Retail media often suffers from an objective vacuum. Many brands enter the space driven by fear of missing out rather than a strategic need. Objectives are vague, numerous, or misaligned—leaving teams without a clear direction.
Ask this first: What customer problem are you solving with your retail media investment?
Brands must avoid the “leaky bucket” approach where acquiring new customers masks the churn of existing ones. Effective retail media starts by understanding data-backed pain points. Whether it’s acquisition, retention, or product education (like Mutti’s award-winning campaign clarifying product use), the objective must be grounded in insight. If your team doesn’t have the data, ask your retail media partner—they likely do.
Break Down the Silos: Structure Drives Strategy
Retail media doesn’t live in one department. It cuts across shopper marketing, digital, ecommerce, and brand teams. Yet many FMCG companies still treat it like an orphaned budget line, with conflicting KPIs and turf wars over ownership.
Reality check: Customers don’t care which department runs the campaign.
Retail media should operate as a channel that spans the full funnel—from awareness to conversion. The best-performing campaigns are collaborative, cross-functional efforts that align around a singular customer outcome. Internally, this means breaking down silos and rethinking your structure to match the omnichannel nature of the customer journey.
Think Channel, Not Checklist
Too many campaigns treat retail media like a “tick-the-box” initiative. One front-of-store ad or a single bus stop placement isn’t a strategy. It’s performative.
Retail media needs the same strategic depth as any other media channel. Planning starts with objectives, followed by understanding the role of each platform, and culminating in cohesive, optimised execution.
What it looks like in practice:
- Defining the role of retail media within your broader digital media mix
- Mapping messaging to customer needs at each stage of the journey
- Integrating creative across screens, platforms, and shopper touchpoints
- Measuring and optimising continuously
This is not experimental anymore. Retail media is maturing. It demands discipline.
The Basics Are the Breakthrough
After five years at Cartology, it’s clear: retail media does work—but only when the fundamentals are done right.
- Set clear, insight-driven objectives
- Foster internal alignment and cross-functional collaboration
- Treat retail media as a strategic channel, not a tactical afterthought
When these foundations are in place, brands don’t just see incremental returns. They unlock real customer impact, powerful conversion, and brand growth at the intersection of data, creativity, and commerce.
Conclusion: Rethink Retail Media From the Ground Up
Retail media isn’t failing brands—brands are failing retail media. The problem isn’t the platform. It’s the planning, structure, and mindset that brands bring to it. To win in this space, companies must evolve their approach from transactional to transformational.By treating retail media as a strategic, integrated, customer-centric channel, brands will not only recover lost ground—they’ll build competitive advantage that scales.
