Testing a New Retail Media Network: How to Know You’re Ready with Julie Spear and Ross Walker - Episode 327

In today’s episode, Kiri Masters is joined by Julie Spear, the Head of Retail Services at Acadia, and Ross Walker, Senior Paid Media Manager.

Today, they are diving deep into the world of retail media networks. They’re tackling the big questions about brand expansion into new retail media networks, the challenges involved, and the strategies for success. Stay tuned as they unpack the complexities of navigating this dynamic landscape and provide actionable insights that can transform the way you allocate your advertising budget and optimize your presence across different platforms.

In this episode Kiri, Julie and Ross discuss:

- Challenges brands face when expanding into new retail media networks.

- Navigating budget allocation and overcoming organizational silos.

- Addressing concerns such as incrementality, cannibalization, and bandwidth constraints.

- Julie Spear's queries about markers for readiness and performance metrics.

- Ross Walker's insights on the importance of a clear business trend view post-ad investment.

- The strategic approach for managing retail media to ensure advertising efficiency.

- Analyzing brand investment impact across various sales channels.

- Understanding channel offerings and customer buying habits as they affect product performance.

- Testing strategies across multiple retail networks to discern customer engagement and response.

- Approaches for measuring the success of a channel in terms of incremental sales and CPA.

- Importance and challenges of obtaining third-party data and search volume trends.

- Potential of specific platforms like Kroger and the pitfalls of managed service options.

- Exploring the effectiveness of retail media channels by looking beyond their own reporting.

- Setting clear goals and a timeframe when testing retail media network campaigns.

- Measuring incrementality and the reality of limited customer data access.

- The impact of privacy policies on the ability to prove incremental new customer acquisition.

- The overarching goal of meeting and improving the customer experience on various platforms.