Retail media networks are slated to be one in all the important thing themes at this 12 months’s Cannes Lions Competition. Retailers’ buzzy foray into the advertisements enterprise is constructing out a brand new income stream for the traditionally thin-margin companies—however it’s not with out challenges.
Roundel, Goal’s retail media community, is headed to Cannes alongside quite a few different main RMN gamers as they vie for relevance in an more and more crowded panorama.
As Sarah Travis, president of Roundel, packs her luggage for a visit to the Riviera, ADWEEK caught up along with her to debate how the enterprise is using the wave of development whereas doubling down on factors of differentiation.
This dialog has been edited for readability and brevity.
How is Roundel driving income development for Goal?
Travis: We’re a key development driver for the enterprise, and the fastest-growing a part of Goal. In 2023 we grew at 20% year-on-year and delivered over a billion-and-a-half {dollars} in advert income, and we’re effectively on our option to ship two billion. However we see retail media as way more expansive than simply income. An promoting enterprise delivers increased margin income than a retailer is used to, however if you happen to do it the appropriate manner, it may also be actually additive to the general visitor expertise.
About 35% of our promoting runs off-property by way of partnerships, and about 65% is on-property, which permits us to succeed in visitors extra broadly. Offsite media delivered about 250 million visits to Goal’s properties by way of Roundel in 2023.
We’ve heard quite a bit concerning the inner challenges that retailers face when constructing out a retail media enterprise, as a result of the objectives of the RMN can typically battle with—and overlap with—the merchandising and gross sales groups. How is Goal navigating these organizational challenges?
Travis: To construct a retail media providing, you want all of the incentives to be aligned internally. That you must construct tech, usher in expertise—you might want to make investments to drive development. We’ve now acquired over 800 folks engaged on the Roundel enterprise, and our product and tech assets have grown over 50% over the previous couple of years.
