Season 4, Episode 5: Understanding the retail media landscape (with Andrew Lipsman)
Oct 2, 2024
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Andrew Lipsman, a retail media expert and writer behind Media, Ads + Commerce, dives into the dynamic world of retail media. He discusses the explosive growth of retail media, questioning if budgets are new or redirected funds. The conversation highlights measurement challenges advertisers face with multiple networks and the potential for consolidation in the sector. Lipsman also explores the intersections of retail media and AI, noting how context and ad quality affect consumer attitudes toward ads in e-commerce.
The growth of retail media has transformed how brands engage consumers by leveraging first-party purchase data for targeted advertising.
Complex measurement challenges arise from advertisers using multiple retail media networks, necessitating standardization to assess campaign performance effectively.
Deep dives
Defining Retail Media Networks
Retail media refers to advertising that occurs on a retailer's owned platforms, originating from their websites and extending to physical stores. This form of advertising also includes utilizing retailer data to target ads across various environments, such as social media and display advertising. The growth of retail media has been driven by its integration into the entire media ecosystem, making it a key player in the advertising landscape. By leveraging their unique data, retailers can create highly targeted advertising opportunities, thus revolutionizing how brands engage with consumers.
The Rise of Retail Media as a Viable Advertising Channel
The retail media trend gained momentum when Amazon started displaying ads on its platform as early as 2012, but it didn't catch widespread attention until around 2018. By Q3 2020, Amazon’s ad revenues had become significant, prompting other retailers to develop their own advertising networks. The capability of retail media lies in harnessing first-party purchase data, allowing companies to target messages more effectively than traditional behavioral data, which may include irrelevant or misleading signals. In this way, retail media enables brands to directly connect with consumers who have demonstrated intent to purchase, thereby creating a more efficient advertising ecosystem.
Measurement Challenges in Retail Media
As brands increasingly utilize multiple retail media networks, navigating measurement complexities becomes crucial for campaign success. Efforts for standardizing measurement metrics across these platforms are necessary to help advertisers plan and compare performance, despite the inherent challenges of creating a unified framework. Moreover, retail media networks should recognize that their advertising efforts can influence sales outside their own platforms, thus highlighting the need for a comprehensive understanding of advertising impact. Enhanced third-party measurement systems can provide a holistic perspective, which is vital in managing this multifaceted advertising landscape.
Future Growth and Sustainability of Retail Media
The future of retail media is promising, as it is anticipated to significantly grow, capturing a larger share of the total advertising market. While some smaller retail media networks may struggle for viability, there is likely to be consolidation that will lead to stronger aggregators within specific categories. Retail media is projected to dominate not just as a standalone channel but as a foundational element that influences all media types, including display advertising and targeted TV. Overall, the retail media market is anticipated to reach $130 billion in the U.S. by 2028, indicating its increasingly integral role within the broader narrative of advertising.
Whether retail media budgets generally represent "new money" or are being redirected from elsewhere;
The sustainability of growth in the retail media market;
The measurement challenges that arise from advertisers' use of multiple retail media networks;
Any forthcoming consolidation in the retail media segment;
Which downstream categories (like eg., measurement) benefit from growth in the retail media space.
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
Moloco. Moloco empowers businesses of all sizes to grow through advanced machine-learning solutions that deliver digital growth and performance for customers.
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