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Retail media is growing, but not everything that counts can be measured

Retail media is growing, but not everything that counts can be measured

At Shoptalk 2025, brand marketers from PepsiCo, Kizik, and Driscoll’s challenged assumptions about what makes retail media work—from shopper experience to creative gaps and measurement reality.

Lee Arthur
April 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Channels are multiplying. Strategy still needs a center.

Retail media continues to expand into CTV, in-store screens, social placements, and app integrations. But for brand marketers, the proliferation of channels also creates operational drag.

Mike Glaser, VP of Commerce Media at PepsiCo, described the current landscape as promising but disconnected. Measurement logic varies by platform. Creative formats are inconsistent. And media buying workflows often remain siloed.

What matters now, he said, is building a planning system that sees the whole picture. Not every channel deserves its own line item. What brands need is alignment across moments that matter.

Measurement matters. So does knowing its limits.

For Frances Dillard, VP of Marketing at Driscoll’s, measurement remains the starting point for every conversation. But in categories like fresh produce, where attribution is rarely direct, the frameworks need to flex.

Driscoll’s uses a combination of loyalty data, lift studies, and campaign retrospectives to assess effectiveness. And when the brand co-creates content with retail partners, performance improves. Deeper creative integration consistently drives better outcomes.

Still, Dillard noted, retail media too often gets bolted onto the campaign after the fact. The result is missed opportunity. What works best is early, shared development.

Retail media is part of the brand, not just the buy

Elizabeth Drori, CMO at Kizik, pointed out that as retail media grows, the quality of the brand experience should scale with it.

For Kizik, which started in DTC and is now expanding into wholesale, maintaining brand integrity across every touchpoint is essential. That includes product pages, sponsored placements, and physical store displays.

“The best campaigns feel native to the shopper journey,” she said. But that level of integration requires more coordination and earlier alignment than many retailers currently support.

All three speakers agreed: the creative investment often lags behind the targeting capability. As Drori put it, “We’re getting very good at precision, but we haven’t caught up on storytelling.”

Collaboration is the unlock

Each panelist returned to the same theme: partnership. Not placement. Not spend. Partnership.

Dillard shared how working directly with retailer teams led to better creative fit. Glaser called for media strategies that support long-term brand building, not just short-term conversion. And Drori emphasized that retail media only works when it reinforces not fragments brand voice.