The worlds of retail media and commerce media are evolving fast, but a shakeout is coming as companies decide which part of the landscape they want to own.
That is according to Brian Monahan, Global Client President and Head of Retail Media Solutions at agency holding group Dentsu.
“It’ll be interesting to see the shakeout of how commerce media fits in the overall media mix,” Monahan said in this video interview with Beet.TV contributor Rob Williams. “Retail media, where the publisher, if you will, is seeing the actual conversion event – it’s pretty clear it has a home with driving sales and bottom of the funnel.”
Defining the difference
In Monahan’s conception, there is a key difference between “retail media” and “commerce media”:
- Retail media is sold by a company which also sees the actual conversion event.
- Commerce media is sold based on a signal about users’ past shopping behavior.
For CPG brands, the emergence of retail media means the dynamic with retail has changed.
“The relationship between the brand and the retailer when it comes to advertising is very complicated,” Monahan said. “It’s not like a traditional advertiser to publisher relationship because the retailer is also their big customer.
“So you’ve got your customers on both sides, and it creates an interesting dynamic when it comes to negotiating large sum ad deals because in many ways the brand can’t walk away.”
Proliferation of providers
Even amid the growth of retail media, a host of companies are now launching commerce media offerings. Monahan thinks they may have a tougher time.
“Commerce networks really have to fight their way onto these media plans the same way any other publisher would,” he said.
“Now they’ve got an interesting story to tell about the signal they have and how they fit into the shoppers live, but they don’t have that inherent advantage of also being the advertiser’s customer.”
