Vistar Media’s Bet on In-Store Digital as Retail Media’s Next Frontier

In the world of retail media, the conversation has largely been dominated by on-site sponsored products, programmatic display, and audience extension. But for Sean Cheyney, Head of Retail Media at Vistar Media, the next frontier isn’t digital—it’s digitized physical.

In his Shoptalk 2025 interview, Cheyney laid out how in-store digital signage is being reimagined—not as a merchandising tool, but as an integrated media channel that can drive performance, personalization, and profitability.

The Problem: Digital Screens, Disconnected Systems

Cheyney has spent over a decade in retail media, helping build the category from its early Triad Retail Media days through the rise of Epsilon and CitrusAd. His first move at Vistar? Interview 35+ retailers across the globe.

The key insight: most digital signage in stores was still being managed manually—“Joe’s spreadsheet” style. One person loading content every Monday, with no real targeting, rules, or revenue tracking.

This fragmentation meant in-store media couldn’t be sold alongside other media products. It couldn’t plug into the retail media ecosystem—and so it remained under-monetized and under-utilized.

The Fix: Integration, Not Invention

Vistar didn’t set out to reinvent tech—it set out to connect it. Their platform now integrates with retail order management systems like Placements.io, enabling brands to buy in-store signage in the same interface they use for sponsored products or online display.

For buyers and merchant teams, that’s game-changing. One UI. One budget flow. No new tools. And for the retailer? Real yield management.

Cheyney likens it to waterfall logic used in online ad tech. Retailers can now set priorities:

• First serve private-label ads

• Then pre-sold campaigns

• Then trade-funded media

• Then programmatic fill
  ...all with rules and real-time logic—even weather-based triggers like “show ice cream ads only when it’s over 30°C.”

ROI, Not Just Screens

The most common question Cheyney hears from retailers: “How fast do I get paid back if I install these screens?”

That’s why Vistar built detailed planning tools and ROI calculators—using footfall, screen placement logic, and point-of-diminishing-returns modeling to help retailers avoid over-installing hardware that won’t deliver.

They’re also helping shift perception: in-store screens shouldn’t be “instead of” other channels—they should be incremental.

Measurement: Meet Retail Where It’s At

Cheyney acknowledged measurement can’t be one-size-fits-all. Some retailers ingest raw logs and run analysis in-house. Others need more hands-on support.

That’s where Vistar brings in partners like Placer.ai, Circana, and in-store analytics providers to help measure campaign lift, category share shift, and—eventually—closed-loop outcomes.

He’s also quick to note a mindset gap. In the U.S., where retail media was born online, expectations skew toward one-to-one ROAS. In Europe and APAC, the mindset is more flexible—understanding that in-store signage is inherently one-to-many, and lift can be meaningful even when attribution isn’t granular.

T-Mobile: Reach + Data + Hardware

A final bonus for Vistar? Their partnership with T-Mobile, which gives them access to:

• Connectivity support for in-store networks

• Location targeting and audience extension

• Thousands of additional screen locations across T-Mobile stores

It’s more than media—it’s infrastructure. And it reinforces Cheyney’s broader point: to scale retail media in-store, you need more than just screens—you need a system.

What Vistar Media Is Teaching the Market

📺 In-store digital signage is no longer manual—it’s monetizable
🔄 Integration is the unlock—connect signage to retail media buying flows
📈 Measurement should meet the retailer’s maturity—not force a framework
📦 Incremental revenue depends on intelligent placement—not volume
🌡️ Real-time logic (like weather triggers) is the new norm
🤖 AI is coming for campaign planning—and that’s a good thing

As retail media matures, Vistar is betting that the future isn’t just online. It’s everywhere the shopper is—especially in-store.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

ClickZ is a Contentive publication in the Events division