Executive Summary
Retail media networks are entering a new maturity phase. The market is no longer evaluating only whether retailers can monetise audiences and inventory. Brands and agencies are asking whether networks can support repeatable planning, transparent activation, comparable measurement, credible incrementality, and a partnership that improves over time.
RETHINK Retail's "Beyond the Transaction" session frames this shift through partnership, proof of impact, and brand investment conversations. [1] This report develops that framing through a secondary-research synthesis of buyer surveys, industry standards, and measurement guidance.
The central finding is that the scalable unit of retail media is not the ad product. It is the operating model that connects brand objectives, audience and data value, media portfolio, activation, measurement, incrementality, transparency, service, and learning.
Research Finding Brands are most likely to increase confidence in a retail media network when product differentiation is accompanied by common decision language: clear objectives, audience definitions, activation rules, measurement methods, limitations, and accountable follow-through. |
Research Methodology and Source Selection
This report is a secondary-research synthesis and proprietary operating-model analysis. It does not present a primary survey or claim statistically representative findings of its own. The Intent Amplify Research Desk reviewed public materials from the official campaign publisher, trade associations, standards bodies, advertiser organisations, and clearly identified sponsored industry research.
Source selection followed a hierarchy: official campaign and standards sources first; advertiser and industry surveys second; sponsored research only where methodology, scope, and commercial interest could be stated. Quantitative claims retain their year, geography, sample, and sponsorship limits.
The evidence base covers advertiser priorities, collaboration, buying complexity, measurement standards, attribution, incrementality, in-store definitions, data collaboration, and cross-industry governance. Sources were selected for direct relevance to the operating model rather than for the volume of statistics.
Source Tier | Examples | Use in This Report |
Tier 1: Official standards and trade bodies | IAB, MRC, IAB Europe, ANA, 4As | Definitions, measurement principles, incrementality, in-store standards, buyer priorities, and industry governance. |
Tier 2: Advertiser and industry research | ANA client-side surveys; IAB/IAB Europe stakeholder studies | Buyer concerns, operating friction, transparency, standardisation, and partnership expectations. |
Tier 3: Sponsored and provider evidence | Advantage Group / Sevendots; Path to Purchase Institute / TransUnion | Directional evidence on collaboration, advertiser evaluation dimensions, and network capability gaps; sponsorship and sample limits are retained. |
Executive Findings
1. Brand priorities extend beyond inventory access. Transparency, performance, measurement options, standardisation, attribution, data timeliness, and collaboration repeatedly appear in buyer research. [3] [4] [5]
2. The market needs comparable definitions without eliminating network differentiation. IAB/MRC and IAB Europe standards focus on common measurement language, sales definitions, attribution, incrementality, and reporting. [5] [8]
3. Incrementality is a method-selection problem, not a label. The evidence level should match the business decision, counterfactual quality, bias risk, and available signal. [6] [7]
4. Advertiser experience is part of product-market fit. Buying complexity, creative workflow, service, reporting, and issue resolution can influence whether a strong audience proposition receives future budget.
5. Partnership quality has strategic relevance. Provider research associates stronger collaboration with stronger retailer performance, while buyer studies document demand for better communication and relationship quality. [2] [5]
Retail Media Is Moving From Product Expansion to Operating Discipline
Retail media portfolios have expanded across on-site, off-site, in-store, search, display, video, social, sponsorship, and data-enabled activation. More products create more ways to support brand and shopper objectives, but they also create more definitions, workflows, pricing models, creative requirements, and measurement paths.
IAB's 2025 Outlook projected retail media growth above overall ad-spend growth and noted that buyer objectives span the funnel. [11] The projection is not a realised market result, but it illustrates the allocation pressure that networks and brands must govern.
The operating question is therefore not how many products the network can launch. It is whether the products work through a coherent planning, data, activation, measurement, and partnership model.
Buyer Priorities Require Interpretability
IAB Europe's 2025 survey of more than 180 respondents across 31 markets found that buyers prioritised transparency, performance, and measurement options. ROAS remained the most requested metric, while fragmentation and lack of standardisation were leading barriers. [3]
ANA's 2024 client-side marketer study identified lack of standardisation, attribution to sales, and data timeliness as leading concerns. [4] IAB/MRC buyer research with 200 buyers and 30 interviews found material buying complexity, demand for standards and transparency, and low satisfaction with partner communication. [5]
The findings support an interpretability principle: brands do not require every network to be the same, but they need to understand why results differ. Audience, sales basis, attribution window, media delivery, fees, and optimisation changes should be described in a common structure.
