By Joe Campbell, Senior Account Manager, Bluestripe Communications
Echoing through the Victorian railway arched halls of The Steel Yard, IAB UK’s Chief Marketing Officer, James Chandler, headed up an all-star cast of media leaders, including Uber Advertising, Tesco Media and Insight, Ocado Ads, ASOS, Nectar360 and SMG for IAB UK’s second Retail Media Upfronts.
As with 2023’s event, which highlighted the hype of advertising’s fastest-growing phenomenon, retail media has not lost any of its dazzle. As James outlined at the beginning, any sense that retail media can still be classified as ‘emerging’ has been blasted back by its stratospheric trajectory, with IAB UK debuting research that ad spend on retail media in the UK (excluding Amazon) is on track to surpass £1bn next year – By 2028 and including Amazon it is expected to hit £8bn.
But that growth has also been in lockstep with maturation. What took search arguably twenty years to perfect, retail media is doing in just a handful of years. Nevertheless, as outlined by those on stage, there are still frontiers to explore.
Indeed, common threads through the sessions looked at retail media’s strengthening partnership between creativity and data, greater accessibility and ease-of-use thanks to the assistance of machine learning and other self-serve tools, as well as better and better measurement.
Measurement was the subject of SMG’s session. In particular, retail media’s oversight and ability to allocate budgets strategically across physical and dynamic digital inventory – whether that be the humble a-frame and beer crate pallet to mobile and in-store display.
The sophisticated targeting at play here relies on rich consumer insight. Uber, Nectar, Tesco and Ocado, with their large swathes of consented first-party data, all highlighted how contextual, historical, behavioural and transactional datasets are creating these high-value customer personas that can be used to match brands with the best consumers.
With cutting-edge technology making this targeting possible, innovation was likewise at the heart of the discussion. With self-service features regarded as fundamental to the next stage of retail media’s development, improved reporting, better control and real-time optimisation options were key points of discussion. Ocado for example unveiled at the event its Audience+ product, which uses clean room technology for precise audience targeting and tracking. Likewise, Tesco showcased its Dunnhumby Sphere, that utilises machine learning to better predict audience behaviours.
Making use of this real-time data and deep insight to speak creatively to audiences was highlighted across sessions. ASOS provided examples of curated audiences and matching fashion items to specific personas for better customer experiences. And Uber outlined the importance of delivering timely and engaging campaigns during those magic moments, from traveling to a gig to last-minute additions for the Halloween party.
Indeed, this data-powered creativity seems to be retail media’s real strength. And if the technology and expertise powering it continue in the way they have been, retail media’s influence on the future direction of marketing will likely be seismic.
*Bluestripe Communications is owned by Bluestriipe Group, the publisher of NDA
