The forthcoming (albeit delayed) disappearance of third-party cookies makes first-party consumer data and, in turn, retail media, more valuable and sought after than ever before.

“In almost every pitch we’re in, we’re asked about our capabilities and point of view on retail media,” says Bruce Neve, president of True Media Canada, adding that retail media isn’t just about having access to new ways to target and deploy digital campaigns, it also “gives us scalable first-party data.”

The closed-loop nature of yet another walled garden, this time built by retailers, is able to provide shopper insights along various stages of the consumer journey. What they’re willing to do with that data is also important, says Neve, especially when it comes to DSPs. For example, “Walmart Connect data being available through The Trade Desk could be very powerful for our CPG clients.”

Samantha Kelley, managing director at Touché Toronto who specializes in retail, echoes many of Neve’s comments. Not a week goes by, she says, where a client isn’t asking about retail media opportunities. Some are just looking for advice on which platform to initiate a partnership, while others are already invested and are looking to Touché for its POV on things like “Amazon’s ability to address upper-funnel activity versus just capturing demand.”

Here in Canada, retail media networks are still considered relatively unproven and are a couple of years behind the U.S. “We have some catching up to do,” Kelley says, “but that’s not a bad thing.” There’s already been an evolution of the U.S. retail media market, which she says the industry has been able to apply in Canada from day one.

Kelley says the goal of retail media 1.0 in the U.S. was all about getting access to customer data. In today’s world, that’s table stakes, she says. Retail media 2.0 “is not only about accessing deep consumer data and understanding purchase patterns, it’s also the seamless consumer experience from offline to in-store, and vice-versa.”

Retail media is now focused on capitalizing on loyalty, she says. It’s not just about following a consumer’s purchase pattern, but their recurring purchase patterns as well. “How do we make it easier for the consumer to go from an online impression to an in-store purchase,” Kelley asks. “[Retail media] adds a view to that last mile that has been a blind spot for so many.”

Sarah Thompson, chief strategy officer at Theo, agrees. “These types of platforms help brands work on areas that typically are void of information – the feedback from grocery and bricks and mortar retail – around who, what, when, where and how often?”

That said, agencies need to keep the right goals in mind and be careful not to see retail media as a shiny new toy, she adds, noting that the effectiveness of these platforms has yet to be proven. “It is hard to parse when you have a massive campaign in market, the attribution and effectiveness of these partners. The tests have to be acute to show the value – and those types of tests take time and energy to prove out.”

With online activity and ecommerce exploding over the last two years, the time is right for retail media players to find their footing. A recent report from Dentsu indicates digital spend in Canada was a significant contributor to the ad market recovery. Globally, digital will reportedly continue to grow, and is set to take 55.5% of ad spending by the end of the year.

When considering the allocation of budgets, Kelley grapples with the division of digital and marketing dollars. If you look at the ecommerce channel as an actual storefront, the concept of retail media changes, she explains.

Companies pay a lot of money to be in certain distribution channels and for certain shelf space in physical retail. When it comes to online, “the philosophical question becomes where should we be pulling dollars to pay for that? That ‘digital rent’ should not necessarily come from a marketing budget,” she says.

As far as where retail media is going, and where it still needs to grow, Richard Ivey, chief procurement officer at Media Experts says measurement is an area that retailers, agencies, and clients alike will have to re-evaluate.

“Every retail network basically has their own measurement,” he says. “They’re independent. There’s no third party or a COMMB or Nielsen or anything like that. If they’re going to keep growing, there’s going to have to be some measure of consistency around measurement.”

Retail media isn’t new, adds Ivey, pointing to things like Food & Drink in the LCBO. “You’re talking to their customers specifically, right? It’s always been around, but we’re just better at utilizing it now, and there’s much better technology to target and understand the customer.”

Devon MacDonald, president of Cairns Oneil, says that while retail media networks are a topic of discussion right now, the next logical step, and what’s more exciting, is where and how retailers can extend their networks into other connected opportunities, like CTV.

Walmart Connect is mentioned often, as well as Best Buy, one of the latest entrants to the retail media network party, but MacDonald calls out two Canadian players that have made significant strides in combining both purchase and consumer behaviour, “and that’s Loblaw Media Group and Canadian Tire.”

More specifically, he points to Loblaw’s consumer profile data developed through its CRM and loyalty program, PC Points. Similarly, Canadian Tire has its Triangle Rewards program, which spans Canadian Tire, Mark’s Work Warehouse, Sportchek, and Atmosphere, across both online and in-store.

Looking forward, MacDonald speculates that other industries and organizations, like Air Canada and WestJet, will create their own form of “retail media, combining owned and paid into a single offering, complemented by customer data. It is tremendously powerful and compelling to marketers who want to access consumers at the point of purchase.”

Ultimately, according to Theo’s Thompson, it’s the cross-channel integration and the overall journey of how we buy (and sell) goods and products “that is really quite amazing in this space,” noting that “quality advertising that serves brand and customer” continues to be the pursuit of all.

Photo by Fabio Bracht on Unsplash