Over the last few weeks, we have taken a deep dive into the world of retail media. We’ve discussed the emergence of retail media ecosystems and the various shopper experiences they power. As we wrap up 2022, I sat down with a number of people at InfoSum to discuss the opportunities and challenges they see for retail media in 2022.
Opportunities #1: Retail Media Ecosystems
Greg Morton, VP of Sales North America, discussed the continued rise of retail media ecosystems and the limitless potential they offer both retailers and brand marketers.
“Retail Media Networks have brought impressive value to many larger retailers in 2020 and 2021. As we move into 2022, I expect to see these evolve into full-blown Retail Media Ecosystems that provide retailers, brand marketers, media owners, and data providers the opportunity to collaborate on truly innovative shopper experiences. For consumer brand marketers, this opens up an incredible opportunity to reach your customers not only while they shop, but also while they engage and interact with content across various media properties”
Challenge #1: Privacy
Uli Hegge, Head of Privacy and SVP of Central Europe, believes that privacy will become a key component in companies running successful and sustainable businesses in the future.
“The single most important challenge facing any company in 2022 will be building and maintaining trust with their customers. A key component of trust in a digital-first world is data privacy. Consumers have a heightened awareness of how their data is being collected and used by brands, media companies, and social media giants. The paradox, however, is that customers favor personalized experiences, especially as it relates to shopping. Therefore, companies will need to be empowered to collaborate with each other to deliver rich data-driven shopper experiences while prioritizing the privacy and security of their customers. I believe in 2022 we will see the adoption of technology that not only protects but enhances privacy become business-critical.”
Opportunities #2: Innovative marketing opportunities
With more data being created, and privacy-safe data collaboration unlocking access to more consumer insight than ever before Dennie-Alexander Trost, Sales Director, believes innovation is the biggest opportunity in 2022.
“Retail media carries the same risks as other forms of media advertising - that consumer attitude will change and they may tire of retail media ads. To avoid this pitfall, innovative approaches to advertising will be a necessity. Fortunately, retail media ecosystems enable brands, retailers, media owners, and others to access more insights into consumer behavior than ever before. This intelligence can be used to create new and exciting data-driven shopper and media experiences that would have been impossible only a year or two ago. Brand marketers and retailers alike will need to embrace these new innovations. From in-video shoppable ads, such as those run by ITV in 2021 to the emerging Metaverse, companies will need to reach consumers where they are - from watching TV and listening to music, to playing video games and living in a virtual world.”
Challenge #2: A new way of collaborating
Jess Bradley, Sales Director, believes that retailers and CPGs will need to embrace a new approach to collaborating with each other to deliver marketing that resonates in 2022.
“For retailers and brand marketers to unlock the full potential of retail media, they need to embrace a completely new way of collaborating. For CPGs, for example, by collaborating with retailers they are able to access rich first-party data sets that have historically been inaccessible, enabling them to better understand their customer base and deliver more personalized marketing. To embrace this new way of collaborating, not only will retailers and CPGs need to work together to set a standard and best practice of how these collaborations will work commercially, they will need to overcome data privacy, security, and trust challenges that have historically held back such data access - clearly, this is the role of a retail media ecosystem powered by privacy-enhancing technology such as InfoSum.”
Opportunities #3: Competitive collaboration
Marty Kahnle, Director Enterprise Sales, discussed the opportunity for Retail Media Ecosystems, built on technology that removes the need to share data, can solve commercial trust, and enable competitors to collaborate.
“InfoSum’s approach that removes the need to share data between companies solves the commercial trust barrier that often limits the ability for companies to collaborate. This is never truer than when you consider collaboration between competitors, for example, two or more retailers. The prospect of multiple retailers being part of the same retail media ecosystems is incredibly exciting to me. This would enable brand advertisers to reach their audience wherever they are, across multiple retail media platforms, and media owner properties. That is how Retail Media Ecosystems can deliver a media planning experience and audience reach as seamlessly as is enjoyed on platforms such as Facebook and Amazon.”
Challenge #3: Measurement
Kalpana Jayaram, Enterprise Sales, delved into what is often the final piece in any media campaign - measuring success.
“We’ve all heard the phrase ‘half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half’. For retail media to be successful, retailers and brands must collaborate to close the loop on measurement and accurately determine the effectiveness of individual advertising campaigns. Luckily, between the various parties involved in a retail media ecosystem, they have all bases covered - with outcome data coming from both the retailer and the brand (where the brand has an eCommerce offering), and exposure data from the retailer and media owners (where off-site activation has been used). However, the challenge for these companies will be bringing this data together in a way that protects both consumer privacy and the commercial value of that data. Luckily, retail media ecosystems powered by privacy-enhancing technology, such as InfoSum, enable all these data sources to be analyzed and marketing effectiveness measured, without requiring any data to be shared, centralized or commingled. ”
Download our retail media factsheet to discover how you can capitalize on these opportunities and overcome these challenges in 2022.
