Alongside the acceleration of RMN offerings, the ecosystem is becoming increasingly customer-centric. This emphasis on providing value to customers is especially apparent among retailers that choose a strategic approach to RMNs.

In this new Q&A, Keith Bryan, president at Best Buy Ads, spoke with the Custom in-house agency at Digiday Media about how organizations approach RMNs and navigate new opportunities in the space.

How have marketers’ approaches to retail media networks evolved in the last year?

Keith Bryan: I think we’re still at a stage with RMNs where the slope is increasing. So it’s not at a hard inflection point, and I think it is still an accelerating crescendo coming from different areas within the world of retail. RMNs are not just for brands sold at retailers; they are for travel, for financial services — really, for any industry that can benefit from targeting based on first-party data. RMNs are for any organization that believes they have an opportunity to capitalize on first-party data with the deprecation of cookies.

On the retailer’s side, I’d encourage retailers to be very thoughtful, as early as possible, about whether they’re building an RMN because it’s a new opportunistic play or because it’s a long-term strategic play. They need to consider whether the retail media business is part of an ecosystem that they’re developing.

Let’s talk more about that. What questions should retailers ask themselves when they prepare to enter the retail media network game?

Keith Bryan: They should get clarity about whether their RMN is primarily about creating opportunities to generate some operating income or if it’s about a long-term strategic play. With an opportunistic approach, companies are looking to make money because margins are compressed. If it’s a strategic play, that will lead companies’ decision-making. They’ll be able to better answer several questions. Do they want to insource or outsource? How do they want to organize their teams? What kind of talent do they want internally? What kind of technology do they need internally? Is this just about monetizing around a transaction? Or is this about unlocking customer experiences and value propositions?

If they’re going opportunistically, they can create their experiences — like their website, their app or curbside pickup —- and use a partner to augment that and offer ad inventory. But if it’s strategic, their ad business needs to be integrated and at the table from the first conversation. It’s about truly weaving advertising inventory and experiences into the customer experience. If brands want to actually create more content or invest in new customer value propositions, then they’re going to be motivated to look at the retail media business as a strategic asset that they need to build …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron