There’s a new beef in marketing, and this one hits close to home: can retail media actually build brands, or is it really just trade promotion with a fancy name and a dashboard? Mark Ritson kicked off the debate by arguing that retail media is fundamentally a bottom-of-funnel, defensive investment. Andrew Lipsman pushed back, making the case that retail media can do something brand marketers have wanted for decades: reach people who aren’t currently buying your brand.

In this episode, I dig into both sides of the argument, including the role of retailer data, off-site audiences, CTV, incrementality, ROAS and brand lift. I also look at some fresh Kantar data and ask a bigger question: are we actually debating what retail media is, or are we debating how marketers are choosing to spend their retail media budgets?

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[00:00] - The new marketing beef over whether retail media can actually build brands

[01:47] - Mark Ritson’s case against retail media as a brand-building channel

[02:28] - How retailer data can reach lapsed, competitive and completely new buyers

[05:45] - The surprising truth about where retail media budgets are really coming from

[06:20] - What Kantar’s 1,500+ campaign analysis says about retail media and brand lift

[07:30] - Why search and branded search dominate retail media spending, and why that matters

[08:09] - The measurement question: ROAS vs. holdout studies and incrementality

Links & Resources

• On August 27, Mark Ritson published a column in ADWEEK called "Don't Let Retail Media Tell You It's Brand Building."
• Andrew Lipsman answered in his own ADWEEK op-ed five days later: "Retail Media Can Build Brands—Including Ways Other Media Can't."
• Josh Clarkson, who runs global retail media at Mars, attacked Ritson's retail media definition on LinkedIn
• Brian Spencer, marketing director at Kroger Precision Marketing, explained on LinkedIn that brands use retail media audiences across CTV, audio and social, not just onsite on a retailer's website.
• Across 1,589 campaigns in their LIFT database, Kantar finds that retail media beats the average channel on unaided awareness (0.9 versus 0.6), online ad awareness (7.6 versus 6.5), brand favorability (3.9 versus 3.6) and purchase intent (3.8 versus 3.4)
• Read my related articles:
  • How retail media could become 'mid'
  • Brands Are From Mars, Retailers Are From Venus
  • The ‘How Brands Grow’ Dogma Wants To Have A Word With Retail Media
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop: latest episode
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Today, I’m digging into a question that has been coming up more and more as retail media expands into a broader commerce media ecosystem: does commerce media really need to be tied to the cart?

I’m narrating a guest contribution essay from Tom Limongello of The Middlemen Podcast that got me thinking differently about the distinction between retail media and commerce media. Specifically why SKUs and assortments are useful ways to understand retail media, but may not actually define it (and why the more important concept could be the shopper mission). Tom's essay also looks at travel media, where the network may own the audience and the moment of attention without owning the products ultimately purchased. And that raises some fascinating questions about measurement, attribution and who gets credit when multiple commerce media networks influence the same customer journey.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[01:45] - Questioning why the definition of commerce media is so focused on the cart

[02:15] - Why a retail media ad can influence an in-store purchase even when the exposure happens on social

[03:15] - Introducing “assortment” as a key piece of the retail media vocabulary

[04:30] - Why SKUs are useful for operating retail media, but don’t necessarily define it

[05:45] - How travel media demonstrates the value of shopper missions beyond a retailer’s own assortment

[08:45] - The measurement challenge when one network owns the media exposure but another business records the transaction

[09:45] - A broader definition of commerce media, and the questions this creates for travel, financial services and mobility

Links & Resources

• Today's post is a guest contribution from Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast. Read Tom Limongello's essay on Substack: Retail Media Isn’t a Cart. Commerce Media Can’t Mean Everything
• Subscribe to The Middlemen Podcast
• Subscribe to Tom's Substack Shopper Missions
• Follow Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, on LinkedIn
• Listen to Collin Colburn from the IAB on The Middlemen: What Does Commerce Media Look Like Beyond Amazon? – Collin Colburn, IAB
• Read my related articles:
  • Offsite vs onsite retail media
  • Did we overcook in-store retail media measurement?
  • The retailer magazine: commerce media's most defensible surface?
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

By now, you’ve probably read plenty of coverage about the FTC’s case against Amazon’s ad auction (last week I shared an article on The Drum). But the question I’m more interested in is the one that actually matters if you’re managing an advertising budget or running a retail media network: does any of this change where the money goes?

