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Standardisation and collaboration: how ISBA and the IAB see the future of retail media

A few weeks ago, we hosted our annual Tesco Media Upfront. Each year, the Upfront brings together our colleagues from across the brand, agency, and industry world for an in-depth look at the latest developments in data science and retail media.

As well as having the chance to host an excellent discussion between Kimberly-Clark’s Scott Bodie and Prateek Gupta from OMG, I also had the privilege of speaking with Clare O’Brien, Head of Media at ISBA (the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) and James Chandler, Chief Marketing Officer at the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau).

Here’s a quick recap of some of the main themes that emerged during my conversation with Clare and James.

Standardisation is important in a diverse media environment

ISBA’s focus on retail media stems from a desire to help its members get to grips with the discipline, says Clare. “It’s a massive opportunity for advertisers,” she said, noting that many of the brands that ISBA works with “want to spend more money” on retail media, but have been concerned by a lack of standardisation. That, Clare continued, drove ISBA to launch a series of initiatives designed to find out what those standards might be.

Part of the challenge, she noted, is that there are diverse levels of media maturity between different retailers. Kindly referring to Tesco and dunnhumby as “top tier”, Clare stressed that other retailers aren’t quite as far along on their journey, making it difficult to create a unified standard. Nonetheless, in partnership with other organisations, ISBA is making solid progress on a set of universal metrics, she added.

What was once a sleeping giant is now a juggernaut

The IAB splits its focus across two timelines, says James. First, there’s what’s going on today, which brings issues like cookies, identity, and transparency to the table. Then, there are the issues that are “coming over the hill”. For a long time, he continued, retail media has been in that second camp: an interesting prospect, but one that’s not quite ready for the mainstream. That, he stressed, is no longer the case.

Referencing Amazon’s early forays into the discipline, James described retail media as a previously “sleeping giant” – and one that is now very definitely awake. “The optics are different now,” he said, pointing to Tesco’s own Connected Store portfolio as something that has helped to redefine what retail media is and can be.

Testament to that, he noted, is the appointment of Tesco to the IAB board, a group of 25 companies that help to steer the overall direction of the organisation. In joining, Tesco became the first retail media owner on that board, a reflection on the growing significance of the discipline to advertising as whole.

Co-operation is key to retail media’s long-term success

While there might not be any lack of collaborative spirit around retail media today, maintaining that attitude will be key to its ongoing success, said Clare. Asked what her one request for retail media owners would be, she noted that retailers, brands, and agencies have been excellent at working co-operatively so far, and that she wanted to see that “ideal marriage” continue. “Carry on being open minded,” she implored our audience.

James was quick to agree. “A rising tide floats all boats,” he noted, pointing to the fact that advertising was probably the only thing capable of bringing the likes of Google, Facebook, and Twitter together in collaboration. The same principle should be true for retailers, he added, as well as any other business with an interest in retail media.

“The Venn diagrams are blurring,” he continued, noting that hotel chains and transportation companies are all starting to explore the realm of advertising. Nonetheless, in a world in which cookies and identifiers are disappearing, and first-party data is becoming more important as a result, it is retailers who are “placed to do brilliantly well,” he said.

Anti-collaboration? All about sales? The biggest myths about retail media

Ending our conversation in an appropriately upfront way, I asked our guests what they felt the biggest myth about retail media was – and each had equally compelling answers.

For Clare, it was the fact that retail media is about more than selling something off the page (a sentiment that drew a great deal of support in my earlier discussion with Scott and Prateek). “Yes, it will do lots of that,” she said, “but we’ve barely scratched the surface of its potential within the entire ecosystem”.

James, on the other hand, referred back to Clare’s earlier mention of collaboration. “The idea that everyone is in a silo and that no-one wants to work together is nonsense,” he said, continuing on to point out that the IAB had six retailers sharing the stage together at an upcoming event. The thought that retailers and brands “can’t do the collaboration thing very well” needed to be consigned to history, he added.

Thanks so much to Clare, James, Scott, and Prateek for taking the time to speak at the Tesco Media Upfront. Looking for more content from the event? Find out what an award winning retail media campaign looks like here.