- Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media unit of grocery giant Albertsons, today (June 22) announced a proposal for a standardization framework meant to bring greater unity and transparency to the budding retail media landscape.
- The initial version of the framework focuses on implementing common practices in 4 areas: product characteristics, performance measurement, third-party verification and network capabilities. The goal is to assist advertisers transact and compare campaign performance more easily, while also delivering a greater experience to finish consumers.
- Albertsons cited a McKinsey & Company evaluation suggesting standardization could add $5 billion to $15 billion in value for the space over an estimated three years. The framework will probably be overseen by an advisory group and received sign-on from Unilever and Omnicom Media Group (OMG), an existing Albertsons partner.
Retail media has remained a growth juggernaut despite a broader ad-spending slowdown driven by waning pandemic trends and budgetary pressures. But as more retail media networks are stood up, with retailers racing to monetize their media assets using beneficial first-party shopper data, advertisers have voiced mounting frustrations with an area viewed as complex, inefficient and dear.
The sense that retail media networks are repeating the past mistakes of digital walled gardens has change into prevalent, posing what Albertsons views as an existential crisis for an area that’s effectively still in its infancy. Many brands now describe retail media buys as a tax as much as they’re a profit, an issue that might be amplified as resources are strapped in a rocky economy.
Albertsons Media Collective is trying to allay these concerns with its proposal for an industry-wide Retail Media Standardization Framework. The news was announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which acts because the Oscars for adland. By adopting shared practices around core facets of the business between retailers, the group believes it should encourage more ad spending, raising all ships. Retail media is predicted to be the third fastest-growing marketing channel behind connected TV and out of home this 12 months, representing 14.4% of worldwide promoting revenues, based on GroupM estimates.
“To make sure the survival of this industry, we must come together toward a greater goal,” said Kristi Argyilan, senior vice chairman of retail media for Albertsons Companies, in a press statement. “We imagine this framework will function a start line for making a unified approach to retail media standardization.”
Albertsons is initially keeping the main target easy, with 4 core areas for network operators to stick to. The framework goals to streamline product characteristics for ad formats, drawing on existing guidelines established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. It also proposes that networks adopt shared metrics for tracking campaign performance. Third-party verification is one other mandate, with a checklist touching across fraud detection, ad placement and viewability and brand safety. Lastly, the framework argues for network disclosures on staffing, processes, and data-technology-oriented services, or what it terms “capabilities.” Albertsons will pressure-test its recommendations and ensure they’re broadly feasible before the framework is finalized.
Over half of surveyed marketers (56%) currently work with at least five retail media networks, based on a January report from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), while 16% use at least 10. The ANA characterised many retail media advertisers as “reluctant” buyers who view the channel as a value of doing business. Albertsons steadily cited the findings in a white paper accompanying its announcement.
Reducing complexity and increasing consistency could appeal to advertisers and agencies that should juggle multiple networks carrying differing approaches to transacting. Albertsons named OMG, Unilever, Pinterest and R3 amongst its early allies.
“At Unilever, we’re supportive of this workstream as we imagine it’s essential for the industry to come back together to tackle standardization on the subject of attribution, measurement, frequency of reporting and transparency,” said Aaron Sobol, head of U.S. media investment and partnerships at Unilever, in an announcement. “We proceed to be an advocate for industry-wide solutions.”
The success of Albertsons’ framework is contingent on buy-in from retail media rivals which can be notoriously cagey and competitive. The initiative might invite additional skepticism as Albertsons is on course to merge with Kroger, a dominant force within the grocery category and the owner of probably the most mature and complex retail media networks.
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