On 24th September, Amsterdam set the stage for our inaugural Retail Media Impact Summit 2025, where more than 150 senior European leaders came together for a day dedicated to shaping and driving the future of Retail Media.
The Summit was not about big reveals. It was about big conversations and building what’s next. An open forum for stakeholders to really exchange their perspectives and contribute towards actionable outputs across key topics. From incrementality measurement and clean room solutions to in-store activation and the convergence of Retail Media with CTV, every angle was explored. Through keynotes and interactive breakout sessions, participants went beyond discussions to dive deep into the challenges and solutions that will shape the future of this dynamic industry.
Beyond the content, the Summit also created space for meaningful connections. Networking breaks, collaborative workshops, and informal conversations all played a key role in strengthening the community and fostering partnerships that will drive Retail Media forward.
A huge thank you to our Summit Sponsors, Koddi, STRATACACHE, TikTok, Zitcha, Appsflyer, Liveramp, Moloco, Advertima, Media Markt Saturn, and everyone who attended and participated. Your insights, collaboration, and contributions made the Summit a great success, and we can’t wait to see you again next year.
Keep your eyes peeled for more content from the Summit coming very soon.
In the meantime, watch our highlight reel here to relive all of the key moments from the day.
This Summit was inspired by the work of our Retail & Commerce Media Committee. To learn more about our initiatives and explore how you can get involved, visit our Retail Media Hub or contact our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett at puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
24th September 2025, Brussels, Belgium - IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem, is delighted to announce that Albert Heijn has become the first Retail Media Network (RMN) to be certified under the IAB Europe Retail Media Certification Programme. The certification follows the successful completion of a pilot audit conducted by ABC, one of the independent auditors participating in the programme.
Launched in October 2024, the Retail Media Certification Programme is designed to bring greater transparency, consistency, and trust to the measurement of both on-site and off-site Retail Media campaigns. By meeting the certification standards, retailers demonstrate their commitment to delivering accountable, transparent, and high-quality Retail Media offerings. This, in turn, fosters a trusted environment for brands and agencies to invest with confidence, driving growth and maturity across the European market.
As part of this programme, Albert Heijn has now been certified for Display (static) and Sponsored Products across its on-site properties, including the Albert Heijn website and mobile app. Retail Media Networks participating in the programme can choose which specific ad products to put forward for certification, ensuring flexibility while maintaining rigorous standards.
Commenting on the achievement, IAB Europe’s Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett, said, “The completion of this first pilot audit by Albert Heijn and ABC marks a major milestone in the rollout of the programme. The process has provided valuable insights that will further enhance IAB Europe’s Retail Media Measurement Standards and certification framework, ensuring they remain practical, robust, and aligned with the needs of the Retail Media ecosystem. ABC’s role as the first auditor to deliver a certification also demonstrates the importance of trusted, independent verification in building confidence in this fast-growing sector. We look forward to engaging more retailers in this programme.”
As the first RMN to be certified, Albert Heijn’s certification recognises the retailer’s strong commitment to transparency, accountability, and measurable impact in its Retail Media solutions, establishing a benchmark for the wider market and paving the way for more companies to follow.
Rolf Oosterhoff, Head of Retail Media Services at Albert Heijn, commented, “We’re proud that Albert Heijn is the first retail media network to be certified to IAB Europe’s Retail Media Standards. This recognition underscores our commitment to transparency and effectiveness. Albert Heijn has long been a frontrunner in retail media. It’s a milestone for us and for the industry, and we look forward to working with our partners to further professionalise and grow retail media.”
As one of the auditors for the Certification Programme, ABC plays a critical role in conducting impartial and transparent assessments of participating companies, verifying that they meet the certification requirements set out by IAB Europe.
Jan Pitt, Commercial Director, ABC, said, “We’re delighted to have partnered with the Albert Heijn team to deliver the programme’s first certification and a clear reference point for the market. Our audit verified how onsite metrics are defined, captured, and reported by testing the methodology, data flows, and evidence behind the numbers - giving advertisers and Retail Media Networks the confidence to trade on independently verified metrics.”
