Retail media networks (RMNs) are a fast-growing house in promoting — up 16.3% final yr. Retailers are including channels and offering higher measurement and execution for advertisers. And companies are answering their purchasers’ calls to incorporate RMNs within the combine.
Whereas manufacturers are growing their spend, there are nonetheless rising pains across the lack of standardization. With out the flexibility to match apples to apples from one RMN to a different, manufacturers and companies are left with extra number-crunching and guessing. Nevertheless, the chance to succeed in high-intent clients inside a retailer’s community is simply too highly effective to move up.
So what’s the present state of the RMN-advertiser relationship? That was the main target of an IAB roundtable this week that includes company and RMN representatives.
IAB launched media measurement tips in September 2023 so RMNs and adtech companions might start to assist manufacturers and companies join the dots. If it’s simpler for advertisers to execute and measure campaigns throughout a number of RMNs, they’ll improve their general spend, the speculation goes.
“We were very cognizant that adoption [of measurement guidelines] would take 12 to 24 months,” stated Jeffrey Bustos, VP, measurement addressability information at IAB. “I think from all the conversations with retailers, the momentum and their investment in moving toward standardization is still very strong.”
Whereas standardization stays a objective quite than a actuality, the growing alternatives inside particular person RMNs as they develop offsite and in-store choices make them one thing advertisers should contemplate.
“When you look at retail and consumer spending, a lot of that still happens in a store format,” stated Praveen Menon, head of analytics and enterprise intelligence for CVS Media Change (CMX). “Someone like CVS, who has 9,000 stores, [attracts shoppers] coming into these stores with a lot of attention and urgency, with a clear consumer need they’re looking to fulfill.”
CVS Media Change can measure the connection between when loyalty members search within the CVS app or on-line and once they buy in-store by the loyalty program.
“Over 50% of our loyalty members, when they browse something online, they come to our store within 48 hours,” stated Menon. “For us, the in-store experience is a key unlock.”
CVS plans to construct higher procuring and advert experiences by in-store screens and different touchpoints. The retailer has 1,700 screens in its shops and plans so as to add extra this yr.
Dig deeper: Why we care about RMNs
Knowledge collaboration for offsite measurement wants
At some degree, all RMNs serve the perform of a knowledge collaboration. The retailer makes use of buyer information in a privacy-safe approach to assist exterior events serve well timed, related messages. This collaborative atmosphere extends to offsite channels past an RMN’s owned digital and in-store properties.
As an illustration, CVS partnered with visible discovery platform Pinterest and adtech firm LiveRamp on a clear room initiative that helps CVS measure the effectiveness of offsite advertisements on Pinterest that result in CVS purchases by loyalty members.
“What data clean rooms allows us to do is to provide advertisers and agencies with precise, attributed and meaningful performance insights for campaigns they run with CMX, especially on offsite channels where we have limited ad exposure data,” stated Menon. “This really allows us to report back about performance with a high degree of accuracy.”
He added: “On some other platforms, where they don’t share some of those ad exposures or don’t collaborate via clean rooms, measurement is more of a black-box solution. So for us, as we think about our innovative offerings, we want every channel that brands invest in through CMX to be measurable.”
Advertisers and companies push for requirements
This collaborative atmosphere may sooner or later result in a number of RMNs adopting the identical measurement requirements. That’s not less than the intention with the IAB tips. Businesses are seeing nice RMN curiosity from purchasers. Businesses and types have affect, by the price range they spend, to assist RMNs which can be standardized.
“We have to put our money where our solutions are,” stated Evan Hovorka, VP of product innovation, Albertsons Media Collective. “That might require some brands forcing the next dollar to go to an RMN that supports some of these adopted standards.”
“What’s really interesting is that our [clients] are so excited to adapt and test and learn, because they’ve seen the success of retail media,” stated Kavita Cariapa, SVP, head of commerce activation at dentsu. “And luckily there’s actually a good framework being built out with partners like CVS and Albertson’s. There’s a groundwork built on tech partnerships, collaboration.”
“Outside of its adoption rates, there are a couple of [IAB member RMNs] that have done fantastic jobs,” stated Riyaad Edoo, govt director of commerce at EssenceMediacom. “Accountability is really what holds progress back. If my investment (on behalf of a brand client) isn’t going to directly reflect what my asks are, then those asks are empty. But that might not be the right conversation. In most instances, we can survive on some amount of measurement inconsistency and not be happy about it. We do have advanced data analytics teams working tirelessly to sort of weather these anomalies.”
“One of our biggest wins that we present to our brands is, baseline, how to inform a channel investment,” stated Cariapa. “There’s at all times questions on how and when and the place to speculate. How do they spend money on a retailer as they develop their alternatives?
Dentsu experiences how purchasers are rising market share with campaigns and the way particular channels carry out, so manufacturers aren’t simply monitoring impressions however outcomes, Cariapa stated.
Lower than midway by IAB’s two-year estimated timeframe for guideline adoption, it appears to be like like higher RMN measurement is probably going, as advertisers and companies proceed to speculate on this rising ecosystem.