My prediction, sadly, is no. Though I’d be very happy to be proven wrong.

In this episode, I break down why cheaper clicks probably wouldn’t mean less money for Amazon, why advertiser outrage may not translate into budget shifts, and why this case gives other retail media networks a short window to make transparency and auction mechanics a competitive advantage. I also dig into some fascinating arguments from the LinkedIn comments, including whether Amazon’s auction practices may have distorted industry benchmarks far beyond the individual advertisers involved.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[00:55] - Why cheaper Amazon ad costs could actually lead advertisers to spend more

[01:46] - Why advertiser budgets are unlikely to leave Amazon anytime soon

[02:12] - The opportunity for other retail media networks to win on transparency and trust

[03:05] - The questions advertisers should be asking about auction mechanics, reserve prices, and pricing changes

[04:05] - Why the FTC’s Amazon case may be simpler to explain than the Google ad-tech case

[07:20] - How potentially inflated clearing prices could have contaminated retail media benchmarks and bidding tools

[09:35] - Why Amazon can disappoint advertisers morally and still be the best place to spend a performance dollar

Links & Resources

• My article on The Drum: The FTC says Amazon put a thumb on its ad auctions. What happens next?
• Read all the comments on my LinkedIn post
• Follow Bryan Gildenberg, Managing Director of Retail Cities North America, on LinkedIn
• Follow Katharine McKee, Fractional Head of Growth (CMO, CRO, CGO) of Morphology Consulting, on LinkedIn
• Follow Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, on LinkedIn
• Read my related articles:
  • Amazon Unboxed 2025: Key Announcements & Takeaways for Brand Advertisers
  • Real Time Bidding: Retail Media's Savior Or Saboteur?
  • Walmart’s Push For 25% Ad Spending Highlights Retail Media’s Trust Problem
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Retail media has a fragmentation problem. We have better dashboards, better reporting, and better measurement than we did a few years ago. But media buyers are still being asked to navigate an ever-growing number of retail media networks and walled gardens.

In this episode, I look at what’s happening in the UK, where two major retail media aggregation plays launched over the summer: RMX by Plan-Apps from SMG and the dunnhumby network alliance, involving Tesco, B&Q, John Lewis and Waitrose. I also share snippets of a conversation from the Retail Media Therapy podcast with Co-op Media Network’s Dean Harris about why these platforms are emerging now, and why the real driver may have less to do with retailers wanting to collaborate and more to do with what advertisers and agencies increasingly expect.

But there’s a bigger question underneath all of this: what is retail media aggregation actually for? Is the value simply having one place to buy across multiple networks, or is it about being able to reach a particular audience in one place? And if competing retailers put their audiences into the same marketplace, do we risk turning retail media audiences into commodities and pushing CPMs down, just as programmatic advertising did to publisher audiences? That tension could determine whether retail media aggregation becomes a genuine solution to fragmentation or creates an entirely new set of problems for retailers.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[00:00] - Why retail media federations have suddenly become a much bigger story in the UK

[01:35] - Dean Harris on the advertiser pressures driving retail media aggregation

[03:18] - Why media buyers increasingly want simplicity, not another retail media platform

[04:49] - The real value of aggregation: buying audiences across an entire retail sector

[07:17] - The programmatic lesson: could retail media aggregation drive CPMs down?