Building on this success, IAB Europe has expanded the programme to ad technology providers. Auditing and certifying both retailers and technology providers will ensure a consistent, end-to-end framework for Retail Media, further enhancing trust, transparency, and investment confidence across the ecosystem.
For more information on IAB Europe’s Retail Media Certification programme and how you can get involved, please visit the website here or reach out to the team at retailmediastandards@iabeurope.eu.
22nd September 2025, Brussels, Belgium - Last week, during DMEXCO in Cologne, IAB Europe, the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, convened its Board of Directors to appoint a new Chair, Vice Chair, and Officers.
Reyes Justribó, CEO at IAB Spain, was elected Chair. Rhys Nölke, Chief Data Officer at Bertelsmann, was elected as Vice-Chair. Marino Gualano, Founder & International Business Development Director, Tangoo S.R.L was elected Treasurer.
They will be joined on the Executive Committee by:
The Executive Committee supports the IAB Europe Board of Directors and CEO in key decision-making, providing advice and strategic guidance.
Reflecting on her newly appointed role, Reyes Justribó commented, “It’s an honour and great responsibility to have been elected by my colleagues in the IAB Europe Board to serve as its Chair. I’m very conscious of the big challenges we have ahead as an industry and the important role our association has to play in supporting our associates to navigate them. The digital advertising industry is critical for creating employment and value all around Europe, and we all have to support its positive development. We, as a European association, will keep on working with the different stakeholders involved to create a safe and respectful environment in which the industry will keep on innovating and thriving to better serve European consumers.”
Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, welcomed the new Executive Committee, saying, “This is an exciting and interesting time for IAB Europe as we proceed through the first year of the new European Commission’s mandate, with more innovation and policy developments on the horizon. I am delighted to welcome such a strong and diverse Executive Committee, whose leadership will be invaluable in guiding our organisation and supporting the digital advertising industry through this next chapter.”
Visit IAB Europe’s website for more information on the full Board of Directors and to explore the focus and work of the Association.
22nd September 2025, Brussels, Belgium - Last week, during DMEXCO in Cologne, IAB Europe, the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, convened its Board of Directors to appoint a new Chair, Vice Chair, and Officers.
Reyes Justribó, CEO at IAB Spain, was elected Chair. Rhys Nölke, Chief Data Officer at Bertelsmann, was elected as Vice-Chair. Marino Gualano, Founder & International Business Development Director, Tangoo S.R.L was elected Treasurer.
They will be joined on the Executive Committee by:
The Executive Committee supports the IAB Europe Board of Directors and CEO in key decision-making, providing advice and strategic guidance.
Reflecting on her newly appointed role, Reyes Justribó commented, “It’s an honour and great responsibility to have been elected by my colleagues in the IAB Europe Board to serve as its Chair. I’m very conscious of the big challenges we have ahead as an industry and the important role our association has to play in supporting our associates to navigate them. The digital advertising industry is critical for creating employment and value all around Europe, and we all have to support its positive development. We, as a European association, will keep on working with the different stakeholders involved to create a safe and respectful environment in which the industry will keep on innovating and thriving to better serve European consumers.”
Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, welcomed the new Executive Committee, saying, “This is an exciting and interesting time for IAB Europe as we proceed through the first year of the new European Commission’s mandate, with more innovation and policy developments on the horizon. I am delighted to welcome such a strong and diverse Executive Committee, whose leadership will be invaluable in guiding our organisation and supporting the digital advertising industry through this next chapter.”
Visit IAB Europe’s website for more information on the full Board of Directors and to explore the focus and work of the Association.
IAB Europe has partnered with Retail X for their latest event.
This is an exclusive, by-application-only gathering of 50 senior retail media leaders from retailers, brands and agencies, designed not to talk at you, but to have you roll up your sleeves and drive the UK’s retail media future.
Why this isn’t your ordinary conference
Building on themes emerging from Retail MediaX in May, this is an opportunity for those invested in the future of Retail Media to stay current, steal a lead on competitors, and forge relationships with industry peers and potential partners in a more intimate setting.
At our upcoming Retail Media Impact Summit, leading retailers, brands, and tech providers will gather on 24th September in Amsterdam to explore the innovations, strategies, and partnerships shaping the future of Retail Media in Europe. Across a packed agenda of keynotes, debates, and practical case studies, attendees will gain actionable insights to maximise the impact of their Retail Media investments.
One of the sessions set to provide a valuable perspective is “Advancing Incrementality Measurement”, which will examine how brands and retailers can move beyond traditional KPIs like ROAS to truly understand the incremental impact of their media investments. The session will feature experts, including our Retail Media Consultant Yara Daher, as well as Stanislas Lajouanie, VP Brands EU & LATAM at LiveRamp, who will share his experience working with global brands on this critical topic.
We caught up with Stanislas ahead of the event to hear his thoughts on incrementality measurement and what he’s most looking forward to at the Summit.
"Incrementality is about comparing two groups - one exposed to ads and one not - where the only difference between them is the campaign itself. This allows us to isolate and highlight the real impact of advertising on in-store sales with a high degree of confidence. It’s also a crucial complement to MMM and MTA: while those approaches provide broader or more continuous measurement frameworks, incrementality delivers a snapshot in time - a clear picture at time T - that shows the direct lift generated by a campaign. That’s why it’s such an important topic for us to address at the Retail Media Impact Summit, where precision and accountability in measurement are at the core of the conversation."
"We’re in a challenging time where brands are under pressure to prove the value of every marketing investment, and clear performance KPIs are more important than ever at the C-level. In many ways, the CFO has become the new CMO, demanding accountability and tangible business outcomes from marketing spend. This is why incrementality is so essential today: it demonstrates the true, causal impact of a platform or campaign on business results, cutting through noise and correlation to show what is actually driving growth."
"We help make collaboration possible by addressing the trust gap between retailers and brands: retailers are reluctant to share their data directly with brands, and brands face the same hesitation in return. By introducing a trusted third party and a secure, privacy-safe environment, we enable data collaboration without compromising control. This approach allows both sides to unlock real value — for example, by measuring the true impact of brand campaigns on sales, both in-store and online, using retailers’ transactional data within a unified platform. In the end, data collaboration is not just about sharing data, but about building the confidence and infrastructure to generate actionable insights that benefit the entire ecosystem."
Examples :
"What excites me most about the Retail Media Impact Summit is the opportunity to bring together retailers, brands, and technology partners around the same table to discuss how retail media can truly drive business outcomes. It’s a rare moment where the entire ecosystem aligns on innovation and collaboration - and especially on how we measure success. Measurement is at the heart of accountability, and I’m looking forward to exchanging ideas, sharing success stories, and exploring how we can collectively raise the bar for impact in retail media."
Stanislas Lajouanie and other industry leaders will be joining the Retail Media Impact Summit
The Retail Media Impact Summit, taking place on 24th September in Amsterdam, is the must-attend event for Retail Media professionals, bringing together leading voices from across the ecosystem for an interactive day of knowledge-sharing, practical workshops, and high-level debate.
Although the Summit is now sold out, the conversations don’t stop there. The insights and outcomes from the day will feed directly into our Retail & Commerce Media Committee, which continues to shape standards, share best practices, and tackle the key challenges facing the market. From transparency and measurement to off-site activation and in-store innovation, the committee will be driving forward the workstreams that matter most for the industry’s growth.
Find out more about how to get involved in our blog post here.
18th September 2025, Brussels, Belgium - IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising industry, has today released the first Pan-European Impact Report on the Impact of AI on Digital Advertising, the first study showing how AI is being adopted, governed, and leveraged across the digital advertising ecosystem.
The results are clear. AI is no longer emerging; it is already here. The majority of companies (85%) report using AI-based tools for marketing purposes, most commonly for targeting (64%) and content generation (61%). Around three-quarters of respondents also plan to maintain or increase their investment in AI, signalling strong confidence in its role as a growth driver for the industry.
Developed by IAB Europe’s AI Working Group, the survey gathered nearly 100 responses from advertisers, agencies, ad tech companies, and publishers across multiple European markets, with over half completing it in the German language.
Commenting on the findings of the report, IAB Europe’s Data Analyst & Sustainability Lead, Dimitris Beis, said, “The digital advertising ecosystem is on the hunt for AI opportunities, both in terms of innovative technologies and new contact surfaces with users. The findings show that adoption in both predictive and generative use cases is widespread, but barriers such as shortages in expertise still need to be addressed. The ecosystem is dealing with questions old and new on issues ranging from privacy to governance, highlighting both that it has been underpinned by machine learning for decades and that new capabilities have transformative potential.”
Key Findings from the Report:
AI Adoption is Widespread and Investment is Growing
85% of companies already use AI-based tools for marketing, with nearly three-quarters confirming at least one campaign function is AI-powered. No respondents plan to reduce spend, and the majority expect to maintain or increase investment.
Targeting and Content Generation Lead Use Cases
Targeting and content generation top the list of AI-powered functions. Ad tech firms and agencies report clear KPI benefits, while publishers remain more cautious, with fewer than a third citing CPM increases.
Governance and Guidance Remain Inconsistent
While 68% of companies have general internal AI guidelines in place, less than half (43%) have them for marketing and advertising. Only a third of companies receive buy-side guidelines on AI, and in many organisations, governance is either not formalised or rests with a single lead.
Privacy and Skills Gaps are the Biggest Barriers
Privacy is flagged as the number one concern across the ecosystem when it comes to the use of AI in digital ad campaigns. Lack of internal expertise and training also stand out as critical obstacles to wider adoption, with differing views on whether user data can be used to train AI models.
Performance and Market Expectations Vary Across Sectors
60% of ad tech firms and 48% of agencies report KPI improvements from AI adoption, but publisher benefits are less direct. Looking ahead, over 80% of respondents say they are interested in buying or selling ad space on consumer-facing AI platforms such as LLM-based chatbots.
Wayne Tassie, Group Director NL at DoubleVerify and Chair of IAB Europe’s Advertising & Media Committee, also commented on the report, saying, “AI is beginning to reshape the foundations of digital advertising, with the majority of companies already using it in some capacity to finesse targeting and accelerate content generation. By streamlining processes, enhancing scale, and driving performance, AI is unlocking new work streams across the ecosystem. Yet gaps remain; governance and expertise are inconsistent, demand guidance is limited, and privacy stands out as the number one concern.
IAB Europe's report underscores the urgent need for clear frameworks, ongoing training, and responsible deployment. By addressing these challenges, AI can become an organic part of daily workflows and unlock a new era of efficiency, creativity, and sustainable growth for our industry.”
The report’s findings will directly shape the priorities of IAB Europe’s AI Working Group, which brings together experts from across the ecosystem to collaborate on responsible and effective AI adoption. Building on these insights, the group will continue its focus on key outputs including developing a Guide to Prompting for Digital Advertising and collaborating with publishers to address content access.
The full report can be downloaded from IAB Europe’s website here.
To find out more about our AI work and how you can get involved, please get in touch with IAB Europe’s Data Analyst & Sustainability Lead, Dimitris Beis, at beis [at] iabeurope [dot] eu.
This autumn, we're offering a unique opportunity to dive deeper into the world of Retail Media with two expert-led training courses. Whether you’re new to the space or looking to enhance your expertise, these virtual sessions are designed to help you stay ahead in this fast-growing sector.
Seats are limited and filling fast, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to upskill and stay ahead.
We’re hosting two focused courses, designed to give you both the fundamentals and advanced measurement insights,
Retail Media Essentials - 8th October - 10:00 - 13:00 CET
This interactive course covers the core concepts you need to know: omnichannel Retail Media strategies, measurement standards, in-store opportunities, and the latest market trends. Perfect for those starting out or wanting to solidify their foundation.
Retail & Commerce Media Measurement Deep-Dive - 9th October - 10:30 - 12:00 CET
Take a deep dive into Retail Media measurement with this session, exploring key metrics, frameworks, data privacy considerations, and the biggest industry challenges. Ideal for professionals ready to boost their measurement expertise.
Attend both courses to gain a comprehensive view of the Retail Media landscape. Take advantage of our bundle offer here!
The sessions will be led by senior industry leaders with hands-on experience, ensuring you gain both practical knowledge and strategic insight.
Yara Daher
Yara is a Retail Media pioneer who helped launch some of the industry’s first major Retail Media Networks for brands like Walmart,
Target and Best Buy.
Arjen Heida
Arjen is a retail and commerce media leader who drove triple-digit growth as Managing Director of bol Retail Media. He now advises on strategy, capability building, and growth.
With limited seats available, early registration is your best chance to secure a spot.
View course details and register below.
Calling all addressability and measurement experts from across the digital advertising ecosystem. This is your last chance to share your insights in a new industry survey.
Developed by our Addressability & Measurement Working Group, this short survey has been designed to understand how addressability and measurement solutions are currently being adopted in Europe. We’re seeking input from advertisers, agencies, publishers, and technology providers to capture a clear picture of:
By participating, you’ll be contributing to vital industry knowledge that will help:
It will take less than 10 minutes to complete – and your feedback will directly help the industry move forward together.
Final deadline to participate: Monday, 29th September
For more than a decade, the MIXX Awards Europe have recognised and celebrated the campaigns shaping the future of digital advertising. Each year, the competition shines a spotlight on creative excellence and strategic innovation, honouring work that resonates with audiences and drives real results. In 2025, the Awards return for their 14th edition with a central theme of Future Proof Creativity – championing ideas that stand the test of time rather than fleeting trends.
At the heart of this year’s Awards is Andrei Dragu, IAB Europe’s Awards Event Director, who is leading the organisation and delivery of the programme. From managing entries and guiding participants through the process to working closely with the Jury and ensuring every detail runs smoothly, Andrei plays a pivotal role in bringing the MIXX Awards to life.
In this blog, we’re shining the spotlight on Andrei to learn more about his role, what excites him most about the 2025 edition, and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into celebrating the very best in digital advertising across Europe.
“I like to think of my role as both conductor and stage manager. On one side, I set the rhythm and make sure that the orchestra of entries, jurors, partners, and sponsors stays in sync. On the other side, I’m backstage ensuring every wire, cue, and detail works flawlessly so the spotlight always falls on the campaigns themselves, not on the machinery behind them.
It’s about creating clarity and flow for entrants, giving confidence and structure to the jury, and delivering an experience where creativity is celebrated without distraction.”
“For me, 2025 is a milestone year because we’ve reimagined the categories from the ground up. The new structure doesn’t just reward what worked in the past; it mirrors where digital marketing is heading.
By organising the Awards around six pillars from Tech & Innovation to Culture & Communities, we’re building a framework that maps the full breadth of creativity today. That excites me because it means the Awards don’t just recognise campaigns, they also provide a compass for the industry’s evolution.”
“A truly great entry, it’s a story, one that begins with an insight, unfolds with creative bravery, and ends with proof of real impact.
The strongest entries connect human tension with brand action and show how creativity solved something meaningful.
Judges are not only looking for clever executions, they’re looking for the spark that made people feel, think, or act differently. Creativity is the spark, but results are the echo. Without both, the story feels incomplete.”
“My biggest piece of advice is this: don’t focus only on what you did, but explain why it mattered. That’s why we introduced the Campaign Rationale section for 2025.
It serves two purposes. First, it makes life easier for participants, giving them a dedicated space to explain their category-centric thinking without getting lost in details. Second, it gives judges immediate clarity on why the campaign belongs in a specific category.
This is crucial because sometimes the same campaign could fit into several categories, but the rationale helps connect the dots between the idea and the criteria.
For entrants, it’s the chance to frame your campaign in the best possible way. For jurors, it’s the lens that makes comparisons fairer, faster, and more relevant.
My advice is to treat this section as the heart of your submission: frame the challenge, highlight the unique angle, and show why your campaign deserves to stand out in the category you submitted your work.”
Our Retail Media Impact Summit is now officially sold out! The response has been extraordinary - proof of just how fundamental Retail Media has become for the digital advertising ecosystem.
However, the Summit is only the beginning. The real engine of change lies ahead, driven by our Retail & Commerce Media Committee. The Committee will continue the conversations and collaborations started at the Summit, leading real industry progress and practical outputs that will shape the future of this space.
Why The Agenda Matters
Our programme has been carefully designed around several critical and high-impact themes that go beyond surface-level discussion:
1. Incrementality Measurement - Demonstrating the true impact of Retail Media investments.
2. Retailer First-Party Data & Clean Rooms - Enabling trusted collaboration with rigorous privacy and security.
3. Evolution of On-Site Opportunities - Rethinking formats and placements for better consumer and advertiser experiences.
4. The Duo Effect – Retail Media & CTV - Leveraging the synergy between Retail Media and connected TV.
5. Industry Standards for Commerce Media - Expanding on the frameworks needed for comparability, scalability, and consistency.
6. Digital In-Store Buying and Measurement - Bringing the precision of digital measurement into the physical shopping experience.
Each theme will be explored not just through thought-provoking keynotes, but via interactive breakout sessions focused on collaboration, problem-solving, and real-world outcomes, whether that’s whitepapers, guidelines, or draft standards.
Why Join IAB Europe’s Retail & Commerce Media Committee?
Missed out on a ticket to the Summit? Fear not, there is still an important way to take part. Our Retail & Commerce Media Committee is the place where these conversations continue and are transformed into practical industry outputs.
The Committee has already delivered pan-European definitions, best-practice guides, and, most recently, a Retail Media Certification Programme to help standardise and strengthen this fast-growing space.For the rest of the year, it will continue to focus on advancing education, improving measurement standards, and producing outputs based on the critical discussions from the Summit
By joining, you can help shape these outputs, contribute to the development of standards, and play an active role in building the future of retail and commerce media across Europe.
Ready to Make a Difference?
The Committee is the only dedicated space in Europe bringing retailers, brands, agencies, and tech providers together to solve Retail Media’s biggest challenges. If you’d like to join this collaborative effort, we’d love to hear from you.
To find out more about IAB Europe membership, visit our Membership page here.
To learn more about our Retail & Commerce Media work and how you can get involved, visit our Retail Media Hub here or reach out to our Industry Development & Insights Director, Marie-Clare Puffett at puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
As consumer behaviour shifts and media consumption fragments, the lines between Connected TV (CTV) and Retail Media are rapidly blurring. This blog explores how these two powerful ecosystems are converging to create more seamless, data-driven advertising experiences. From enhanced audience targeting to measurable outcomes across the path to purchase, we unpack the strategic synergies that are reshaping brand engagement.
A big thank you to the following contributors for sharing their thoughts:
Anne Höldke, Retail Media & Compliance Manager, Ad Alliance
Lucie Laurendon, Product Marketing Director, Equativ
Lucie: “Retail Media data, like users’ purchases and shopping intent, helps improve CTV ads by targeting the right audience with relevant messages. After the campaign, Retail Media data can help measure the impact of CTV campaigns by linking ad views with actual purchases, online or in-store, so advertisers know what works best.”
Anne: “Retail Media data transforms CTV advertising through authenticated consumer intent signals, enabling precision marketing in commerce. Unlike demographic targeting, retail data provides verified purchase behaviour for personalised CTV creative optimisation. For CTV publishers, this creates opportunities to offer superior targeting capabilities. Publishers partner with retailers through Data Clean Room collaborations, overlapping consented users from both ends, and consequently developing high-performance audience segments that deliver better campaign results. When CTV inventory reaches authenticated purchasers of specific categories, advertisers achieve higher conversion rates and ROAS, making CTV campaigns more effective for commerce-driven objectives than traditional brand awareness approaches.”
Lucie: “With fragmented but highly engaged audiences, CTV makes it possible to leverage transactional or behavioral data from retail to activate targeted, contextualised, and measurable campaigns on a large scale. By combining first-party data from retailers with the addressability capabilities of CTV platforms, it becomes possible, for example, to broadcast a relevant ad to a family who has already made a similar or complementary purchase. This means ads are more personal and shown at the best time, on screens and shows where people pay more attention, using premium ad formats.
For agencies and advertisers, CTV also offers new premium spaces to advertise and direct ways to measure how well the campaigns work. This helps them extend their Retail Media efforts to TV screens, which were mostly used for brand awareness before, giving them more power to run full-funnel campaigns.”
Anne: “Connecting Retail Media data and CTV enables valuable amplification for advertisers. Publishers with CTV, in-page, and display inventory can orchestrate complete customer journeys. For example, a brand can target authenticated cart abandoners through CTV campaigns, then retarget with display ads on mobile devices within the same household featuring specific product discounts. The publisher can also scale the audience by creating lookalike segments and extending reach with adjacent target groups from its DMP. This cross-device retargeting approach maximises campaign reach while maintaining message consistency. Publishers can coordinate messaging across all touchpoints - from CTV awareness to mobile display conversion - creating comprehensive campaign ecosystems that demonstrate measurable business impact through integrated attribution.”
Lucie: “A major challenge is that CTV and Retail Media have been managed in silos until now. CTV is often led by brand teams focused on reach and awareness, while Retail Media is driven by commerce or performance teams optimising for conversions and ROAS. These teams typically operate with separate KPIs, timelines, and platforms, making alignment difficult. Measurement remains a key pain point. Connecting CTV ad exposure to actual retail sales, online or in-store, is often complicated.
Anne: “While technical measurement challenges exist, publishers should guide advertisers toward objective-specific KPIs rather than universal measurement approaches. Different campaign objectives require different success metrics - ROAS for conversion campaigns, page visits for consideration, and brand lift for awareness. Publishers can offer testing frameworks comparing traditional targeting against retail data activation through parallel campaign flights. Data Clean Room capabilities enable attribution analysis by overlaying campaign exposure with purchase behaviour during campaign periods. Additionally, integrated brand lift studies measure awareness, purchase intent, and consideration changes. This positions publishers as strategic consultants helping advertisers prove incremental value through controlled testing methodologies rather than struggling with technical measurement gaps.”
Lucie: “The convergence between CTV and Retail Media opens up new and powerful opportunities for retailers looking to expand their Retail Media strategy beyond performance channels and into full-funnel marketing. By using shopper data, retailers can offer brands more relevant and personalised campaigns, while generating new revenue streams. CTV also increases viewer attention compared to traditional digital formats, thanks to a more immersive experience and innovative ad formats. Unlike traditional TV, CTV also supports full-funnel strategies, helping retailers engage consumers from awareness to conversion, with measurable results. Another key benefit is the ability to link ads to local store data, allowing for geolocalised promotions based on stock or offers in nearby locations. Finally, CTV fits naturally into an omnichannel retail media strategy, working alongside on-site, off-site, and in-store channels to deliver a consistent and more impactful shopper experience.”
Anne: “Retailers gain significant advantages through publisher partnerships beyond traditional media buying. Privacy-safe collaboration with publishers enables comprehensive customer journey mapping across off-site inventory, providing attribution insights and deeper customer understanding that retailers cannot achieve independently.
Publishers offer essential audience scaling capabilities - creating lookalike audiences and extending reach through their DMP data. For retailers, look-alike modeling through publisher partnerships represents the only viable path for new customer acquisition at scale. Retailers can leverage publisher data to identify potential customers beyond their existing database, then coordinate messaging across CTV, display, and in-store touchpoints. This offsite inventory access, combined with comprehensive measurement capabilities, enables retailers to optimise the complete customer journey while generating incremental revenue.”
IAB Europe’s Retail & Commerce Media Committee is at the forefront of the Retail Media industry. Members are driving Retail Media growth and shaping the landscape by:
All of the work of the Committee can be found in our Retail Media Hub here.
Find out more about our work and how you can get involved by contacting Marie-Clare Puffett - puffett [at] iabeurope.eu.
