By Amy Rumpler, EVP of Integrated Client Solutions at Basis Technologies
Retail Media Networks (RMNs) continue to expand, with over 200+ existing, each operating differently with unique requirements, including additional education and specific assets. Meaning the options for advertisers are endless – and overwhelming. Much like its social media advertising predecessor, RMNs suffer from fragmentation. Consolidation is necessary to make dollars work more effectively in RMNs.
From our own experience and through exploration with our agency and brand partners, here’s our recommended approach to navigate these murky waters.
Evaluation and Selection
Fragmentation is not new to advertisers. We have plenty of it in display, search, social and CTV. The issue is that every retail partner has its own way of doing things. Each one has its own inventory, technology, minimums, creative requirements and the nuances associated with it. Advertisers are now faced with managing campaigns across a variety of platforms, causing challenges with efficiency, data siloing and performance tracking.
It’s easy to fall into the FOMO trap: wanting to allocate spend across all available networks, in fear of missing a touchpoint with a consumer and the hopes of casting the widest net. But marketers don’t need to be everywhere, all at once.
This already happens with social media. A number of social channels have cropped up over the past decade– even recently with BlueSky and Threads. While it’s exciting to be on the latest platforms, advertisers are cherry-picking a select handful that provide the biggest bang for their buck, instead of spreading the budget thin across all of them — or turning their budgets from platforms like TikTok, which is facing regulatory challenges. RMN advertising needs to fit one’s needs – not be a one-size-fits-all.
Double down on the select handful of partners that are going to provide the best resources, coverage, inventory, audience reach and overall, are the best fit across your customer base. The same lens we apply to digital can be applied here – you don’t need to be everywhere, just in the spaces that provide your brand the opportunity to shine, and the properties that are going to generate the most incremental sales.
Getting Physical… and Online
The opportunity to win dollars from brands consolidating is especially ripe for RMNs with both a physical presence and online platform. They offer an added layer of additional opportunities for advertisers with products in-store and online. Not only can advertisers take advantage of digital opportunities, but they can tap into experiential in-store opportunities, like sampling, couponing and in-screen advertising in different store departments. A brand can be there for the shopper, not only when somebody is searching online for products or similar items, but also when that same individual walks into the store. While they might not purchase that day, the shopper is still being exposed to the brand. The store, like that experience, motivates purchases in a robust way.
Furthermore, sales data that can be derived from these types of well-rounded programs, coupled with loyalty benefits or memberships. These facets allow for a more holistic brand experience, while taking advantage of the point of sale excitement that RMNs offer.
Take RE/MAX. Founded in 1973, the company had not served ads on its sites prior to a programmatic ad deal. Recently, the real estate firm built a media ad business, complete with programmatic deals and an in-house ad sales team, in an effort to capitalize on their data. It’s a win for RE/MAX, and a win for brands wanting to get in front of prospective buyers.
And while an advertiser can build out a robust marketing plan that takes advantage of online and off site opportunities with RMNs, this won’t be a fit for every brand. It depends on where products are sold, where customers are, and how they get compelled to buy.
Consolidation
Consolidating spend, or better management of spend, should be on every marketer’s mind. This can happen in multiple ways.
RMNs that are smaller or more niche have a harder time scaling – this may not be a sustainable business model and it’s tough to attract advertisers this way. Many of them will continue to join forces – in some ways this is already happening with RMNs using partners like Criteo to make their inventory accessible to a wider net of advertisers and tech partners.
Another step in consolidation is through programmatic, where many RMNs will enlist SSPs to generate ad demand for more of their standard inventory. And DSPs will be happy to hook in to get their clients access to not just the inventory, but the audience data as well. And even if this doesn’t initially happen in open bidding for every advertiser, RMNs can create private deals that are more easy to find and transact in DSPs — for select advertisers of course.
And one other way to consolidate is through internal systems and processes that automate how RMNs are found, evaluated, contacted and negotiated with. Media teams will need to build internal databases that outline the nuances of the different products offered by different RMNs, that track past results from other teams and other campaigns, and that measures the costs of past work (or costs put forth by the RMN). Just having a central system to manage all the information coming from RMNs and manage all the communication going out to them for RFPs would be a major step to streamlining and automating how marketers navigate this space.
This year and beyond, I expect that retail media will continue to ride its current wave, with the caveat that advertisers will allocate their spend more fluidly because they will have established processes and systems that allow them to evaluate RMN choices faster with more data. And then perhaps each of those 200+ vendors will have equal opportunity to secure ad spend from the media buyers that are trying to navigate the complexity in the space.
