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Over 80% of ad spending in the US for technology and electronics (87.1%), retail (82.9%), and consumer packaged goods (80.2%) is directed toward digital media, according to 蘑菇AV鈥檚 August 2024 forecast.

Albertsons adds non-endemic ads: Retail media expands its ambitions as the category matures.

As retail media evolves, ad placements off-site and in-store will help grocery advertisers reach shoppers in new and more engaging ways, but consumers may not be in a spending mood as credit card balances grow and savings accounts shrink. If Amazon can get grocery right, it may be able to fight off losing share to Walmart. But if the Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through, it could change everything.

鈥淥ver the last 12 months, we鈥檝e seen a flurry of [media advertising] activity from outside the retail sector,鈥� our analyst Sarah Marzano said on an episode of the 鈥淏ehind the Numbers: Reimagining 搁别迟补颈濒鈥� podcast. Although retail kicked off the commerce media trends, financial services, travel companies, and intermediaries such as Instacart and Uber Eats are monetizing their customer data and setting up ad networks. The rise of commerce media networks is changing the way advertisers approach targeting and how consumers interact with brands. Here are four predictions on these emerging trends.

US in-store retail media ad spend will total $370 million this year. But as the channel expands, oversaturating stores with ads can cause tension between retail media teams, which focus on maximizing ad dollars, and merchants, which focus on the store as a whole. Online advertising and in-store advertising are not two distinct channels, but instead work together.

By 2026, US spending on ecommerce channel ads鈥攁 large subset of retail media鈥攚ill be more than triple its 2020 level, per our forecast. Within the ecommerce channel, both search and display advertising are growing rapidly.

Physical stores are a massive untapped opportunity for advertisers, and as retail media evolves, more networks are beginning to explore in-store media formats. Here are three recent examples.

This year, we forecast that Walmart鈥檚 digital ad revenue growth will outpace Google, Meta, and even Amazon. This success is driven by updates made to Walmart鈥檚 retail media platform as well as partnerships to help advertisers activate across channels like social and connected TV. 鈥淵ou know [how they say] crawl, walk, run? We鈥檙e getting to that walk/run phase now where our platform is maturing,鈥� said Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president and general manager at Walmart Connect.

PubMatic's strategic alliance with Instacart boosts programmatic advertising: The initiative merges retail media data with advanced targeting for improved ad impact.

All eyes are on streaming. Last year, non-pay TV viewers surpassed traditional pay TV viewers in the US, per our forecast. Years of streaming platform proliferation are over, yielding to consolidation and fragmented ad measurement. Bundles between streaming platforms and partnerships with retail media platforms are forming, leaving media buyers with a headache over how to strategize.

Nearly six in 10 retail marketers worldwide say that performance-driven paid media is the most critical advertising capabilities and media investments, according to November 2023 data from TechValidate and Mediaocean.

The world鈥檚 biggest advertisers converged at Cannes Lions last week. At the festivities, marketers discussed everything from AI (it鈥檚 everywhere) to retail media (it鈥檚 growing). Other hot topics included the creator economy, which people are optimistic about, and data privacy, which has people more concerned. Here are some hot quotes overheard at Cannes.

Our newsletter team has already made a number of advertising and retail predictions, but now it鈥檚 time to combine the two. Retail media is still on the rise in the US (growing by a projected 28.6% this year), but competition is getting fierce. From commerce opportunities to consolidation, here鈥檚 what we expect to see from retail media in 2024.

Walmart鈥檚 fledgling retail media business made big gains in Q4: Ad spending on the platform rose 31% YoY thanks in part to the 补诲蝉鈥� growing effectiveness.

Best Buy, CNET partner for unique retail media offering: Advertisers will be able to purchase and measure ads across both sites, while CNET content will be featured across Best Buy鈥檚 stores, site, and app.

Turbulence in trade relations is changing how China鈥檚 ecommerce platforms do business in the US, with spillover effects on US retail and advertising.

Ahead of his keynote session at this year鈥檚 CommerceNext event on June 11-13, Lockton shared how Tractor Supply leverages its physical and digital channels to connect with the retailer鈥檚 varied audience and how its retail media enables advertisers to target a hard-to-reach rural audience via digital channels.

Amazon Prime Video will introduce ads to its streaming content starting on January 29. The move will leverage Amazon鈥檚 existing ad business and first-party retail media data to deliver ads on video content, something the company already does on Freevee and Fire TV. Here are five charts to prepare advertisers for this change.

Gaming offers a long runway of opportunity for advertisers. In 2025, US digital gamers will spend nearly as much time playing as social network users spend on social platforms each day (1 hour, 48 minutes versus 1 hour, 51 minutes, respectively). But at $8.76 billion, US gaming ad revenues will account for just a fraction of the $102.66 billion that social networks garner in ad spending.

While advertising areas like connected TV and retail media boast strong potential, other channels, like social media and linear TV, are losing some steam. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important to explore other ad channels. For example, digital out-of-home advertising has made technological and creative leaps in the past few years, while the women鈥檚 sports ad opportunity is expanding. Here are some areas within digital advertising where you may be missing out on unlocking potential.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the current state of the affiliate space, bringing new light to influencer activity through "performance branding," the impact of programmatic ads coming to movies theaters, and how retail media aids affiliate marketing. "In Other News," we talk about the impact of programmatic ads coming to the movies and what YouTube's next anti-ad blocking measure will be. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Max Willens and Alexandra Forsch, president of Awin Americas.

Walmart expands in-store retail media opportunities: The big-box retailer is giving advertisers more opportunities to reach physical shoppers with digital screens, audio ads, and sampling.

Retail media is one of the fastest growing ad channels we track, due in part to the allure of closed-loop attribution powered by retailers鈥� first-party consumer data. But advertisers are starting to curb their enthusiasm given measurement challenges stemming from the lack of methodological standards across platforms. As it stands, it鈥檚 nearly impossible for advertisers to compare platforms against each other, which can lead to misallocation of budgets.