Table 1. Brand Decision Evidence
Brand Decision | Required Evidence | Approval Output |
Fund a pilot | Objective, audience, product role, commercial terms, activation feasibility, measurement plan. | Approved scope, budget, owners, and go/no-go criteria. |
Optimise a campaign | Delivery, audience response, creative, placement, pacing, and diagnostic outcome data. | Documented change, expected effect, and approval record. |
Increase annual allocation | Comparable performance, appropriate incrementality evidence, operating reliability, service, and learning. | Allocation decision, conditions, and next-period test agenda. |
Expand to new formats or channels | Shopper context, audience overlap, creative fit, measurement method, and brand-safety controls. | Portfolio decision and experience guardrails. |
Renew the partnership | Outcome evidence, transparency, service quality, action closure, and capability roadmap. | Joint business plan, owners, investment, and review cadence. |
Audience and Data Value Must Be Documented
Retailer data can provide valuable customer and commerce context. The decision value depends on how the audience is defined, how current the data is, how identity is matched, what proportion is addressable, how privacy is governed, and how much overlap may exist with other channels or networks.
IAB's advanced-measurement guide highlights the challenge of siloed data and walled gardens and describes privacy-compliant data collaboration. [6] A data clean room or collaboration platform is not itself an insight. The use case, data lineage, permissions, method, and decision must be defined.
The research implication is that every audience product should have a product record: source, logic, recency, coverage, match method, exclusions, privacy controls, overlap considerations, permitted uses, and known limitations.
Portfolio Architecture Should Explain the Funnel Role
Retail media can support conversion, customer acquisition, launch, consideration, category growth, loyalty, and learning. The same format can play different roles depending on audience and context; different formats require different evidence.
IAB and IAB Europe's in-store standards illustrate the need for environment-specific definitions and measurement. [9] An in-store screen, on-site search placement, and off-site video exposure should not share a generic measurement story simply because they belong to one network.
A portfolio architecture should state the intended role, target audience, shopper context, creative purpose, inventory rules, pricing, optimisation, measurement, and limitations for each product.
Measurement Standards Are Becoming an Adoption Requirement
IAB/MRC guidelines and IAB Europe's 2026 standards provide a foundation for consistent measurement and reporting. [5] [8] The 2026 IAB Europe update includes standard gross and net sales definitions, a refined funnel, incrementality guidance, and updated new-to-brand and new-to-category timeframes.
ANA, 4As, and IAB identified shared definitions and standards across commerce and retail media as a current cross-industry priority. [10] This is important because brand confidence depends on the ability to compare and reconcile evidence across networks and the wider media plan.
Standards should be embedded in product design, contracts, briefs, reporting templates, and training. A standards document has limited value when the operational workflow still relies on bespoke definitions.
Incrementality Requires a Decision Framework
Incrementality estimates the outcome caused by media relative to a counterfactual. It is distinct from attribution, which assigns observed outcomes according to a defined rule.
IAB's advanced-measurement guide describes randomised controlled trials, match-market testing, counterfactual models, media mix modelling, and shadow-mode testing. [6] IAB and IAB Europe's 2025 guidelines emphasise credible counterfactuals, bias control, and separation of signal from noise. [7]
The network should use a method decision tree based on the budget decision, risk of a false conclusion, data availability, test feasibility, sample requirements, and time horizon. Reports should state whether a result is attributed, modelled, experimental, or directional.
Transparency Is More Than Data Access
Transparency includes the commercial terms, audience logic, delivery, fees, optimisation, measurement method, data quality, brand safety, limitations, and issue resolution. It also includes the ability to reconcile what changed during the campaign.
IAB Europe's buyer research places transparency among the top partner-selection priorities. [3] IAB/MRC research documents similar demand. [5] The operational response is a traceable record rather than a general promise.
Networks should maintain a campaign change log, measurement plan, data-quality checks, issue register, and method note. This protects the advertiser and the network when conditions change or results require careful interpretation.
Advertiser Experience Is a Product Metric
The advertiser experiences the network through discovery, briefing, planning, contracting, creative submission, activation, optimisation, reporting, issue resolution, and renewal. Friction at any stage can reduce confidence in an otherwise strong media product.
IAB/MRC research found that 69% of buyers cited buying-process complexity and 60% wanted better collaboration and communication. [5] The result suggests that service and workflow are not secondary to product performance.
Useful measures include brief-to-launch time, creative revision cycles, response time, report timeliness, issue resolution, advertiser confidence, and action closure. These measures should be reviewed alongside revenue and delivery.
Partnership Quality Needs a Governance Model
Advantage Group cites Sevendots analysis across 21 retailers showing an association between higher collaboration and stronger revenue growth, with retail media the largest capability gap. [2] The evidence is not causal, but it demonstrates that relationship capability can be analysed and benchmarked.
A partnership governance model should include a joint objective hierarchy, named leadership team, meeting cadence, decision rights, service levels, feedback mechanism, action register, and capability roadmap.
The model should preserve constructive tension. Brands should be able to challenge methods and service. Networks should be able to challenge unclear objectives, unrealistic evidence expectations, or creative that weakens the shopper experience.
