Forecast to be a $6 billion industry by 2025 and heralded as the third digital advertising revolution, retail media has emerged as one of the hottest opportunities of the year. In our inaugural InfoSummit event, we examined the meteoric rise of retail media, why every brand, retailer, media owner and agency must pay attention to it, and how it is converging with other media, such as connected TV.
At the end of February at ITV’s offices in London, we were joined by Harriet Perry, Chief Media and Partnerships Director at OMG UK, for a fireside chat, followed by a panel discussion with Jayesh Rajdev, Controller of Advanced Advertising at ITV, Oliver Shayer, Director of Omni Channel & Media Planning at Boots, Stacy Gratz, Regional Managing Director UK at dunnhumby, and Pete Robins, Special Projects at the7stars.
These industry experts discussed their retail media experiences to date, the opportunity that exists today and their predictions for the future.
The Retail Media Journey
Retail media has grown significantly over the last few years, and Harriet from OMD UK touched on the journey to date: “Retail Media and the retailers themselves have gone on this amazing journey in the last two or three years of employing onsite technology that has enabled brands and agencies to have hands-on control and insights into data, into onsite shopper strategies, and that's really fascinating.”
And she is right, it is fascinating, especially when we are looking at how retail media has converged with the rise of connected TV. Jayesh from ITV discussed this dynamic:
“The investments we’re making in technology, people, and partnerships are strengthening ITV's position. When looking at NPD, you can always tell you're in the right space by levels of customer interest. So far, we've had an amazing response to Matchmaker, our retail media solution in partnership with Tesco and Boots, from FMCG suppliers looking for accurate shopper targeting and measurement on ITVX.”
So how are brands viewing this opportunity? Pete from the7stars enlightened us on that:
“Everybody has a slightly different view of what the opportunity is and a different set of questions. A third of clients tend to be the more advanced, willing to try stuff, sort of - if you’re not testing you’re guessing.” Pete from the7stars discussed, adding “The best agencies help their clients spend their money better. Simple as that.”
The customer is at the heart of everything
Eventually, everything does and should come down to the consumers and delivering better data-driven customer experiences. Ollie from Boots touched on how we have evolved from that perspective:
“If you think about taking an example from the ecommerce experience you have, the convenience, speed, and ease. That’s where people are benchmarking. We’re not benchmarking against retailers, we’re benchmarking as the industry as to what they expect from us as consumer experience. […] I think the whole standards are raised, which is great because it pushes us to be even better at what we’re trying to do.”
It is so essential to focus on the customer, just as Stacy from dunnhumby said:
“It allows us to put the customer at the heart of everything we’re doing. It allows us to be able to make the right decisions in terms of serving up the right offers and just adding an actual value to their experience.”
All organizations are raising their standards around how they use data while protecting it and delivering a strong value exchange to their customers. As Ollie mentioned, “You have to be really careful how you use that data and that everything you’re providing actually has true value.”
Collaboration is key
Retail media is built on rich customer data, and as Harriet puts it: “Data is that single red thread that enables us to have more connected conversations, and that's really changing the way we work with our partners and clients.”
To unlock the full potential of retail media, it will take collaboration across the entire organization. Harriet made it clear that:
“Collaboration is key. Collaboration between retailers, between industry bodies, between buy sides and agencies. It's super important.”
A massive thank you to everyone who attended our first ever InfoSummit, and in particular our fantastic speakers who provided such powerful and tangible insight into the immediate opportunity of retail media.
We’ll be back with more InfoSummits in 2023, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn to be the first to know when an InfoSummit is coming to your city.
