Retail Media's Next Act: Driving Growth with Data, Identity and Collaboration
Retail media has entered a dynamic new phase.
This is a phase where growth is not just fueled by ad spend, but also by smarter data strategies, stronger brand-retailer partnerships and deeper cross-functional collaboration.
As someone who has spent his career at the intersection of data strategy, retail partnerships and digital media, I've observed a major shift. What was once a promising add-on to broader media strategies has become a core driver of marketing performance and business growth.
Success today isn't just about activating ad buys. It's the how: How brands work with retailers, how brands leverage data, and how brands use these relationships and insights to plan for what's coming next.
Here's where marketers should be focusing now:
The Foundation: Data Infrastructure Moves to the Boardroom
For many brands, retail media has accelerated essential investments in data infrastructure. What used to be a conversation inside the marketing department has now moved into the boardroom and includes stakeholders in finance, operations and IT. These are the divisions across organizations that collaborate to develop data ecosystems to fuel persistent identity resolution and advanced measurement.
Brands that build robust first-party data environments — strategic assets that power brand growth across all channels, both online and in-store — enable more precise targeting and unlock customer insights that drive full-funnel strategies.
Retailer Relationships: The Strategic Starting Line
When we work with clients to plan campaigns, we always begin with the retailer relationship. It's not just a piece of the puzzle. It's the piece that informs everything else.
An established, collaborative retailer relationship delivers more than premium shelf space or virtual visibility. It provides access to richer data, co-created campaign strategies and the ability to pilot new tactics as they come to market.
Brands that treat retailer relationships as long-term partnerships are best positioned to align media strategies with broader business goals, such as market expansion or exclusive product launches.
For example, during a recent brand launch we supported, the CPG client’s willingness to break down internal silos and share data openly with the retailer created alignment across brand, performance marketing and retail media teams. That collaboration led to a successful regional rollout.
Targeting: From Demographics to Decision Journeys
Senior marketers often ask what targeting criteria are driving the most success right now. The smartest brands are no longer just defining audiences by demographics or purchase behavior. They're building audiences based on decision journeys: Combining purchase history, category interest and behavioral signals like recency or adjacent product purchases to predict intent and personalize offers.
We start with the desired outcome (new customer acquisition, loyalty, cross-sell) and back into the strategy, with data informing us along the way. This approach helps balance precision targeting with scale, which is especially critical as brands face tighter privacy constraints and increased demand for measurable performance.
And when we think about in-store integration, the same principles apply. Technology has finally caught up to the promise of connecting digital signals to in-store behavior, allowing for targeted messaging right down to what I call "last-aisle decisioning."
Measurement: The Rise of Identity and Cross-Platform Visibility
Measurement is the most complex and exciting challenge in retail media today.
Persistent identity resolution has become the foundation for understanding the customer journey across retail media networks, walled gardens and broader digital ecosystems.
Brands that invest in their own identity spine are positioned to leverage retailer clean rooms, validate incrementality, and integrate retail media results into broader media mix modeling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution (MTA) frameworks.
I'm optimistic about where this is heading. For example, Goodway Group and its partners are working with leading retailers to connect exposure and conversion data at the shopper level, using privacy-enhanced frameworks that protect consumer data while enabling more accurate attribution.
Brands are also starting to balance metrics such as conversion and iROAS with long-term business outcomes like lifetime value and brand equity. This is an essential shift as retail media matures into being a holistic brand growth driver.
The Road Ahead: AI and Automation
Artificial intelligence and automation are rapidly reshaping how we plan, activate and measure retail media. But as I often tell clients: Technology is a tool, not a solution.
AI can streamline campaign optimization, automate reporting and surface new insights but only when paired with clear business goals and the right human expertise. Looking forward, I believe we'll see AI play a bigger role in predictive audience segmentation, creative versioning and even MMM. Federated clean room environments will make it easier to run lift studies across multiple retailers without moving sensitive data into centralized lakes.
And as AI agents become real shopping entities (yes, we'll soon be marketing to bots as well as humans), personalization strategies will have to evolve yet again.
Final Thought: Partnership as the Competitive Edge
As retail media scales toward an estimated $166 billion in global spend this year, the brands that will win won’t be those chasing every new format or algorithm tweak.
They'll be the ones forging deeper partnerships with retailers, with data partners and across their own organizations. They'll invest in data infrastructure not as a campaign expense but as a growth engine. They'll balance performance with brand building. And they'll approach technology not as a magic bullet but as an accelerator for strategic goals.
Retail media's next act will be defined by productive tension between brands and retailers, collaborative strategy, long-term thinking and relentless focus on the customer experience.
About the Author
Joe Frick is a distinguished sales and business development expert at G-Comm, a division of Goodway Group, specializing in data-driven marketing strategies. As vice president of business development, he helps clients exceed customer acquisition and retention goals through the smart, creative and ethical use of marketing data.
An active industry speaker, mentor and advisor, Joe is known for his high-energy approach and continual pursuit of knowledge, currently enhanced by his EMBA studies at NYU Stern. His expertise spans strategic planning, data analysis and innovative marketing solutions.