Maturity Progression
Table. Brand-Ready Retail Media Maturity
Maturity | Operating Pattern | Leadership Priority |
Transactional | Media is sold campaign by campaign; objectives, reporting, and service vary by request. | Stabilise core definitions, ownership, and advertiser communications. |
Defined | Products, briefs, KPI definitions, and service expectations are documented. | Create repeatable activation and reporting standards. |
Connected | Commercial, data, media, measurement, and retailer teams share workflows and decision rights. | Reduce handoffs, improve data quality, and connect on-site, off-site, and in-store plans. |
Measured | Performance and incrementality methods are chosen deliberately; limitations are visible. | Use comparable evidence to guide optimisation and budget allocation. |
Strategic | Joint planning, learning, and capability development shape a long-term growth partnership. | Convert advertiser feedback and evidence into a shared roadmap and mutual investment priorities. |
Research Desk Observation: Confidence Breaks at the Handoffs
The research base points to a consistent operational weakness: advertiser confidence is often lost between otherwise competent functions. A network may have strong audience science, valuable placements, reliable delivery, and sophisticated analytics, yet still create doubt when the brief, activation rules, sales data, attribution logic, and commercial review are owned separately. The problem is not the absence of capability. It is the absence of an evidence chain that lets the buyer follow one decision from objective to outcome.
The most important handoffs are visible before launch. Commercial teams translate the brand objective into a package; data teams define the addressable audience; operations confirm availability and creative rules; measurement teams define the outcome and method; finance determines the sales basis; and partnership teams manage exceptions and learning. When one handoff changes a definition without a recorded decision, the final report can be numerically accurate and still be difficult to trust.
A brand-ready network therefore needs a campaign evidence register. For every material decision, the register records the objective, audience source, product role, activation condition, measurement definition, limitation, approval owner, exception, and resulting action. This does not add another presentation layer. It creates the audit trail required to explain why a result is comparable, where it is not, and what should change in the next plan.
Network Operating Archetypes
Retail media networks do not need to converge on one commercial design. They do need to make the design legible to advertisers. Four operating archetypes provide a practical way to explain where decision authority sits, how evidence is produced, and what the brand must supply. A network may use more than one archetype across categories or products, but the boundaries should be explicit.
Table 4. Retail Media Network Operating Archetypes
Archetype | Operating Pattern | Evidence Required |
Inventory-Led Network | Scaled placements and standard packages with limited customisation. | Clear product role, transparent availability, consistent delivery and reporting definitions. |
Audience-Led Network | Differentiated retailer data and addressable audiences across channels. | Documented provenance, permissions, match quality, reach, overlap, refresh, and activation constraints. |
Outcome-Led Network | Planning and optimisation centred on sales, customer, category, or brand outcomes. | Pre-agreed decision metric, sales basis, attribution or incrementality method, limitations, and reconciliation. |
Partnership-Led Network | Joint planning, service governance, capability development, and multi-campaign learning. | Named team, decision rights, service levels, action closure, quarterly learning, and a shared capability roadmap. |
The archetype should be stated in the advertiser proposition and repeated in the brief, contract, and reporting design. This prevents a high-service partnership from being sold through an inventory-only workflow, or an outcome-led promise from being measured with an unqualified attribution report. It also helps leadership decide where standardisation is essential and where differentiated service is commercially justified.
The Intent Amplify Brand-Ready Retail Media Operating Model™
Intent Amplify Brand-Ready Retail Media Operating Model™
Eight operating layers that connect brand priorities to accountable retail media execution
01 | Shared Growth Agenda |
02 | Audience & Data Value |
03 | Portfolio & Experience |
04 | Planning & Activation |
05 | Measurement Architecture |
06 | Incrementality & Causal Evidence |
07 | Transparency & Governance |
08 | Partnership & Learning |
Figure 1. Intent Amplify Brand-Ready Retail Media Operating Model™ - Eight-Layer Architecture
Brand-Ready Retail Media Scorecard™
Intent Amplify Brand-Ready Retail Media Scorecard™
Table. Intent Amplify Brand-Ready Retail Media Scorecard™
Domain | Executive Assessment Question | Ready-State Evidence |
Strategic Alignment | Are brand, category, customer, and retailer outcomes agreed before media is selected? | Joint brief, objective hierarchy, success definitions, and named decision owners. |
Audience & Data Clarity | Can the advertiser understand who is reachable, how audiences are built, how data is governed, and where overlap may exist? | Segment definitions, coverage and match documentation, recency, consent/privacy controls, and permitted uses. |
Full-Funnel Fit | Does each product have a defined role across awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, and category growth? | Portfolio map, funnel role, audience context, shopper experience, and format guardrails. |
Activation Usability | Can teams plan, buy, launch, optimise, and troubleshoot without avoidable friction? | Standard brief, rate and availability rules, creative specifications, lead times, workflow, and service levels. |
Creative Flexibility | Can the network support brand-quality creative while protecting the shopper experience? | Approved formats, adaptable specifications, review process, brand-safety controls, and in-store/on-site experience checks. |
Measurement Consistency | Are KPI definitions, sales bases, attribution windows, reporting calendars, and methods explicit and comparable? | Measurement dictionary, gross/net sales definitions, attribution rules, reporting schedule, and reconciliation controls. |
Incrementality Readiness | Can the network distinguish observed outcomes from credible incremental impact where the decision requires it? | Test design, counterfactual, bias controls, sample and power assumptions, limitations, and decision thresholds. |
Transparency | Can the advertiser see delivery, fees, data inputs, methodology, limitations, optimisation changes, and material exceptions? | Transparent reporting, method notes, fee disclosure, change log, issue register, and auditable decision record. |
Partnership & Service | Does the network operate as an accountable partner rather than a sequence of transactions? | Named team, response standards, joint planning cadence, escalation paths, and advertiser feedback. |
Learning & Governance | Does each campaign improve the operating model and inform future allocation decisions? | Learning agenda, test register, action owners, QBR/JBP record, capability roadmap, and closed-loop follow-through. |
Board-Level Evidence and Decision Metrics
• Percentage of material campaigns with an agreed objective hierarchy, named decision owner, and measurement plan before activation.
