By Anthony Fargeot, VP of growth, Bench Media
Afterpay recently launched its own Retail Media Network (RMN), and my inner marketer was immediately interested. Afterpay is a company with 3.5 million customers and 129,000 merchants that helped facilitate $13.4 billion in sales in 2023 alone: that’s a treasure trove of fresh, real-time retail behavioural data any marketer would be eager to get their hands on. The potential for brands to tap into this data to create highly targetted, ROI-driven campaigns is immense.
But the old adage “when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is” comes to mind and I hit the brakes when I became aware of Afterpay’s rollout schedule. Currently, Afterpay’s RMN is limited to the Yahoo ecosystem and released to only select agencies. The stark reality is that albeit Afterpay’s RMN being very exciting, it is yet another “walled garden” added to the long list of isolated ecosystems that currently dominate the retail media space.
Retail media is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing areas in marketing, offering brands incredible possibilities to reach consumers in direct and relevant ways. However, the growing issue is each RMN operates as its own closed system. Major players such as Cartology (Woolworths), Coles360, and Chemist Warehouse (to name a few) all have their own retail media networks, each with valuable data and tools. But they operate in silos – blame it on privacy concerns and technical limitations – which means brands are often forced to engage with multiple RMNs separately, leading to duplication, fragmentation and media budget inefficiencies. Many products stocked across multiple retailers require different campaigns for each RMN, which is time-consuming, complex to coordinate and ultimately frustrating and of course, costly.
The problem doesn’t stop at retail media networks. Brands understandably often extend their advertising efforts beyond these networks into the wider digital ecosystem, advertising on platforms like Google and Meta, which although powerful are also walled gardens. This creates further disconnection between retail media and broader brand campaigns, making it even more challenging for marketers to deliver a cohesive strategy across all channels.
This fragmented landscape has left many brands taking a “spray and pray” approach to advertising, relying on quantity over quality, simply because it’s so difficult to navigate the complexity of retail media and digital advertising. The real beneficiaries of this are the walled gardens, but it doesn’t do much for brands trying to make meaningful connections with their customers, nor does it lead to optimal marketing spend.
So, how do we solve the problem?
The solution lies in an integrated approach—one that bridges the gaps between walled gardens and allows brands to effectively harness their capabilities. While we may not be able to fully break down the walls between these systems due to technological and privacy limitations, we can still work to connect the dots. Using data modelling and inference tools, brands can create a more complete picture of their customers’ journeys, allowing for smarter, more efficient campaign strategies. This requires some advanced knowledge and some out-of-the-box thinking but for the most part, it is doable.
The resulting holistic approach will enable retail brands to deliver seamless, personalised customer experiences, optimising marketing spend and improving performance. By shifting focus toward understanding what RMNs and digital channels drive the best results, brands can finally move beyond enriching the walled gardens and start building marketing strategies that truly work for them and their customers.
This centralised, data-driven approach can provide a competitive edge to any brand that adopts it, ultimately leading to better targeting and increased revenue opportunities. And for marketers, that’s another Holy Grail.
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Top image: Anthony Fargeot