Observed Signal · Sep 1, 2026 · Analysis · Source: Adweek · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Retail Media Can Build Brands—Including Ways Other Media Can’t
This opinion column argues that retail media, often dismissed as performance-only, is a powerful brand-building channel. It challenges Mark Ritson's critique by citing research from Binet & Fields and Ebiquity that brand building should account for 55-60% of ad spend, while most budgets go to performance. The author claims retail media offers reach, mental availability, and higher ROI, citing Emarketer data showing its share across formats. P&G's off-site retail media investment reportedly doubled in a year. The piece advises shifting budgets from low-performing performance channels and black-box AI tools to retail media, emphasizing causal modeling over MMM to reveal its true value. It positions retail media as a complement to TV, not a threat.
High-profile industry debate on retail media's brand-building potential, with concrete data and advertiser examples, influencing budget allocation discussions.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Emarketer data shows retail media constitutes 29% of search, 11% of programmatic display/video, 6% of social, 16% of CTV, and 15% of DOOH ad spend.
- Sensor Tower data indicates Procter & Gamble's off-site retail media investment more than doubled in the past year.
- According to the article, 70% of marketers say their marketing mix models do not account for retail media.
- Binet and Fields recommend 55-60% of ad budget be allocated to brand building.
- Causal modeling consistently ranks retail media networks among the highest ROI channels.
Connected Companies & Entities
6 Entities mappedEbiquity
Independent media advisory and benchmarking consultancy for large advertisers.
“Marketing effectiveness research from Binet and Fields and Ebiquity establish that brand building should account for 55% to 60% of ad spend....”
Meta
Consumer internet platforms monetised through advertising, apps, subscriptions and VR.
“and Meta’s Advantage+....”
Sensor Tower
Digital intelligence SaaS for apps, ads, web and gaming.
“Sensor Tower data indicates that P&G’s off-site retail media investment has more than doubled in the past year......”
P&G
Global consumer goods company selling household and personal care brands.
EMARKETER
B2B research platform for media, advertising, and commerce intelligence.
“According to Emarketer, retail media constitutes a meaningful percentage of every major pool of ad spending......”
Search, video, adtech and cloud giant within Alphabet.
“And especially from black box AI tools like Google’s Performance Max......”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
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