Retail media is the way forward
A guest article by Corinna Hohenleitner, Vice President of the BVDW, and Irina Schmitz, Senior Program Manager at the BVDW.
Data-driven and measurable: the future of retail media
Retail media is a trend that’s here to stay in online marketing. The media category is rapidly evolving and caused a sensation last year, which was also experienced at DMEXCO. But what does it have in store for us?
Retail media promises a lot: namely the unique opportunity to present brands and products in a context that is as natural as possible and where they are extremely relevant, noticeable, accepted, and close to customers.
As a media category, retail media leverages a data-driven history to facilitate cross-funnel measurability of advertising impact – directly in the digital and physical ecosystem of retailers, both on- and off-site.
Retail media: an emerging field needs clear standards
The Retail Media Summer Festival held in Hamburg on June 12 by the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW) provided a brief outlook of the topics that will play a key role in the future of retail media – which are also set to be showcased at this year’s DMEXCO.
A total of 140 people attended the festival to discuss the latest developments. The popularity of the event demonstrated how relevant the topic is. Most of the attendees were retailers, closely followed by people from the agency world and adtech scene. Off-site publishers, network marketers, and brands were also present. The program was just as varied, with 17 speakers highlighting the broad range of topics that the BVDW is looking at in this segment.
The main advantage of bringing the entire ecosystem together in this way was that retail media could be discussed from different perspectives. For example, IAB Europe’s Chief Economist Daniel Knapp gave a talk about current trends in the retail media market, providing an interesting comparison with international markets.
One thing that attendees were on the same page about was that retail media needs a framework to be able to develop as an emerging media category. Only when we define what we’re actually talking about and establish standards and assessment criteria will we be able to create a common foundation and ensure transparency in this dynamic market.
BVDW presents comprehensive retail media landscape
Two groups at the BVDW have been working on this task for more than two years now. The Retail Media Circle (RMC) brings together international retail companies under one umbrella for the first time with the goal of establishing retail media as a permanent fixture in the media portfolio, while the Retail Media Ecosystem focus group is the network for cross-industry exchange between all market participants.
Both groups shared the latest results of their work for the association at the Retail Media Summer Festival. For example, the Retail Media Ecosystem focus group presented the first-ever retail media landscape, which offers a market overview of Germany’s entire retail media ecosystem. This maps and defines the various business models on the market, spanning retailers, network marketers, agencies, and adtech companies.
The RMC also presented its two new standards: the Retail Media Full Funnel KPI Matrix and Measurement Standards. Both products are intended to further professionalize the retail media segment by clearly defining its broad spectrum of products using transparent and binding criteria.
Retail media: future trends at DMEXCO 2024
Retail media is evolving at breakneck speed. To give the topic a suitable platform at DMEXCO 2024, the BVDW and Koelnmesse are co-hosting a Retail Media Summit, where we’ll be exploring aspects such as how we can increase the efficiency and transparency of the media category. We’ll also be giving a status update and considering possible ways forward together. In short, we’ll be discussing everything that companies need to know about retail media – because, going forward, there’ll be no way around it. At the BVDW, we’re helping to drive developments in this field. And we welcome anyone who wants to join us in shaping its future – whether at DMEXCO or beyond.
