Retailers and brands have disconnect on value of media networks

A new survey reveals that retailers and brands have very different views on how retail media networks have been performing so far.

The survey of over 300 retail media decision-makers among brands and retailers from automated retail media platform provider Turbyne, “Retail Media Mirage: How the growing divide between retailers and brands threatens retail media’s potential,” reveals retailers’ perceptions of the value their retail media networks (RMNs) deliver and brands’ satisfaction with those same RMNs do not match.

Retail media networks provide retailers’ brand partners with direct promotional access to shopper. Typically, the networks deliver targeted ads to segmented consumers via channels such as in-store digital displays, as well as online advertisements and connected TV. 

For example, only 6% of larger brand respondents (annual revenue of $500 million-plus) would give their retail media experience an A, despite 65% of retail respondents stating they expected their clients would grade it an A.

One issue the survey uncovered is a complex RMN buying process for brands. Brand respondents, on average, worked with 25 media partners, 22 media agencies and 23 ad tech platforms over the previous three months. 

Forty percent of surveyed brands cited having to execute individual buys across each RMN as one of the top three barriers to increasing their retail media spend. 

In addition, 44% of brand respondents do not see it as worthwhile to work with any new RMNs in the next 24 months.

Both surveyed brands and retailers individually said that the key to growth was the ability to buy (or sell) and execute retail media across multiple channels/tactics in a single location. In particular, brand respondents said:

• They would invest more in retail media if in-store tactics were able to be combined with digital into a single retail media offering (70%).
• They would spend budget with midsize retailers if they had the ability to buy and execute across multiple channels/tactics in a single location. One-quarter (26%) would do so if the platform offered an automated buying process.

The results are based on a survey of over 300 retail media decision makers at U.S. brands and retailers and was conducted in partnership with BWG Strategy in July 2023. The participants consisted of 225 retailers and 87 brands.

[Read more: What retail media networks tell us about the future of the industry]