Retail media hits maturation curve, eyeing brand budgets with full-funnel makeover

“We’re seeing more convergence between commerce, media, and technology with new partnerships and capabilities designed to bring better targeting, measurement, and shoppability to every channel,” Chance Chapman, evp of innovation, growth and retail media at VML, said in an email to Digiday.

Here’s a taste of that flurry of announcements:

• Walmart Connect and NBCUniversal expanded their partnership for better audience targeting and cross-platform attribution measurement to NBCUniversal’s live sports programming via Walmart’s shopper data–opening up the path to upper funnel media with transactional data.
• Amazon and Roku struck a deal to pool their addressable audiences via Amazon’s DSP. The move “outlines a new frontline in the battle for brand dollars centering on seamless audience access and measurement across platforms,” according to Janna Navarro, vp of brand and media strategy at Wpromote.
• DoorDash Ads acquired ad tech platform Symbiosys for $175 million, upping its offsite ad opportunities to better compete with already established programmatic players. 
• Instacart announced a partnership with Pinterest, making pins shoppable via Instacart.
• Grocers Kroger and Albertsons announced a new offering, connecting digital and in-store footprints.
• PayPal Ads launched shoppable ads for publisher sites, a new ad format for the ad network.

See?

The moves signal retail media networks, one of the industry’s fastest-growing segments, is trying to move beyond its label as a lower-funnel, conversion and click-based media channel. Instead, these platforms seem to be repositioning themselves as full-funnel media ecosystems differentiate from one another and attract ad dollars. It’s a more interesting proposition, according to media buyers and planners, especially as everything becomes shoppable, making it harder to track the consumer purchase path.

“These moves by big industry players also signal a shift in how brands are approaching media today — as a full-funnel system that connects product, placement and purchase,” said Howard Diamond, chief growth officer, Rise, Quad’s integrated media agency. 

Ad networks are seeing explosive growth, expected to take in $62.35 billion in U.S. ad spend this year. Of that spend, off-site retail media ad spend is growing faster than on-site, according to eMarketer. Let Amazon serve as a case study. The behemoth’s retail media ad revenue is forecasted to exceed $60 billion this year thanks to its full-funnel activations in streaming TV and its own DSP, according to global research outfit WARC.

As budgets for retail, commerce and other ad networks grow, so too do expectations as marketers press for attribution, more creative ad formats, transparency into campaign performance and more. 

If the platforms are feeling the pressure, it shows. To better compete for ad spend in a sea of seemingly countless retail, commerce and other media networks, key players are expanding their capabilities to ultimately make a play for diversified ad spend.

“Brands are looking for addressable, measurable environments that drive both sales and brand outcomes, and retail media is uniquely positioned to enable that,” VML’s Chapman said.