蘑菇AV

Latin America鈥檚 commerce media ecosystem is rapidly evolving. Financial, travel, and other nonretail players are now looking to monetize their own first-party data鈥攆ollowing the path retailers have already paved.

Walmart and Target reported their Q3 earnings last week. Despite varying retail success, both reported strong growth in their retail media networks鈥擶almart Connect鈥檚 US business grew 26% while Roundel鈥檚 growth was in the mid-teens, per CEO Brian Cornell.

At Cannes Lions 2025, commerce media partnerships once again reigned supreme. Once the domain of digital shelf tactics and retail data, commerce media is now reshaping how brands show up across social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and in-store displays. This year鈥檚 festival offered a glimpse into a more integrated, AI-driven future鈥攐ne where conversational ads, programmatic pipes, and real-world touchpoints blur the lines between media and purchase.

Retail media has swallowed up the shopper and trade marketing budgets of CPG brands. Incrementality is the top KPI for RMN advertisers, but it鈥檚 not the only one.

Many retailers in Latin America like Mercado Libre, Rappi, and even Walmart function not only as commerce players, but as financial institutions as well. As a result, commerce media in Latin America is charting a different course than it has in the US, one that could result in unique opportunities for companies with access not only to shopper habits, but to financial data as well.

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Commerce media is evolving beyond online retail into new frontiers like out-of-home (OOH) ads at gas stations and convenience stores, creating 鈥渁 once in a career window to reorient your business to the opportunity,鈥� according to Sean McCaffrey president and CEO of GSTV, which serves commerce media ads at gas pumps.

Multi-industry players have the power to redefine the future of commerce media advertising. Unlike in the US, where retailers and FIs typically operate independently, many Latin American retailers act as financial services providers鈥攐ffering credit lines, digital wallets, and other banking products to unbanked and underbanked consumers.

US ad spend on financial media networks (FMNs) will more than double in 2025 and again in 2026. But with just $710 million projected in US ad spend in 2025, per June 2024 蘑菇AV forecast, FMN ad spend will be 18 times smaller than retail media network (RMN) ad spend.

Instacart, CVS, 7-Eleven see opportunity in in-store retail media: All three expanded ad capabilities in response to surging advertiser demand.

Marketers are interested in exploring upper-funnel tactics while continuing to invest in lower-funnel strategies, requiring retail media networks (RMNs) to provide a combination of ad formats for a full-funnel effect. In addition, marketers want access to high-quality data for better targeting and personalization, and look to RMNs for enhanced measurement and optimization techniques.

Western Union has become the latest financial company to launch a media network, joining the likes of Chase and PayPal. 鈥淭he biggest advantage [financial media networks] have is just breadth. So, unlike a retail media network, they capture the entire spending history that a customer has,鈥� said our analyst Maria Elm on an episode of our Behind the Numbers podcast.

Retail media will make huge gains this year in Canada. Our first-ever forecast for retail media ad spending in Canada and our joint survey of ad buyers (conducted with IAB Canada) highlight the latest developments.

The Latin American economy is on the upswing, with digital innovation in the driver鈥檚 seat. Our trends report explores how retail media, commerce, and generative AI will be redefined in 2024 and what businesses need to know to get ahead.