NEW YORK – The term “retail media” generally describes online marketplaces like Amazon or store chains like Walmart that are selling advertising space on their websites. But retail media can encompass in-store marketing activities, the capturing of data about consumers and other industry verticals.
“When you think about retail media beyond retailers, and what’s out there in terms of … the true underpinning of what’s happening, which is broadening out the data monetization, and you think about what could happen for travel, hospitality, financial services, automobile manufacturers — the sky’s the limit,” Bruce Williams, executive vice president of performance marketing at Dentsu Media US, said in this interview with analyst Joanna O’Connell at Beet.TV’s Retail Media Leadership Dinner.
Advertisers are looking at the opportunities to reach and engage with consumers through these data-rich channels, giving agencies such as Dentsu an opportunity to provide expertise on retail media’s role within broader marketing plans.
“We like to think that we surround all of retail, and so we have the ability to do enablement from the retail side of the category as well as from the media side of the house, the ability to deliver on activation and do so at scale,” Williams said.
Opportunities for Smaller Retailers
Bigger retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Kroger are among the first companies to parlay their scale and data about the purchase histories of consumers into advertising. However, smaller retailers also can participate in the marketplace by working with a variety of platforms instead of developing in-house ad sales capabilities.
“The opportunity’s there for any retailer right now,” Williams said. “In a category where we’re all questioning how far can it go, I think it’s about: where do you focus on those lowest-hanging-fruit opportunities? And those exist for anybody, regardless of size.”
You’re watching “Retail Media: What’s Next?” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Albertsons Media Collective and Criteo. This video was produced at Beet.TV’s Retail Media Leadership Dinner in NYC. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
