For the past five years, retail media has been one of the most talked-about developments in advertising.

And yet, for all the excitement, scepticism is creeping in.

Yes, it’s growing. Yes, it’s generating meaningful revenue. Yes, it can deliver strong outcomes.

But will it really reshape advertising?

It will.

The current slowdown isn’t a failure of retail media. It’s a failure of the systems around it. The infrastructure that allocates advertising budgets was built for a different era.

Retail media isn’t broken. It’s early.

The wrong debate: can retail media build brands?

According to Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, brands grow through:

• Mental availability
• Physical availability

Retail media can deliver both.

In fact, it’s uniquely positioned to do so across multiple formats. When retailers move beyond inventory into audience provision, retail media starts to look like all media.

CTV, social, even DOOH — when powered by retailer audiences, it becomes retail media.

So the question isn’t whether retail media can build brands.

It’s whether the systems that allocate budgets are designed to buy it.

Agencies: planning systems aren’t built for retail media

Most large budgets are allocated using planning tools built around:

• Reach
• Frequency
• Cost efficiency
• Standardised measurement

Retail media often sits outside these systems.

Instead of one large buy, planners must coordinate across multiple retailers, each with different formats, reporting, and measurement.

That creates friction.

For a £10m campaign, a £250k retail media activation can feel disproportionately complex.

Retail media doesn’t struggle because it lacks effectiveness.

It struggles because it introduces complexity into systems built for scale.

That is changing.

AI-driven planning platforms are beginning to integrate retail media, especially as standards emerge through organisations like the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Retailers: moving beyond trade income

Many Retail Media Networks still behave like commercial teams monetising supplier relationships.

But media doesn’t scale that way.

True media businesses:

• Sell upstream to planners
• Provide insight
• Integrate into broader campaigns

Retailers are transitioning from trade income models to full media propositions.

That requires:

• Investment
• Alignment
• Cultural change

And it takes time.

Brands: silos and measurement bias

Inside brands, budgets are fragmented:

• Brand marketing
• Shopper marketing
• Ecommerce / retail media

Retail media sits awkwardly between them.

Each team has different KPIs, different frameworks, and different incentives.

There’s also a measurement mismatch:

• Brand channels → long-term modelling
• Retail media → short-term attribution

That creates bias.

But leading brands are starting to adapt.

This has all happened before

Retail media isn’t unique in this pattern.

We’ve seen it before:

• The internet in the late 90s
• Railways in the 19th century
• Programmatic advertising

Each followed the same cycle:

• Hype
• Friction
• Integration

The issue is rarely the technology.

It’s the institutions around it.

How to win in retail media

Retail media will become more central to advertising.

AI will accelerate this.

The winners will be those who adapt fastest:

• Agencies integrating retail media into planning systems
• Retailers building credible media propositions
• Brands aligning budgets and measurement

The key success factor won’t just be technology.

It will be organisational design.

The bottom line

Retail media isn’t overhyped.

It’s under-integrated.

History tells us what happens next.

When technology collides with institutional inertia, the technology wins.

Eventually.

The question is simple:

Are you ready for when it does?

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