Heading Into Cannes, Retail Media Faces a Reckoning

Heading Into Cannes, Retail Media Faces a Reckoning 

Advertisers want better tools and measurement amid economic uncertainty

Retail media is reaching an inflection point.

Two years ago at the Cannes Lions festival, it seemed like every company with a loyalty program was launching an advertising business. This year, companies need to prove that their ad businesses are working.

Despite commerce media’s growth over the past couple of years, the industry is now on the defense. After initial tests with dozens of retail media networks, marketers have spent the last year raising questions about retail media’s premium pricing and inconsistent measurement. And economic uncertainty, largely due to tariffs and the Trump Administration’s shifting landscape, is putting all this into a pressure cooker.

“Brands are going to hold back, hold back, hold back—and then want to turn something in 24 hours or less,” said one retail media source. “Retailers will win if they can lead with that theme: Flexibility, and then fidelity of measurement.”

Going into the second half of 2025, advertisers want better measurement and the ability to quickly turn on and off ads to keep up with changes to tariffs, the source added.

Still, retail media is growing at more than 15% year-over-year, making the category a rare growth area for the ad industry. It’s expected to hit $169 billion in global ad spend this year, according to Emarketer. The Cannes Lions festival is even introducing a dedicated subcategory in the Media Lions and Creative Commerce Lions this year to award advertisers that have successfully used retail media to engage consumers and enhance brand relevance.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a growing prominence in retail media in the Festival and across the industry,” said Marian Brannelly, awards director for Cannes Lions. According to WARC Media’s global ad spend forecast, she noted, retail media spend is expected to overtake linear TV spend by 2026.

The new subcategory “will recognize work that strategically harnesses retailer-owned channels to engage consumers at crucial decision-making moments, using targeted insights to enhance brand relevance and drive measurable business outcomes,” Brannelly said.

Where commerce media is headed

Depending on who you talk to, commerce media’s inflection point either looks like a reckoning or simply a honing of strategies and tools.

Many brands are already sold on the concept. Now, advertisers want to hear how the lofty visions that commerce media has promised translates to outcomes, said Lauren Wiener, managing director, senior partner, and global head of marketing practice at Boston Consulting Group.

That means building out more detailed and timely measurement, better attribution tools, and partnerships that simplify the whole ad-buying process.

“You’re going to see a lot about cross-industry data collaboration through clean rooms,” Wiener said. “That’s what the tech companies are going to be talking about. That’s what the agencies are going to be talking about. They’re empowering the holy grail partnerships.”

Leading up to Cannes, that prediction is already proving true. Walgreens’ retail media network announced a clean room solution with LiveRamp while Dick’s Sporting Goods is combining its audience with Roku.

Both Dick’s and Walgreens will be pitching their ads businesses on the ground in Cannes next week.

Take grocery chain Albertsons, for example. Albertsons launched its revamped ad business in 2021 and is returning to Cannes this year with a grocery-store activation that shows Albertsons’ measurement capabilities to advertisers.

“We’re here for our CPGs to grow the business,” said Liz Roche, vice president of media and measurement for Albertsons Media Collective. Rather than looking at a single campaign’s metrics, or myopic points in time, she explained, Albertsons aims to provide advertisers with the measurement they need to grow market share in their category and build longer-term momentum.

Retailers need to nail the basics

To some extent, retail media’s reckoning is self inflicted, said Paul Brenner, senior vice president of global retail media and partnerships at In-Store Marketplace. He said that some retailers have stumbled in areas like offsite advertising as part of their push for bigger, national ad budgets.

Rather than prematurely touting offsite capabilities, Brenner argued that U.S. retailers should first focus on in-store and onsite ads—similar to how retailers in the U.K. and Europe have approached retail media. Brenner said some U.S. retailers started demanding advertisers spend on offsite without first figuring out how retail media fits in with traditional shopper marketing dollars, and ensuring that the measurement and value of onsite and in-store were solid.

These problems are giving advertisers more power over their relationships with retailers, Brenner said. For decades, advertisers have funded media dollars to retailers, partly due to fears that retailers may either stop selling their products or make it hard for consumers to find their products if they don’t pay for advertising. As retailers up their advertising asks from brands, Brenner sees an opportunity for brands to have the upper-hand.

“The brands are the leverage,” Brenner said. “The RMNs might think they have it. They don’t.”

Advertisers want buying to be simpler, including a programmatic option, and they want to know that their ads drive sales, Brenner said.

When retailers don’t meet those requests, advertisers start to throw their weight around.

“I’ve seen it happen more and more,” he said. “The tide is swelling.”

Headshot of Kathryn Lundstrom

Kathryn Lundstrom

Kathryn Lundstrom is Adweek's sustainability editor.