In this series we hear from a range of marketers about their retail media experiences and expectations. For the first release we hear from three of Australia's leading liquor distributors about retail media - Mariano Favia, eCommerce Manager, Brown Forman; Roger Dunn, Global Retail Media Lead, Diageo and Ben Oliver, Head of Media, Treasury Wine Estates. The IAB Australia Retail Media Council will be using this valuable information in planning for 2025.
Mariano Favia, eCommerce Manager, Brown Forman
How would you describe your organisation's local experience with retail media to date?
Dynamic. The leadership of our organisation have acknowledged retail media and understood its potential nevertheless, it is early days to develop campaigns to maximise the opportunity of different RMNs.
What were the major challenges when expanding your relationships with retailers and marketplaces into retail media placements and investments?
1) The access to data to determine if investing in retail media will provide incremental results.
2) Clear communications from RMNs to inform their inventory and how it differs from traditional trade packages.
How have you worked with the rest of your business to help drive understanding on the role that retail media plays in the media and marketing mix?
1) Retail Media workshops to Sales, Marketing & Shopper teams.
2) Push Media agencies to run a session to our brand teams about RM.
3) Monthly reviews with Sales & Marketing per retailer and brand respectively.
4) Inform the leadership team with the results YTD of our activities.
For your organisation what is the primary benefit of investing time and money into retail media?
Deliver brand / sales communications to shoppers more effectively.
What do you think has been the biggest improvement in the local retail media sector over the last year?
Access to On-Demand inventory in a very simple way (e.g. Uber and DoorDash)
What do you think the major changes will be over the next year?
Measurement platforms will improve.
Consolidation of offering from RMNs.
Competition will increase and will put pressure on pricing.
What do you think the most beneficial collaborative initiatives and resources the IAB Australia Retail Media Council could develop in 2025?
1) Education to sales & brand managers providing high level understanding of retail media.
2) Access to Case Studies.
3) Access to Benchmarks by placements.
4) I think is important to acknowledge traditional retail media placements like POS (floor decals, bottle necks, gondola, etc) and provide access to case studies and benchmarks.
The above could be for AU but bringing resources from US is also valuable.
Roger Dunn, Global Retail Media Lead, Diageo
How would you describe your organisation's local experience with retail media to date?
An important part of our marketing and media mix, investing with most key partners.
What were the major challenges when expanding your relationships with retailers and marketplaces into retail media placements and investments?
Navigating different budgets across trade and marketing as well as accessing data & measurement.
How have you worked with the rest of your business to help drive understanding on the role that retail media plays in the media and marketing mix?
Developed a full program of global best practice and guidelines that is being operationalised across all our key markets.
For your organisation what is the primary benefit of investing time and money into retail media?
Driving sales and winning share of voice.
What do you think has been the biggest improvement in the local retail media sector over the last year?
Growth of available RMNs, new placements and better measurement.
What do you think the major changes will be over the next year?
Further improvements in data access and standardisation
What do you think the most beneficial collaborative initiatives and resources the IAB Australia Retail Media Council could develop in 2025?
A dedicated event and next phase of training
Ben Oliver, Head of Media, Treasury Wine Estates
How would you describe your organisation's local experience with retail media to date?
We have been doing it for a few years now.
What were the major challenges when expanding your relationships with retailers and marketplaces into retail media placements and investments?
Finding internal funding sources - confusion over whether brand vs shopper vs category vs trade/sales should fund. Also proving the incrementality of the channel - ROAS doesn't really help.
For your organisation what is the primary benefit of investing time and money into retail media?
Short term returns and retailer relationships.
What do you think has been the biggest improvement in the local retail media sector over the last year?
More offerings and tech entering the space, although I wouldn't say the sophistication of the channel has improved.
What do you think the major changes will be over the next year?
Proving incrementality - that it actually benefits consumers, brands and retailers. As it stands it only really supports the latter.
What do you think the most beneficial collaborative initiatives and resources the IAB Australia Retail Media Council could develop in 2025?
Incrementality testing framework - we really need an independent view on retail media performance. Having the retailer sell us the media and show us performance creates an inherent conflict of interest. And perhaps a framework around how ROAS is calculated. We have issues around 'Halo' ROAS where a click on one brand will count towards the sale of another (i.e. a Wolf Blass banner ad taking credit for a Squealing Pig sale, which is completely bonkers).