The New Battleground: Data Supremacy in Retail Media
Retail media has moved from an execution channel to a strategic revenue engine. As retailers and brands pour dollars into on-site ads and commerce media, agencies are treating data as the primary source of competitive advantage. The industry shift is less about hoarding records and more about turning that data into accurate targeting, measurement, and revenue attribution for retail media campaigns.
Leading Agency Approaches & Their Retail Media Impact
Publicis’ Epsilon: A Benchmark in Commerce Media
Publicis leverages Epsilon for identity resolution and first-party audience activation. Tied to its retail media capabilities like CitrusAd, Epsilon helps match shopper signals to ads and measure on-site conversions. That alignment improves campaign relevance and clarifies return on ad spend for commerce-focused buys.
Omnicom’s Omni: Consolidating for Data Power
Omnicom has consolidated data under Omni to deliver cross-channel customer views. Moves such as integrating IPG assets aim to scale data reach and modeling for retail media. For brands and retail partners this means more unified audience profiles and potentially tighter measurement across search, on-site, and programmatic retail placements.
Beyond Ownership: The Integration Imperative for Retail Media
Ownership of large data pools is insufficient. The immediate advantage belongs to organizations that can stitch first-, second- and compliant third-party data into real-time activation, apply AI to predict purchase intent, and link impressions to point-of-sale outcomes. Effective integration reduces campaign friction, speeds optimization, and produces the clear ROI retail teams demand.
What This Means for Retail Media Stakeholders
- Brands: Prioritize partners that can connect identity, commerce signals, and measurement into one workflow.
- Retailers: Offer clean, privacy-forward first-party data and transparent measurement to attract premium media dollars.
- Ad tech and agencies: Invest in interoperable stacks and AI models that activate unified shopper views in real time.
In retail media, the winner will be the organization that turns disparate data into fast, actionable intelligence that directly moves sales and proves ROI.
