HOW DO BRANDS UNDERSTAND retail media scale as they plan spending?
In previous articles in this series, we addressed the challenges CPG brands face in dealing with retail media networks. It summarized brand marketer spending trends and described why brand teams are challenged when it comes to making decisions about retail media investments across their entire distribution networks.
We discussed the struggle brands face as they endeavor to support their retail distribution networks with proportional retail media investments across all their distribution channels. With hundreds of small retailers seeking a fair share of the pie, CPGs simply don’t have the bandwidth for empirical decision-making.
Regional and independent retailers are not the only ones concerned about the concentration at the top of the Retail Media Network hierarchy.
CPGs are also wrestling with this, and the conversation is beginning to bring trading partners together in search of workable solutions which enable a fair share of retail media spending to find its way to numerous retailers who are not on the top-ten RMN list.
“The network is the piece that’s missing.”
– Adam Zimmerman, Ideal by Design House
At the handful of larger retailers where retail media is a must, joint business planning discussions have become more complicated, as CPGs work to establish new practices that incorporate traditional trade marketing along with the type of targeted messaging that retail media enables. Negotiations must now address how outcomes can be measured and what merchandising support will be required in the stores and fulfillment centers.
Needed: “Connective Tissue”
At February’s 2025 NGA Show in Las Vegas, two panel sessions were devoted to the existential challenge faced by independent grocers as they seek sufficient retail media scale (i.e., audience size) to be relevant to national brands. Wholesalers and retailer networks represented at the conference discussed their efforts to deliver targetable shopper audiences with sufficient scale and measurability to justify CPG investment.
