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10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
Cannes Confessional 1
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[00:00:00] Well, it's my first year at Cannes, but it's not my friend Lawrence. Lauren Leach is executive director at the Digital Shelf Institute, and she and my arch nemesis, Colin Lewis, were discussing how the brands and the CMOs. Tended to hang out in the palai section of the event with the can organized programming and the creative award showcases while the retail media networks and associated tech vendors and agencies mainly were cruising the cassette.
[00:00:35] And this is what Lauren and Colin remarked on.
[00:00:38] /
[00:00:38] Lauren: but that I think is a big change. That's a big change. And then not as many brands. No, that's true. Uh, I think all the brand stuff is in the palate itself, but you can see a lot of people purely in the PAL looking at the reward.
[00:00:51] Colin: So there's a kind of like a church and state separation. There's all the people from the vendors and retail media networks and the ad tech, and. You know, Google, Facebook, [00:01:00] everybody here, but then in the pal, it's where the creative and the agencies and the brands are.
[00:01:04] Lauren: But I think that's a problem, right?
[00:01:05] Shouldn't we all be together having a joint conversation rather than having the creatives in the PAL and then the retail media networks outside? It is a fair point, but you know, as a anybody who's read any of my content, well, you'll see that I go and say, where are the CMOs? And they're not down talking to us mere peasants in the retail media world.
[00:01:25] Kiri: Their observations perfectly capture the strange geography of influence here at Cannes, and it sets the stage for some other observations from my first day on the ground. Let's jump in.
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[00:01:41] Kiri: Observation number two, Amazon's moment in the creative spotlight. So Andy, Jassy was named C'S Media Person of the year yesterday. C'S rationale for this is that Amazon is the largest media platform [00:02:00] globally and is setting a new model for media. And to me it's the perfect vignette. Of where retail and commerce media sits in today's media.
[00:02:11] Zeitgeist, CS Media person of the year list is kind of a roll call of era defining platforms. Past recipients include the CEOs and founders of platforms like Google Matter, YouTube, and Twitter, and of course Cannes is a creativity festival. So honoring a retail driven platform speaks to how the creative conversation now includes things like closed loop sales signals, onsite sponsored products, and shoppable and shoppable and shoppable video.
[00:02:48] Observation number three, the non-retail commerce media invasion. With the love between Cannes and Amazon being so strong this year. I wasn't surprised to [00:03:00] see the enormous. And luxurious Amazon port and how prominent a position it had at the event. But I was surprised to see the extent to which non-retail commerce media is out in force.
[00:03:14] Marriott, chase, United Airlines and a couple others all have big activations here. Spruiking, their media chops. They are newcomers, but have also been named as a critical component.
[00:03:29] Of Commerce media's future diversification away from the humble sponsored product ad unit on a retail website as projected by E-marketer. Here's what e-marketer said a few months ago. Non-retail commerce media will grow at a faster rate. Compared to retail media enjoying a compound annual growth rate of 34% between 2025 and 28 and 2028, compared to just 16.2% [00:04:00] for traditional retail media.
[00:04:03] All we know for sure right now though, is that these new commerce media players certainly seem willing to drop a bundle at can this year, if only two will this future into existence.
[00:04:16]
[00:04:18] Kiri: Observation number four, the apocalypse in traditional publishing will come to commerce. Speaking of willing futures into existence, I caught Rachel Topograph, the founder of MikMak, uh, on the Cossette, and she had a particularly stark take on what's coming next. Let's listen to what she said.
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[00:05:51] Kiri: It's a sobering perspective that the current disruption hitting traditional publishing is just a preview of what could be ahead for commerce, [00:06:00] media,
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[00:06:03] Kiri: and final observation trade media is better than retail media. The future may be uncertain, but the present battle lines are clear. Yesterday Albertsons announced a new partnership with in-store retail media provider Strata Cash at the event, .
[00:06:20] But some of the most candid insights actually came from Jody Hallman, who is the Vice President of integrated marketing at Purdue, who didn't mince words about retail media's superiority. Let's listen to what she said.
[00:06:36] Jodie Hallman, Purdue: And so that's probably been one of the biggest things for us to start to navigate as well as, I would say, start to have hard conversations about trade, because retail media is much better and more effective than the traditional trade solutions.
[00:06:54] And so for us, that's probably one of the biggest areas, right? Is us navigating how do we shift the [00:07:00] mix and make sure that we're actually shifting into this space. And we know that it's more effective, but we also know that there is just this legacy of love for what's the deal.
[00:07:15] Kiri: Then Albertson's Senior Advertising and Retail Media Sales executive Ben Richardson offered a counterpoint about the benefits of tighter internal coordination.
[00:07:26] Ben Richardson, Albertson's: I don't want to be contrarian, but that we like to say that is one of, that was one of our strengths where, and I've, you know, I've been at Walmart, I've been at Amazon and I've seen in some cases there's a wall, or in some cases there's a starting to come together and everyone is trying that there version of it.
[00:07:43] But being smaller at Albertsons, I've already seen it and. Our leadership ladders up to the same place. So the merchant team and the retail media network, the e-commerce team, the pharmacy, it's all pointed to the same direction and answering. And so there's less siloing. [00:08:00] Uh, and so I'm optimistic that we're really getting in the same room.
[00:08:04] And yes, the media is a support function. So without setting bay products, moving off shelves or chicken being sold, we have no data to support our media machine. But we are working very, uh, aggressively towards a unified strategic, you know, our JVP is incorporating merchant side as well as the, uh, show them how it's done.
[00:08:27] Yeah. So you show me how and then we to you.
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[00:08:38] Kiri: And finally for something not can related In my piece for Forbes today, I unpack why 96% of media buyers say they'd shift budgets tomorrow if they could transact programmatically. Yet most retailers are integrating with only a couple of DSPs out of the myriad [00:09:00] that are available today in this article, I break down.
[00:09:04] So the DSP ecosystem and which DSPs are vying for a slice of retail media. Also, the practical factors that retailers use to pick who they're going to integrate with. Things like identity match rates, advertiser demand, brand safety controls, and the pros and cons of shortcuts like audience syndication. I will link up to the article in the show notes.
[00:09:36] I'll link up to the full article in the show notes. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll catch you tomorrow.