The Key Takeaways from Power Up: Retail Media

The conversation around retail media have moved well beyond whether retailers should build a media network, now, the topic has shifted to how to make it valuable, how to prove its impact, and how to scale it without compromising the customer experience.

At our Power Up: Retail Media summit in Melbourne on August 26; retailers, brands, media platforms, and technology providers explored what comes next for the rapidly evolving channel.

Here are the key takeaways.

Retail media needs to become a growth platform

One of the strongest themes throughout the day was the need to move beyond selling placements.

For retailers, building a successful media proposition means understanding the role retail media plays in the broader customer journey and creating value for shoppers, suppliers and the retailer itself.

In our opening session, featuring ROKT and David Jones, the retailer demonstrated how significant that shift can be internally. Its retail media journey has involved substantial change management, education and a move towards greater rigour, structure and standardisation across the organisation.

That transformation also extends to how retailers work with brands. Non-endemic partners need to be educated on the opportunity, with new channels introduced progressively rather than simply added to an inventory list.

The same principle came through in Baby Bunting’s experience. As a spokesperson explained to ROKT, its retail media business, launched around a year ago, emerged partly from the need to create a new vehicle for supplier advertising as traditional catalogue engagement declined.

The objective is to ensure the right products and brands are presented to the right shoppers, with clear objectives and metrics.

Measurement is moving from attribution to incrementality

The pre-event discussion identified measurement as one of retail media’s biggest challenges, with the industry increasingly looking beyond clicks, impressions and ROAS.

An eye-opening presentation from Circana reinforced that shift.  According to how Circana approaches it, measurement can broadly be viewed across three levels:

• Activity: What happened? Impressions, reach and clicks.

• Attribution: What sales occurred after exposure? Conversion, attribution and ROAS.

• Incrementality: What changed because the campaign existed? Incremental sales, incremental buyers and incremental ROAS.

That final question is becoming increasingly important.

Retail media has a unique advantage: retailers can connect media exposure with actual commercial behaviour. But simply being able to attribute a purchase to an exposure does not necessarily mean the advertising caused that purchase.

The next stage is experimentation and incrementality.

ROAS is becoming an increasingly incomplete answer

The conversation around measurement also exposed a broader issue: ROAS alone isn’t enough.

That came through strongly in a discussion featuring Style My Wall founder Justin Bausch and Circana’s Tenielle Wibskov.

Bausch’s approach is centred on scaling what is profitable, looking closely at net profit and trends rather than relying on a single attribution metric.

That perspective challenges retail media to think beyond media efficiency and towards business efficiency.

The full funnel is becoming the retail media opportunity

Sponsored products remain an important part of retail media, but across our sessions, the event demonstrated how much broader the opportunity has become.

The focus needs to be on full-funnel optimisation and understanding how each media touchpoint contributes to the customer journey and ultimately to customer lifetime value.

Physical activations can also drive customers back to digital platforms, reinforcing the idea that retail media should not be divided neatly into online and offline channels.

The same theme emerged in the discussion around experiential media. Occasion can become an important signal, allowing retailers and brands to create formats around specific moments rather than simply inserting advertising into an existing placement.

A session from ONQ Digital explored how retailers can connect digital and physical customer journeys and create measurable value from in-store media.

But there was an important caveat: stores shouldn’t simply become noisier.

The principle should be that media enhances the retail experience rather than disrupting it. THis applies to both digital, and physical channels.

 Brands and retailers need to stop thinking in silos

Another consistent theme was the need for stronger alignment between retailers, brands, agencies and technology providers.

In a session on What Brands Actually Need From Retail Media Networks, Bridie Cowell described the role of a retail media network as connective tissue that can help solve retailer problems, rather than simply another media channel to buy.

That requires shared objectives and shared definitions of success.

The current environment can create misalignment: retailers may optimise for media revenue, brands may focus on sales or ROAS, while shoppers simply experience one connected customer journey.

For all the commercial opportunity, there was a clear recognition that monetisation cannot come at the expense of the customer.

David Jones’ approach of retaining a significant share of voice for its own brand across certain channels illustrates the balance retailers need to strike.

Similarly, the discussion around physical stores emphasised that media needs to complement the experience rather than add clutter.

The next competitive advantage will be proving growth

The overall takeaway from Power Up: Retail Media was that the industry is entering a more demanding phase.

Retailers need to demonstrate that their media businesses can create incremental commercial value. That means better measurement, experimentation, and connecting digital and physical experiences. Retail media needs to be easier for brands to buy. And it means developing genuine partnerships rather than simply monetising an audience. 

Join us to further explore this next phase at Power Up Sydney on Wednesday March 3, 2027. 

Register your interest here.