How Retail Media Networks Can Maximize Advertising Potential

In today’s ever-evolving media landscape, brands are looking for innovative and effective ways to reach their target audiences. As consumer behavior and preferences continue to change, it is critical for marketers to take a data-driven approach to omnichannel marketing. To compete in this dynamic and competitive market, the rise of Retail Media Networks has become a game-changer for brands and retailers alike.  

The numbers do not lie – advertiser spending on off-site retail media is projected to grow from 10.3% in 2021 to 17% in 2025. Overall ad spending on off-site retail media is predicted to reach $11 billion in 2024, with retail media CTV ad spend accounting for $1.5 billion, according to Statista. 

Based on current trends, e-Marketer expects that marketers will have poured more than $45 billion into retail media advertising by the end of 2023.  

As we dive into the world of retail media, we will explore the benefits of this impactful tactic, opportunities for advanced targeting and measurement, as well as how marketers can extend the reach of their retail media campaigns.  

The Benefits of Retail Media 

Retail media refers to advertisements placed at or near the point of sale – whether it’s in a physical retail store or an e-commerce website. Retail Media Networks (RMNs) sit on the sell side, offering marketers several advertising solutions: in-store (aisle end caps and digital signage), on-site (display, online video, and sponsored reviews), and off-site (display, social, and CTV). Big box retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Home Depot have leaned into retail media with robust networks of brick-and-mortar and digital products.  

Brands have quickly realized the value of retail media and are moving budgets toward the retailers where they sell their products.  

Interested in learning more about retail marketing? Learn how a CPG brand found success with in-store and CTV advertising. 

At a recent event hosted by Insider, Glen Conybeare, Global President, Reprise Commerce & Retail Media at IPG Mediabrands shared, “As marketers, we — agencies and brands alike — have become hooked on accountability, on targeting, and that’s going away on the open internet in a lot of cases. But within retail media, you can really pinpoint an audience quite accurately and marketers love that.” 

However, we believe that RMNs and marketers have only just begun to scratch the surface of the full potential of retail media. At present, off-site tends to be the last piece of an RMN tech stack, and many have yet to include it in their offering.  

The Challenge 

As the effectiveness of social media and search declines, and the depreciation of third-party cookies looms, marketers need to future-proof their retail advertising. As the value of retail media increases, marketers need to find ways to use this channel and extend reach through other growing channels, such as CTV and online video (OLV).  

Simultaneously, RMNs are racing to keep up with market trends, and often lack CTV capabilities, identity solutions, or both. Without access to CTV inventory or tools for targeting and activation, RMNs are limited to in-store and on-site placements. To maximize revenue, RMNs must develop partnerships that will provide them with CTV reach extension, first-party data onboarding, and closed-loop measurement. 

How Cadent Aperture Platform Can Support the Retail Media Ecosystem 

For RMNs that need an easier way to onboard brand customers’ first-party data to build privacy-safe custom audiences, or expand off-site capabilities to CTV, Cadent offers multiple solutions to target, activate, and measure retail campaigns – down to the local level.  

Aperture, our converged TV platform, simplifies cross-screen advertising through a streamlined workflow that brings together identity, data, and inventory with hundreds of integrated partners. 

With Aperture Platform, RMNs can build audiences through first-party data and custom audience segments, enhance them with third-party data to target viewers with the right advertisement, and then activate audiences across national and hyper-local CTV, digital, and display. Through Aperture’s customized supply scale, RMNs can optimize campaigns as they gain more insights into strategic audience viewership trends.  

Aperture Viewer Graph, Cadent’s proprietary and privacy-compliant identity graph, maps customer data to 4 billion match keys across zip codes, emails, IP addresses, and more than 100MM+ households – all without the use of cookies. Aperture also enables RMNs to define their own geo radius for targeting.  

Cadent provides multi-faceted RMN solutions across data onboarding, audience building with third-party data partners, and campaign activation, allowing partners to expand their RMN off-site offerings to reach audiences in a meaningful way—wherever, whenever, and how ever they’re watching – helping to build deeper customer relationships and drive action. 

Ready to discuss how Cadent Aperture Platform can support your retail media needs?  

Get in touch with the Cadent sales team to get started today.