Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders
Walmart, Albertsons execs discuss the promise of AI and opportunity for marketers to more fully embrace retail media at Possible
Digiday is at Possible giving you the latest industry news out of the event in Miami. More from the series →
Retail media networks and the powerhouse retailers behind them took the mic at the inaugural Possible conference and expo in Miami yesterday, extolling the value of RMNs. Notably, Kristi Argyilan, senior vp of retail media at Albertsons Media Collective and William White, CMO of Walmart, talked of the imapct of artificial intelligence — a strong theme throughout the conference — on RMNs, while offering guidance on how to convince skeptical marketers to get in on the action.
But RMN-related news broke beyond the walls of the Fontainebleau Hotel where the conference was being held. Disney today announced a deal with Kroger (with which Albertsons is hoping to merge next year) to bring that retailer’s shopper and purchase data insights to Disney streaming beginning with Hulu. The companies quietly launched a beta program to activate purchase insights in streaming, working with PepsiCo., which alpha tested the program.
Argyilan discussed the role AI can play in helping RMNs more effectively work. “Think of a lot of the tasks that humans still have to touch — simple things like optimizing campaigns — and how AI can accelerate that and get us to a place to do more optimizations in any given campaign,” Argyilan said.
White said his main message to marketers skeptical of RMNs is that “if your marketing remit is to drive growth for your business, then you’re probably going to want to play in the retail media space. The way that we’re able to reach customers who are in the moment of buying really helps drive brands forward. I’m not really sure what there is to be skeptical about.”
More in Media
An anatomy of the creator brand trip’s midlife crisis
The brand trip as we know it may be dead, but a newer, more genuine and engaging format is rising from its ashes.
European publishers are getting hit harder by AI bot scraping, report finds
European publishers face more AI bot scraping, fewer referrals and more ignored robots.txt rules than North American sites, report finds.
Walmart-backed gaming publication lays off editorial team
Brandy Berthelson — who had been Restart’s editor-in-chief — said on Bluesky last Friday that the “entire editorial team” at Restart was laid off.