Retail media from all angles: Insights from brands, retailers, and tech leaders

Retail media continues to expand across screens, stores, and shopper journeys. But as the channel grows more complex, industry leaders agree: the next chapter isn’t about more formats or more inventory. It’s about aligning strategies across stakeholders, removing friction, and designing for the real ways people shop.

At a recent industry panel, leaders from Barilla, Tesco, Koddi, and Halfords shared candid perspectives on what’s working in retail media, and what isn’t. Their insights offer a clear, cross-industry view into where the channel is heading and what still needs to evolve.

1. Focus on outcomes, not inventory

In an environment flooded with retail media options, brands are asking a different question: not “what can I buy?” but “what will work?”

“There are a hundred media types that are available to buy,” said Nicole Pilkington, global head of eCommerce at Barilla Group, “But for my brand and my category in a particular country, honestly, probably only two of them work.”

Barilla takes a shopper-first approach, but as a category leader, the company also feels a responsibility to grow the category, not just its share. That means evaluating media through the lens of effectiveness, not novelty. For a brand like Barilla, it’s about identifying the placements that actually add value in the context of a 15-minute grocery shop. It’s important to balance being inspirational vs simply helping the consumer get what they need. 

2. Retail media must support two shopping mindsets

Florian Clemens, Director of Strategy, Proposition & Measurement at Tesco, described a growing recognition that not all eCommerce is created equal.

“There’s just two very different e-commerce experiences and one is, if I may say, more of the Amazon spearfishing. This is one individual thing that I’m now researching or that I’m looking for. And then there was a basket building experience, which is, for example, with Tesco where you can really see how people are populating their baskets from their usuals and favorites.” he explained. A retail media network today has to support both experiences.

Tesco’s investment in Clubcard data has enabled more precise audience activation and more relevant retail experiences both online and in-store. The company is testing large in-store digital screens near entrances, designed to spark new trip missions and drive aisle traffic.

“We’re seeing real incrementality, not just for advertisers, but for Tesco,” Clemens said.

3. Internal alignment is still a barrier

One of the most persistent challenges with retail media isn’t tech or talent. It’s internal structure. Brands still struggle to get a clear picture of what they’re spending, let alone whether it’s working.

“About 18 months ago, I started a project to figure out how much we spend globally on retail media,” Pilkington shared. “I still don’t have an answer. So much of it is bundled into trade budgets, and some commercial teams worry that if I see the data, I’ll take their money. That’s not the point. We’re just trying to be strategic.”

According to Pilkington, progress requires breaking down silos and getting the CFO, CMO, and commercial leads in the same room to align on shared goals. Only then can brands build internal momentum around performance, measurement, and partnership.

4. Buying needs to be easier for everyone

“If you want to be a media business, you have to act like one,” said Paul Dahill, Managing Director, EMEA at Koddi. “And that means making yourself easy to buy.”

Dahill argued that retail media networks must offer flexible paths to activation including managed service, self-service, curated packages, and seamless integrations. The goal isn’t to push buyers down one route but to enable whatever workflow fits their business.

“We’ve seen this before,” Dahill added, referencing early programmatic. “It was messy until platforms standardized the buying experience. Retail media will get there too.”

5. Mid-funnel content matters, especially in high-consideration categories

In categories like general merchandise and DIY, education is often the unlock. Shoppers aren’t just choosing between brands. They’re trying to understand the product itself.

For products like a pressure washer, there’s a barrier to entry for the average consumer to understand how to use the product itself. In this case, retailers have to do more work to educate customers on these considered purchases, leading to a longer consumer journey. This leads to different considerations for both attribution and measurement, as well as media. 

For a team like Alex Knapman’s at Halfords, that means they produce how-to videos and influencer campaigns on behalf of brands to help drive consideration and shorten the path to purchase. The content doesn’t have to be flashy. It just has to drive momentum.

6. Automation is good. Transparency is better.

As platforms lean further into auto-optimization and machine learning, one tension continues to surface: brands like the performance lift, but they also want to understand what’s working.

“At Koddi, we have an auto-optimize button,” Dahill explained. “It runs campaigns, tests audiences, and figures out what delivers. But what brands often say is: tell me which audiences worked, so I can learn from it.”

In the end, some advertisers just want to set it and forget it. But others, especially larger ones, want visibility. They want to take the learnings and apply them next quarter.

7. Shoppable is nice, but not the point

Shoppable formats came up late in the discussion, and while most agreed they can be effective, no one viewed them as a silver bullet.

“Shoppable ads aren’t new,” Dahill said. “We’ve had TV ads with phone numbers for decades. It’s not about the format. It’s about whether it adds value.”

Tesco’s Clemens pointed to an Italian recipe campaign sponsored by Moretti Beer. “You could add all the ingredients, including the beer, to your basket in one click,” he explained. “It worked, but was it a shoppable ad or a contextual integration? It doesn’t really matter. It helped the shopper.”

Overall, shoppability is additive, not essential. It doesn’t need to carry the campaign. It just needs to enhance the experience.

The bottom line: retail media’s next phase is about alignment, not expansion

If there was a throughline in the conversation, it was this: the fundamentals still matter. Success in retail media isn’t just about scaling faster or testing new formats. It’s about aligning teams, simplifying execution, and building campaigns that reflect how people actually shop.

The tools are here. The challenge and opportunity is to make them work better together.