[Cannes Lions] Retail media: professional measurement is a key to scale-up

With good reason, retailers were out in force at Cannes Lions 2024. Retail media is currently the fastest-growing segment of the digital advertising market (estimated growth of 17.5% in 2024, according to GroupM), and it shows. Walmart, Target, Sainsbury (and its agency Nectar360), Germany’s Douglas and Amazon were all present. There were also newcomers on the Croisette, such as the American bank Chase (J.P. Morgan), which wasted no time in launching its retail media offering Chase Media Solutions in April 2024. United Airlines announced a service in June. Kroger, which has been in the retail media business for longer with its 84.51 agency, had a dedicated tent for the first time.

One figure that came up was there are over 200 retail media networks (RMNs). They have sprung up like mushrooms, especially in the U.S.A., which is further ahead than Europe. In other words, a battle for budgets is raging. Admittedly, the time is right, with the gradual disappearance of third-party cookies making advertisers hungry for retailers’ first-party data.