trade spending Archives | Tenser'sTirades

CALL IT UNIFIED SHOPPER ENGAGEMENT. Once-sharp dividing lines that have separated trade marketing from personalized offers from retail media are blurring, as trading partners pursue best total returns across the full marketing funnel.

At the recent Groceryshop event in Las Vegas, executives from Ahold Delhaize USA’s AD Retail Media, Kroger Precision Marketing, and Walgreens Advertising Group shared how their organizations are each taking a more connected approach with these core marketing processes, to cover more of the spectrum of shopper engagement. They have aligned organizational structures and platforms to make this possible.

“We brought the digital merchandising team inside the retail media practice,” said panelist Bobby Watts of Ahold Delhaize USA. “We call it our connected store initiative.”

Originallly published in CPGmatters.com, Nov. 2025. Reproduced here by permission.

Watts’ job title offers a clue to what’s happening. He is SVP, AD Retail Media, Digital Merchandising & Marketing.

He elaborated in an interview: “We believe that you need to bring these areas together and build a holistic omni-channel commercial plan. This includes brick-and-mortar display, brick-and-mortar promotions, and price.”

HOW ARE BRANDS MANAGING their retail media network spending?

Part one of this analysis addressed the conundrum CPG brands face in dealing with retail media networks. It summarized brand marketer spending trends documented by Cadent Consulting and described why brand teams are challenged when it comes to making sound empirical decisions about their retail media investments across their entire distribution networks.

Steps toward further clarity have been initiated by FMI – The Food Industry Association, which released new research, The Evolution of Retail Media: Decoding What Works — And What Doesn’t, in collaboration with NIQ and Think Blue on Jan. 31 at its FMI Midwinter Executive Conference.

The report forecasts CPG retail media network spending will reach $27 billion by 2026, with the grocery channel commanding $6.6 billion of that total.

Write the study authors, “As RMNs increasingly tap into brand media budgets, brands and retailers must adapt to this new paradigm. Aligning investment strategies, leveraging advanced data-driven personalization, and integrating RMNs into broader business planning will be vital to fully unlock the transformative potential of these networks.”

The report calls out several key challenges that trading partners face in this regard:

Unified Shopper Engagement is Coming. Are Brands Ready?

What’s ‘Fair and Proportional’ for a Retail Media Network?