The $200 billion retail media boom is causing headaches for CMOs
The "everything is an ad network" marketing maxim becomes truer by the week. It's also making life more complicated for marketers.
The rapidly expanding retail media industry is creating challenges for marketing executives, according to a recent report. With over 200 retail and commerce media networks now in operation worldwide, marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to manage their budgets and measure performance across these diverse platforms. McDonald's is just one of the latest companies to join the fray, launching its own media network aimed at generating $1 billion in revenue by offering advertisers access to its extensive customer base.
Other retailers, such as Citi and DoorDash, have also entered the market, expanding the already crowded field. The ISBA and MediaSense recently audited five major UK retail media networks, uncovering significant discrepancies in metrics, including five different ways of defining an "attributed sale." This inconsistency makes it difficult for marketers to plan, compare performance, and scale their campaigns across multiple networks.
The pitch for retail media networks often highlights the potential for high-margin revenue, valuable first-party data, and closed-loop attribution. However, concerns about measurement consistency and the potential for ad overload for consumers have emerged. The industry is beginning to address these issues, with organizations like the IAB and IAB Europe developing standards and guidelines for retail media measurement.
However, 53% of ad buyers still cite a lack of standardization as a barrier to investment in this space.
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