I'm about to drop a 2024 prophecy: We're hitting 'peak retail media network.'
Imagine a gold rush, but instead of miners with pans, picture every big box retailer scrambling to unveil their unique digital advertising powers. It's going to be a frenzy of investment reallocation, with dollars flowing like a river redirected.
But, as with all frenzies, the second half of 2025 is where the music stops, and the scramble for chairs begins. We'll witness a grand consolidation - not the merging of e-commerce titans, but a fusion of their behind-the-scenes tech and activation platforms. It's about streamlining transactions for brands and shaving off the excess overhead for retailers.
A repeat of Network sins
Ahh the good old days of ad network hand-to-hand combat.
Let's take a walk down memory lane, but not for nostalgia's sake. Remember our ad network ancestors? Those behemoths from 2000 to 2015?
I sure do…I worked at a few.
Retail Media Networks (RMNs) are their doppelgängers.
Here’s a quick refresher: What were those OG digital ad networks really about? Strip away the fluff, and you get two things - a heap of undifferentiated inventory and some snazzy user-targeting tricks. That's it.
Since the inventory was not unique, what were you really buying? You were essentially gambling on their targeting genius, delivering more outcomes at a cheaper price. Not an unreasonable ask by any means.
Enter programmatic. 💃
