our child that they can only work in a MacDonalds drive thru rather than also work on the McDonalds head office if they want. Retail Media and Shopper Marketing focus on the shopper rather than the consumer – we can target that shopper mindset anywhere…. and drive them to the point of conversion and beyond using that special relationship.
2. Creative Solutions Retail Media – in its obsession with online and data and measurement – has forgotten the power of creative. Let's bring that back. Let's find the space for both the Shopper campaign 'Share a Coke' and Cadbury's Gorilla. Let's find space on our owned channels for creative to sing, then extend the pretty pictures and charming words to the full funnel. During my time at a shopper agency, I realised that the account management team was often just as creative as the actual 'creatives' – let's also encourage taking a brief and finding novel solutions to brand activation and driving attention in the last mile.
3. Shopper Insights Let's put shopper insights centre stage in Retail Media's future. Insights are not data. They are hypotheses of shopper behaviour based on data. They bring shoppers to life and give us something to test: A/B tests; creative split-tests; funnel-shortening experiments all need insights and who better to provide this than retailers?
4. Data (When it makes sense) Not everything has to use data. Audience segments are amazing. But they don't need to be inserted into everything just because you can. A screen could change its creative because 6 out of 10 people that walk past it are women. Or you can show a creative to a mass audience in your store front and use the creative itself to resonate with shoppers. Much like a teenager with a new car, just because you can drive really fast, doesn't mean you have to. Data can supercharge ads, but they can also make them crash and burn from showing them to too few people.
5. Measuring what matters Many expect that retail media networks should be perfect at measurement (hilarious when TV ad measurement is based on a panel of 5,100 people in the UK; and radio ad measurement in the US uses 'Portable People Meters' and diaries!). The current obsession for iROAS is not healthy for anyone. Brands asking retail media networks for only new shoppers is like a teenager doomscrolling for new dopamine hits on TikTok when a David Attenborough documentary would be more satisfying. How about we take a leaf out of The Home Depot's Orange Apron Media and focus on Return on Marketing Objective, "a measurement framework designed to go beyond traditional ROAS by aligning with full-funnel marketing goals and long-term business impact". This retail media thing is a marathon and not a sprint.

Right now, our 5-year-old retail media child is still learning, so let's not box him into a corner. Let's not tell him he is made of data and must always be selling himself, when perhaps he has a creative heart, a data brain, an instinct for shopper needs and empathy for human connection.

And if you think I've stretched this 'growing up' anecdote too far…? You're right. Retail Media is not a kid. It's not even a real thing. It's just stuff that we do in our jobs. We get to guide and influence what retail media means to both the retail and media industries, so let's work with intention about the narratives we tell each other...

Now I've got to go and discuss with little Retail Media what their favourite dinosaur is…

We work really hard to build a network that helps both scale-up and corporate sides with this, and to preserve an approach that uses experience, honest perspectives and hands on practitioners to help both sides.

Creating and working with networks with real people is an essential when so much is being automated and driven by tech.