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The number of retailers launching their own media, commerce, financial, travel (you get the point) networks continues to grow. At this point, more than 250 retail media networks exist globally, according to retail media intelligence platform Mimbi, and they’re all fighting for the same ad dollars.
To better compete, retail marketing networks have spent the past few months rebranding their names and logos, hosting events and retooling their offerings. At the same time, RMNs are moving beyond on-site search and display ad opportunities and opening up ad formats with creators and streaming services. All signs point to retail media networks wanting to be seen as all out media networks, according to the five RMN agency experts Digiday spoke with for this piece.
Last March, The Home Depot rebranded its retail media network Retail Media+ to Orange Apron Media at its inaugural infronts presentation (its response to upfront negotiations). Home Depot plans to host the second installment of its infronts presentation this year. Lowe’s made a similar move in August, rebranding from Lowe’s One Roof Media Network to Lowe’s Media Network and debuting a new logo with beefed up channels, like email and in-store audio.
Meanwhile, big box retailers like Walmart and Target are building out creator and influencer-led offerings, signaling the intent to do more brand awareness campaigns (and bring in national brand marketing budgets). At the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Chase and United were on the ground to shake hands and pitch advertisers on their new ad networks.
With more than $63 billion (eMarketer’s projected U.S. retail media ad spend this year) on the line, it all suggests not only a maturation in the RMN ecosystem, but a signal that first-party data and scale alone aren’t enough to attract ad dollars. Retailers know that to take in more, they’ll need to offer more than first-party data and scale, thus off-site opportunities, like streaming and creators, are increasingly showing up in their sales pitches, according to the experts.
Retailers are increasingly pitching around their niche offering, tech stacks or simply changing their name to “signal unique value to advertisers and makes it easier to tell a compelling story,” said Mary O’Brien, head of programmatic media at independent digital ad agency PMG, in an emailed statement.
“With the explosion of RMNs, retailers aren’t just competing on audience size anymore; they’re competing on the sophistication of their media offerings,” O’Brien said.
If the last two years of the retail media network boom was dedicated to announcing the advent of a retailer’s ad network, these past few months (and likely the remainder of this year) have been dedicated to rebrands and formalized plays for ad dollars at infronts.
Beyond new names and brand awareness plays, retailers are spending more time tightening up their pitches in measurement, off-site capabilities and partnerships. For example, Trade School ad agency offers RMNs insights on market research to help inform a rebrand strategy, according to Kim Mayo, executive director of retail media at Trade School. (Financial details of these offerings were not disclosed.)
Talking points inside meeting rooms, pitch sessions and joint business planning sessions between advertisers and their agency partners, and the retail media networks, have shifted from scale and first-party data to early access to new beta opportunities, like new ad units, and other perks to draw advertisers in.
But it’s not clear whether a rebrand will be enough to win over media buyers.
Digiday recently reported that media buyers and RMN agency experts were less keen on RMN name changes and logo updates and and more interested in measurement, especially incrementality to determine actual return on investment. The move could go the way of social or search, in which companies like Amazon and Meta have positioned themselves to become one-stop shops for advertisers, offering ads on-site and off-site, and measurement as well.
“We’ve seen this playbook with search. We’ve seen it with social. We’re writing it again for retail media,” said Trade School’s Mayo. “There’s a lot of credibility that needs to be built when new forms of media are being pioneered in our space.”
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