The retail media boom has created new roles, requiring new skillsets

To that list, we can now add the role of commerce media specialist – or, retail media experience planner – experience planners who guide clients in navigating the explosive growth of retail media networks.

Beyond placement, commerce media specialists seamlessly align data, creativity, and media to craft experiences that ultimately drive people to action. At its core, this role is about helping brands to harness the abundance of new digital media formats and channels – with the end goal of building brand while driving sales.

Three dimensions

It was only a dozen years ago that retail media itself came into being, in a modern context. Amazon Advertising was created in 2012, and it defined the category – certainly from a digital perspective. Since then, there has been a “California gold rush” in retail media, with the launches of Walmart Connect, Target’s Roundel, Kroger Precision Marketing, and so on. As E-Marketer noted, “retail media may be the decade’s biggest advertising trend”.

Retail media spend is running faster than analysts can keep up. E-Marketer stated that the 2024 estimated US retail media expenditure is $4 billion more than previously forecast. Of the nearly $60 billion due to be spent this year, 99% will be in digital media with the balance in-store.

The retailer part of the puzzle is what differentiates retail media from traditional media. Traditional media has two stakeholders – brand and consumer. Retail media is three-dimensional – an overlap between brand, consumer, and retailer. And today, when retail media campaign specifics can affect Joint Business Plans (JBPs), secure a call with a hard-to-reach buyer, or guarantee an incremental display, accounting for the business objectives of the retailer is fundamental.

This is not your grandfather’s media. It’s not broadcast or old-school digital. It’s not all “spots and dots”, reach, frequency, or impressions. It’s as much qualitative as it is quantitative – centered not only on engaging the shopper close to the point of purchase but also on building a true partnership with the retailer.

Theory and practice

This is where the skill of a commerce media specialist comes in. The commerce media specialist works alongside brand strategists, creatives, data scientists, and technologists to devise commerce experiences that live in retail media touchpoints, resonate with shoppers, and create value for both brands and retailers.

It’s an assignment that is part strategic planner, part channel planner, and part experience designer. When we do our jobs right, the result is not only incredible ROI but also strong OER (Other Envious Retailers!).

The output can comprise breakthrough campaigns and activations that appear across all retail media touchpoints, and side benefits such as improved value from JBPs, preferred placement on shelf, and/or additional activation points.

The inputs are insights about consumers and shoppers, intelligence about the retailer, knowledge about retail media touchpoints, and judgment about what will ultimately generate excitement from the retailer. As we say, “sell-in is as critical as sell-through”.

A media planner in a commerce agency must also be able to assess the real value of the retail media options on offer, which is often complex for brands to evaluate.

Commerce or retail media experience planning is both art and science. The blend of media savvy and creative inspiration is best seen on two of our most recent, award-winning, and highly effective retail media campaigns – OREOCodes and Lucky Charmology.

Brand love

OREOCodes, which won a 2023 Gold Lion in the creative commerce and direct commerce categories, included a commerce experience that tapped into the visual similarity between barcodes on milk cartons and a stack of OREOs. Via digital, it allowed consumers to score offers directly from OREO’s all-time complementary partner – milk, redeemable at Jewel Osco locations.

With Lucky Charmology, winner of a 2024 Silver Lion in brand experience and activation, consumers could scan their cereal bowl, using technology created by VML’s in-house tech lab, to reveal personalized fortunes based on the magical charms in their bowl.

This amplified brand love for Lucky Charms while also turning every fortune into a repeat usage occasion, and thus a purchase of consumers’ favorite cereal, in partnership with Target.

Yes, brands need a traditional media team, but the commerce media specialist oversees much more than media. It’s not just about buying the slots, although of course we ensure that we meet benchmarks and deliver on impressions, but also about planning the experience, in such a way that satisfies brand, consumer, and retailer.

The retail media experience planning role is new, but like many jobs that didn’t exist a decade ago, it is rapidly rising in prominence and becoming a must-have on a client’s agency roster.