[08:19] - The strategic risks retailers need to consider before joining an aggregator

[10:04] - What the publishing industry's history can teach us about retail media consolidation

Links & Resources

• Listen to the full Dean Harris episode of Retail Media Therapy with Viv Craske and Colin Lewis.
• Subscribe to Retail Media Therapy
• Follow Dean Harris, Head of Co-op Media Network, on LinkedIn
• Read my related articles:
  • How Alliances Could Solve Retail Media's Fragmentation Problem
  • Meet The First Retail Media Federations & Consortiums
  • What It Actually Takes to Build a Retail Media Federation
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop: latest episode
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

After living outside Australia for around 15 years, I’m experiencing retail and shopping here with fresh eyes. And one thing that has really caught my attention is just how much retail media is showing up in the physical world.

In this first Trip Report, I’m taking you on a quick tour of six retail and commerce media activations I spotted around Perth. From Commonwealth Bank and Coles, to JB Hi-Fi, David Jones, Australia Post and digital out-of-home media in shopping centres. This isn’t about declaring one market “better” than another. Instead, I’m looking at what’s happening on the ground and using it as a source of inspiration for what’s possible in retail media around the world.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[02:22] - Why I’m starting these retail media trip reports, and why the goal is inspiration, not declaring one market better than another

[03:08] - Commonwealth Bank’s surprisingly expansive retail media network, spanning branches, ATMs, its app and its Brighter magazine

[05:14] - How Coles 360 is using in-store screens, loyalty data and programmatic capabilities to make physical retail media more measurable

[06:15] - JB Hi-Fi’s transition from screens used for product demos to a more sophisticated, programmatic retail media network

[09:06] - David Jones’ Amplify network and the use of AI cameras to track views and dwell time

[10:00] - Australia Post turns parcel pickup infrastructure into an advertising opportunity, including a clever Vinted integration

[12:00] - The scale of digital out-of-home media inside Australian shopping centres and how local screens connect to a national network

Links & Resources

• Retail media in Australia was worth just over $2 billion AUD in FY25
• oOh!media operates Australia's largest retail out-of-home network, reaching ~43% of all footfall in the country and covering venues that capture ~46c of every retail dollar spent in shopping centres.
• The outgoing Managing Director of Unified Retail Media at Epsilon, Adam Skinner, wrote a farewell post on LinkedIn last week, recounting the various eras he has lived through in his retail media career starting at the early days of CitrusAd.
• Read my related articles:
  • In-Store Retail Media Evolved Differently in Europe. Here's Why.
  • Did we overcook in-store retail media measurement?
  • The retailer magazine: commerce media's most defensible surface?
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Last Thursday, Ace Hardware took over Wrigley Field in Chicago for the first upfront from Redvest Media, its roughly year-old retail media network. I wasn’t there myself, so I called my friend Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, who was on the ground. I wanted to know what was happening beyond the press releases: who Ace put on stage, what the retailer was really trying to communicate, and what advertisers were saying afterwards.

We dig into what Ace’s executive lineup reveals about the growing integration of retail media with the broader business, why audience innovation and weather targeting matter to Ace’s advertisers, and how partnerships like DoorDash are helping the retailer reach new customers. We also talk about why retail media networks may need to think differently about upfronts, vendor days and industry events — and why creating an experience that makes advertisers want to believe in the retailer could be a powerful part of the pitch.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[01:29] - How Ace is integrating retail media with merchandising and the broader business

[03:21] - Why Redvest’s new brand and custom audience capabilities could enable better test-and-learn

[04:31] - The message behind Ace’s executive presence and its growth investment

[07:00] - Why advertiser trust is becoming critical for a newer retail media network

[09:21] - Why weather targeting suddenly matters to Ace’s advertisers

[12:00] - How DoorDash is helping Ace reach new customers, particularly Gen Z

[14:30] - Why Wrigley Field may be a smarter retail media pitch than another industry conference

Links & Resources

• Check out The Middlemen's interview with Ace Hardware's Molly Hjelm: When Campaign Results Aren't Enough — Molly Hjelm, RedVest Media
• Subscribe to The Middlemen
• Follow Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, on LinkedIn
• Follow Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President and Head of Retail Media at Ace Hardware, on LinkedIn
• Read my related articles:
  • Ace Hardware's RedVest Media: Notes From My Interview With Molly Hjelm
  • Is Retail Media Kidding Itself?
  • Bring the "Retail" back to Retail Media
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Are retail media networks trying too hard to become media companies? In this episode, I’m sharing a thought-provoking piece from Mike Shields of Next in Media that asks whether the industry’s push toward off-site, full-funnel media is actually the right strategy for most retailers. Plus the tension between putting the “retail” back into retail media and chasing bigger brand budgets through CTV, DSPs and the open web.

