It’s been exactly one year since the IAB first debuted its Retail Media measurement standards at its inaugural Connected Commerce Summit in New York City. At this year’s Connected Commerce Summit, held September 17 and 18, we saw the industry critically evaluate those standards, finalized earlier this year, as they’ve started to be put in practice.
Are these standards working hard enough to make retail media better?
During one session, “One Year After Implementing Measurement Standards: Evaluating the Impact and Outcomes,” Jill Cruz, Publicis Commerce, and Christine Foster, Kroger Precision Marketing, didn’t hold back. Despite improvements, they said retail media is still plagued by unresolved measurement issues, from viewability to incrementality.
Cruz, Executive Vice President of Commerce Media Strategy at Publicis, shared her perspective: a mix of optimism and realism. "We've seen improvements in our sales," she said, "but let’s not pretend we're anywhere near done. Platforms like Instacart have made strides, but it’s hardly perfect, especially when data comparability across platforms remains such a mess." The promise of standardized metrics feels far from being realized. Despite the shiny new dashboards and tools, it’s clear that many brands and retailers are still grasping for clarity in understanding what’s actually driving sales.
It’s going to take more than a year to achieve consensus in an increasingly complex industry, even as major industry players like CVS Media Exchange, have worked in recent months to put the IAB guidelines into practice.
Foster, Vice President of Product Strategy and Media Operations at Kroger Precision Marketing, made similar comments. "We’ve gotten better at transparency, but let's be honest: incrementality is still a guessing game," she said. Foster’s admission that she once thought she could “win a Nobel Prize for solving incrementality” wasn’t just a playful remark – it underscored the complexity and frustration many brands feel in the retail media space. Random control tests and matched-market tests are widely used, but the inconsistencies in data, whether household or individual, mean brands are still in the dark about which channels and tactics are truly delivering results.
What made this year’s Connected Commerce Summit particularly compelling was the debut of the IAB’s new in-store retail media standards earlier in the week. These standards aim to bring transparency and consistency to digital in-store environments, building on the online standards established last year. Unlike online environments, where viewability is easier to quantify, in-store metrics require a different approach. With more than 80% of all retail transactions still occurring at brick-and-mortar stores, activating in-store media is a no-brainer. Measuring it, however, presents its own challenges.
As Jeffrey Bustos, VP of Measurement Addressability Data at the IAB, said, “Opportunity to see is the best proxy available for a viewable ad impression in the In-store Environment.”
This new measurement addresses some of the ambiguity around in-store media's impact and ensures that impressions are counted only when ads are within view of a shopper.
In-store media has traditionally been under-leveraged space in retail media. The session highlighted the importance of measurement here, but let’s be honest: the retail media industry, as a whole, has largely fallen short in capturing the true impact of these campaigns. As Foster said, “In-store media has been difficult to measure, but it's an area ripe for innovation.”
At Threefold, our partner Retail Media Networks are powered by Plan-Apps, which allows brands to log in, plan, execute and evaluate retail media campaigns. Plan-Apps allows us to allocate campaigns across thousands of stores with precision, ensuring they align with foot traffic and product distribution while measuring results across in-store, offsite, and online channels. Threefold also measures in-store campaigns via our test vs. control methodology, which compares sales at stores where a campaign was activated to sales at similar stores where a campaign wasn’t live. This data allows brands to understand the impact of their retail media dollars.
As part of the working group that helped develop these new IAB in-store standards, at Threefold, we see this as a critical step forward, especially as in-store media continues to grow in importance. We recognize these standards create a consistent framework for brands and retailers to operate within. Our proprietary technology, Plan-Apps, is designed to leverage these industry benchmarks while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to each retailer’s and brand’s unique needs. Regardless of the channel, we ensure that our strategies are both scalable and measurable.
While the IAB Retail Media Working Group’s efforts are commendable, there’s still a long way to go industry-wide in refining how we measure retail media’s effectiveness. At Threefold, we believe measurement should serve as a tool for growth, not just a compliance exercise.
We applaud the work being done to create more cohesive measurement standards, but also challenge brands and retailers to think critically about how they use them. Don’t get stuck just “checking a box.” Use them to fuel smarter, more creative and, ultimately, more effective retail media strategies. The industry must continue to innovate and adapt if we’re to realize retail media’s full potential.
Want to chat about the push for measurement standards and how Threefold approaches retail media measurement? Reach out to Amber at amber.roberts@threefold.team.
About Amber Roberts
Amber Roberts is a Partnership Director at Threefold, where she leads a team working with retailers on their retail media strategy. Amber joined Threefold in 2023. As a seasoned retail veteran, Amber has spent two decades working across the industry, from Fortune 100 and Global 300 companies to startups. Amber previously spent about four years working for Kroger, where she was one of the first digital hires, established the framework for its current RMN offering and launched several multi-billion dollar businesses and alternative revenue streams. Most recently, Amber worked as a consultant for small- and mid-sized grocery retailers to develop their omnichannel marketing strategies.
About Threefold
Founded in 2008, Threefold is the world's leading Retail Media Network (RMN) specialist, headquartered in both New York and London. As part of the SMG agency network, which employs 400 retail media experts, Threefold's primary mission is to unlock incremental brand and supplier budgets, curate media campaigns that supercharge sales and elevate its retail partners into top-tier omnichannel media owners, spanning in-store, off-site and online.
Threefold's services include the leading Retail Media Operating System Plan-Apps, consultancy and a white-label in-house solution that has seen the agency build, run and operate over 10 Retail Media Networks to date. In the UK, Threefold runs and operates Walgreens' Boots Media Group, ASDA’s LS Eleven Media Services, Co-op Media Network, Morrisons Media Group and Very Media Group.
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