IPG Mediabrands Launches Unified Retail Media Solution

Dedicated Business Unit Unveils World’s Most Expansive Retail Media Network Platform to Address Brand Needs for Advertising in Retail Media

IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company within the Interpublic Group of Companies announced the launch of its Unified Retail Media Solution, a dedicated business unit that will enable brands to intelligently manage their investment performance seamlessly across all Retail Media Networks, one of the fastest growing advertising channels.

According to the Association of National Advertisers1 2023 study 82% of CMOs find a lack of standardization across [Retail Media] platforms “a challenge” or “a big challenge.” The second most significant challenge, reported by 68% of respondents, was the walled garden approach used by Retailers.

To help brands navigate this popular retail advertising medium, IPG Mediabrands Unified Retail Media Solution will bring openness and trust to the typically closed world of Retail Media at a time when brand spend in the space is growing rapidly. It is powered by a unique tech platform that operates against four key principles: Unified Audience, Unified Measurement, Unified Optimization and Unified Intelligence, giving brands a clear and holistic view of their performance. Specifically, the platform can decipher which Retailers are performing best and will automate cross-retailer activation and optimization, moving media spend between retailers to maximize sales and profitability. Brands will have the option to augment their existing audience data via Acxiom data sets and the platform will automatically aggregate this cross-network data using IPG’s proprietary AI-powered tools to enable planning, insights, activation, and optimization.

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“With this solution from IPG Mediabrands, clients can make optimal decisions both within and across Retail Media Networks based on facts, not hunches. It’s another step forward in IPG’s Total Commerce strategy, along with IPG’s Creative Commerce Labs, helping to ensure brands grow share and do so profitably”

Led by Glen Conybeare, Executive Lead, and with 500+ multi-disciplinary team members in support, the Unified Retail Media Solution has been beta tested by IPG Mediabrands clients in the CPG, Gaming and OTC sectors, and already has hundreds of bespoke audiences built out with a roadmap to hit over 10,000 by year-end.

“Brands activating in Retail Media face the challenge of navigating through multiple closed garden networks, each with their own data approach, metrics and ROI methods. This complexity is amplified for brands that also sell their products through these retailers. Therefore, it is crucial for brands seeking to maximize their investment to leverage data and insight across networks with an ability to make intelligent decisions in real time about what’s working and not,” said Eileen Kiernan, Global CEO, IPG Mediabrands.

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“With this solution from IPG Mediabrands, clients can make optimal decisions both within and across Retail Media Networks based on facts, not hunches. It’s another step forward in IPG’s Total Commerce strategy, along with IPG’s Creative Commerce Labs, helping to ensure brands grow share and do so profitably,” added Jeriad Zoghby, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at IPG.

“Retail Media Networks offer a huge opportunity for marketers. However, each network operates as a closed-loop system which makes it really difficult to drive ROI effectively. With dozens of retail channels as part of many clients’ investment strategies, it has been difficult to compare their relative performance. With our Unified Retail Media Platform, we have standardized a key part of the process,” said Conybeare.

According to MAGNA’s 2023 report on the matter, Retail Media revenues will increase to $121bn in 2023 (+13%YoY) representing 20% of total digital advertising revenues across search, video and display.