Retailers need more than ‘bells and whistles’ to scoop up media dollars, buyers say

Behemoths like Amazon and Walmart dominate the retail media network landscape. However, that hasn’t stopped smaller players from coming into the space en masse and competing with one another, trying to stand out in a competitive landscape enough to scoop up any spare ad dollars.

Similar to a peacock mating dance, smaller, regional and specialized retail media networks like Macy’s, Lowe’s and Home Depot have spent the last few months rebranding and retooling their offerings, hoping to catch the attention and budgets of media buyers in a sea of competitors. With finite budgets, media agency execs say it becomes a matter of the haves vs. the have nots — which retailers have enough scale, data and measurement to beat out the competition. 

“The ability to capitalize and build that business, they’re probably starting to realize that it’s going to take more than just opening the doors and letting that be, ‘Oh ok, so everyone’s just going to buy the thing that we put forward,'” said Steven Frey, planning director for Media by Mother.

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