The CFO Loves Those Retail Media #s. He'd Like to See Them Everywhere.
- Mike Shields
- Apr 28
- 2 min read
But should every media employ shopping data?
This post is part of a special three-part series on the state of the video advertising sector, produced in partnership with National CineMedia
The past few years in advertising have been marked by Retail Media Fever.
Now, the entire industry may be hit with a case of the Trump Tariff Flu.
So if you thought that this red-hot ad category was already of great interest - just wait. The worry now is whether brands, led by their ROI-hungry Chief Financial Officers, may go overboard with RM spending, even overdosing on RM data.
“It’s a huge moment in the industry right now,” said Ali Miller vp of product ads, Instacart. “There have already been so many changes in the world, particularly among CPG brands. That’s been a big sea change already. Now on top of this you’re talking about uncertainty.”
“Brands do turn to more measurable media [during downturns],” she added. “There are lots of unknowns right now, and real time insights are very valuable right now, as [CMOs] want to be responsive.”
Think about the past few years. Advertisers have fallen in love with - and poured budgets into - ads on retailers’ sites and apps which can connect ad exposures with sales better than anything else.
As a result:
Brands (and their C-Suite friends) want this kind of closed-loop attribution wherever they can find it
Retailers, who are enjoying their boom in ad sales, are looking to extend their capabilities beyond their own properties (so they don’t run out of ways to monetize such data)
Naturally we’ve seen nearly every form of digital media introduce ‘shoppable’ ads and or products
At the same time, we’re seeing retail media data being applied to all sorts of non-shoppable media, from linear TV to OOH - whether media companies think this is a good idea or not.
Now throw in a potential economic downturn - or at least an unpredictable consumer landscape - and we may already be seeing an overuse of RM data. While in recent years procurement officers had become convenient boogeymen, this year, it might be those bean counters from finance who want to make everything equally accountable.
“Attribution is the name of the game, no matter what platform,” said Manu Singh, chief data and innovation officer, National CineMedia. “CMOs are getting pressure from CFOs. That is that ecosystem we live in.”
Ok, so potential recession aside, every media dollar is under pressure. And RM data would seem to be a big help - assuming you can track how well each medium drives sales over time. That said, should you really use eCommerce shopping tools to measure ad campaigns that run all over the place, and have different goals to accomplish?
