An inflection point may have arrived for commerce media, as the confluence of digital shopping transformation, privacy changes, and the deprecation of traditional identifiers forces brands to rethink their conversion strategies.
This evolution is creating new opportunities at the intersection of media exposure and transaction points, providing advertisers with real-time feedback loops that enhance performance throughout the consumer journey.
“It’s really hitting like this tipping point,” said Suzanne Irving, president of integrated investment and client solutions at OMD USA, in this video interview with Beet.TV. “The measurability combined with a lot of that massive shopper-scale audience and that closed-loop reporting is really one of the key reasons why it’s really exploding right now.”
Precision meets persuasion
This expansion aligns with industry forecasts predicting substantial growth in the sector. According to eMarketer, U.S. retail media ad spending is expected to reach $62.8 billion in 2025, marking a 20% year-over-year increase, driven by advertisers’ need for measurable sales outcomes and privacy-compliant data.
Commerce media’s distinctive value proposition lies in its ability to simultaneously address both upper-funnel brand building and lower-funnel conversion objectives.
The approach represents a fusion of “precision and persuasion,” as Irving describes it, allowing advertisers to influence consumers during high-impact moments closer to the point of sale.
“While we’re using data to fuel brand storytelling and growth, you can also see that these retail media networks really can expand more offsite, enter into video and have more like premium partner publisher relationships,” Irving said. “We’re really collapsing that funnel that really will help our brands not only drive meaningful business outcomes, but it goes beyond just more like impressions and clicks.”
Data collaboration in a first-party world
As the industry prepares for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, commerce media is poised to dominate conversations, particularly regarding responsible data collaboration.
The transformation of retailers into media owners and data partners necessitates new frameworks that protect consumer trust while enabling scale.
“Topics like clean rooms and universal IDs and this like cross-platform measurement will probably dominate a lot of the conversation at Cannes,” Irving predicted. “The big opportunity here is really how we unlock that interoperability without losing control or transparency.”
Beyond search and display
Looking ahead to the second half of 2025, Irving advises clients to lean into retail media beyond traditional search and display formats, with particular emphasis on video and social integrations.
“As commerce media kind of expands a little bit into those non-endemic opportunities, brands really should explore and show up contextually in those environments where they may not have considered before in the past,” Irving said.
“What we also say too and talk about is like really that need also, on top of that, to build that organizational readiness beyond the clean room collaboration or creative tailored for shoppable formats.”
You’re watching “The Flight to Cannes: Commerce Media Takes Off”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Kinective Media by United Airlines. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