I also share some of my own thoughts on where retail media is heading, including the very different economics of on-site versus off-site advertising, why brands are demanding more measurement than the industry may be able to provide, and whether closed-loop attribution is sometimes creating more problems than it solves. If you’re thinking about the future of retail media networks, this is a debate worth paying attention to.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[00:43] - Why retail media’s off-platform push is really about accessing bigger brand budgets

[02:00] - The debate over whether retail media networks should become full-fledged media companies

[03:15] - Why “putting the retail back in retail media” is such a provocative idea

[04:20] - The case for making specialist retailer data actionable beyond the retailer’s own ecosystem

[06:24] - My thoughts on the different economics of on-site and off-site retail media

[08:06] - Why the industry’s obsession with measurement may be creating a prison of its own making

[09:18] - The attribution problem: when retail media sales add up to more than the brand’s actual P&L

Links & Resources

• Check out Mike Shields' original piece here
• Subscribe to Next in Media by Mike Shields, a newsletter and podcast covering the media and advertising business.
• Follow Mike Shields, founder of Next in Media, on LinkedIn
• The Trade Desk: The retail media guide for off-site growth
• Listen to Molly Hjelm, corporate Vice President and General Manager of RedVest Media at Ace Hardware, on this week’s episode of Next in Media.
• Read my related articles:
  • Whoever Owns the Budget Determines What Retail Media Is Allowed to Be
  • How Can RMNs Tap Upper-Funnel Brand Budgets
  • Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
  • Retail Media Buyers Say They Want Transparency, Then Ask for ROAS
  • 'Not 100% altruistic': ad measurement veteran on what retail media is really optimizing for
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Amazon already captures roughly 40% of every dollar spent online in the US, yet it continues to grow at an impressive pace. So I wanted to look at a question we don't hear nearly enough: where does Amazon spend its own advertising money? Because while Amazon gives brands advertising recommendations every day, I think its own media plan may be the more interesting lesson.

In this recap of my recent article for The Drum, I dug into three years of Sensor Tower data to see where Amazon is putting its advertising dollars, which channels are getting the biggest investment, and how its mix is changing. I also look at the shift from desktop display to video, why Amazon is willing to pay more for potentially fewer impressions, and what advertisers can learn from the company's approach to emerging channels.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[02:09] - Breaking down Amazon's $2.7 billion US advertising spend in 2025

[03:54] - Why Amazon's media plan looks surprisingly conventional

[07:23] - How Amazon can measure Meta impressions against actual Amazon purchases

[08:00] - What Amazon is actually advertising, from AWS and Prime to devices and the retail store

[09:10] - The striking gap between Amazon's rising ad spend and relatively flat impression growth

[10:20] - Why Amazon is shifting dramatically from desktop display into video

[12:15] - The three habits I see in Amazon's media buying strategy

Links & Resources

• Read my full article on The Drum: The best advertising advice Amazon gives isn't in a slide deck
• Check out Sensor Tower, who measure the full digital consumer journey, from mobile apps to web, ads, gaming, and beyond.
• Follow Ross Walker, Head of Retail Media @ Acadia, on LinkedIn
• Read my related articles:
  • Have Retailers Lost Discovery to AI for Good?
  • Some Retailers Want to Power Other Retailers' Ad Businesses. Will It work?
  • Amazon Q2 Earnings: What Industry Experts Say About Power Buying, Ad Overload, and AI Threats
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop: latest episode
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn