In this week’s guest member blog, James Allison ,Senior Director Global Market Development & Growth from Advertima explores how audience-based targeting and measurement can unlock new opportunities for in-store Retail Media. Drawing on real-world examples, he examines how retailers can move beyond traditional screen-based advertising to make in-store audiences more measurable, addressable and actionable, driving greater value for retailers, brands and shoppers alike.
A shopper standing in front of a screen is an immediate media opportunity. Yet when advertising follows a fixed loop, the message is decided by the schedule rather than the audience present. The opportunity for in-store retail media is to close that gap: make audiences measurable and addressable, make them accessible to buyers, and use that information to influence what happens on screen.
This changes the starting point for a media plan. Instead of choosing locations alone, brands and agencies can ask which audiences they want to reach, when they can reach them and how delivery will be assessed. For retailers, it creates a way to develop the media value of an existing store environment while complementing established trade marketing.
Measurement, addressability and activation play different roles. Measurement helps describe the audience reached. Addressability makes an audience available for a media buy. Activation connects that opportunity to the delivery of an advertisement. More detailed reporting has limited value if it never changes a planning or delivery decision.
The practical question is therefore what an audience signal enables a retailer or advertiser to do differently. Can it inform a booking? Can it trigger a relevant message while that audience is present? Can campaign delivery be evaluated against an agreed objective? Those questions connect audience intelligence to the everyday work of media teams.
Having spent the past decade in Retail Media, I’ve watched digital networks transform how brands connect with high-intent audiences. Today, the next frontier isn’t confined to a browser, it’s on the store floor. Crucially, this shift doesn’t require tearing down existing commercial structures. Audience-based in-store Retail Media coexists with existing commercial models. By introducing dynamic, audience-led capabilities alongside foundational joint business plans, it unlocks an entirely new layer of media demand, driving incremental, high-margin revenue for retailers, metrics that agencies and brands can plan against, while elevating the in-aisle experience for the shopper.
The published Sensodyne case study at Carrefour UAE illustrates how that connection can be tested. Across 23 stores, the campaign compared four approaches: direct and programmatic buying, each with and without real-time audience targeting. The approaches ran concurrently in separate store groups, with creative and budgets kept consistent.
Advertima’s published account reports a 68% sales uplift over 20 days. That is a campaign-specific reported result, rather than a performance promise for other retailers. The useful lesson is the test structure: audience targeting was connected to ad delivery and sales outcomes, making it possible to examine the commercial relevance of different approaches rather than simply produce another audience report.
“The future requires retailers selling audiences, baskets, and outcomes, not shelves and screens. Trade marketing buys presence; retail media should buy audiences, context, and outcomes.” — Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media
MediaWorld Italy, a consumer electronics retailer and part of MediaMarkt, illustrates a different part of the opportunity. As discussed in the IAB Europe podcast, the retailer’s existing TV walls were complemented by audience measurement. Audience-impression data provided a basis for planning and purchasing advertising in that environment.
This is a distinct use case from the Sensodyne activation. Its relevance is the move towards describing existing screen inventory in terms that media buyers can use. An audience-based proposition can help a retailer explain who advertisers could reach, alongside where their advertising would appear. It does not require every retailer to start with the same infrastructure or buying model.
For retailers, the starting point should be a clear commercial use case for the audience and inventory they already have. For brands and agencies, the brief should define the audience, the role of the message and the outcome being tested. Both sides need a shared understanding of what a reported impression represents and how delivery and results will be assessed.
Creative also has to fit the moment. An audience signal cannot compensate for a message that is hard to understand in a brief encounter. Connecting audience selection, creative delivery and measurement should therefore be part of campaign design from the outset.
The next step for in-store Retail Media is to make audience knowledge usable in an actual media decision. The more clearly retailers and buyers connect an audience opportunity to booking, delivery and evaluation, the more useful the physical store becomes within a wider media plan.