• Advertiser portfolio by strategic role, funding source, network overlap, and required evidence level.
• Audience-product completeness: source, recency, coverage, match quality, privacy, overlap, and limitations.
• Brief-to-launch time, creative revision cycles, delivery exceptions, response time, and report timeliness.
• Percentage of reporting using standard sales, attribution, new-to-brand, and incrementality definitions.
• Material budget decisions supported by an appropriate causal method and documented limitations.
• Advertiser confidence, transparency, service, action closure, renewal conditions, and learning reuse.
• Capability-roadmap progress and operating changes completed from advertiser feedback.
Implementation Roadmap
Phase | Leadership Objective | Completion Evidence |
1. Baseline | Score the ten readiness domains and map material buyer friction. | Approved scorecard, advertiser feedback, issue register, owners, and priorities. |
2. Define the Operating Core | Standardise objectives, audience records, portfolio roles, activation workflows, measurement, and governance. | Product records, KPI dictionary, method decision tree, RACI, and service model. |
3. Pilot the Complete Model | Use one priority advertiser or category to test the operating model end to end. | Joint brief, documented activation, reporting, issue log, and decision record. |
4. Scale Standards and Transparency | Embed the model in contracts, product design, training, reporting, and reviews. | Reusable templates, audit evidence, adoption measures, and exception controls. |
5. Learn and Reallocate | Use evidence and advertiser feedback to shift investment and capability priorities. | QBR/JBP decisions, closed actions, roadmap updates, and next-test agenda. |
Recommendations With Owners and Completion Evidence
Table 5. Executive Action Plan
Recommendation | Accountable Owner | Completion Evidence |
Create a shared objective hierarchy and decision record. | RMN commercial leader / Brand lead | Approved brief, decision owner, KPI hierarchy, and funding context. |
Publish standard audience and data product records. | Data / Privacy / Product | Source, logic, recency, coverage, match, privacy, overlap, and limitations. |
Define the portfolio architecture and creative guardrails. | Media product / Experience | Funnel roles, formats, pricing, inventory, experience standards, and measurement path. |
Adopt common measurement and incrementality standards. | Measurement / Analytics | KPI dictionary, sales definitions, attribution, method decision tree, and report templates. |
Measure advertiser experience and service. | Operations / Partnerships | Workflow metrics, confidence score, issue log, service review, and action closure. |
Convert feedback into a joint capability roadmap. | Executive sponsor / Partnership team | Prioritised roadmap, owners, investment, milestones, and quarterly progress. |
Strategic Takeaway: Scale Confidence, Not Complexity
Retail media networks will remain differentiated by retailer context, audience, inventory, shopper experience, and commercial model. The market does not need to remove those differences. It needs an operating model that makes them understandable and governable.
The networks most likely to earn durable brand confidence will connect product innovation with common measurement language, transparent methods, reliable activation, accountable service, and a partnership that uses evidence to improve the next decision.
Access the Beyond the Transaction Session Explore the RETHINK Retail session on what brands expect from retail media networks and how stronger partnership, measurement, and investment conversations can move the relationship beyond inventory alone. |
Continue the Retail Media Partnership Journey
Move from executive education to operating assessment through one consistent content and decision path.
Stage | Asset or Offer | Purpose |
TOFU | Retail Media Brand-Readiness Checklist | Identify the first gaps across partnership, activation, measurement, transparency, and governance. |
MOFU | Download the Brand-Ready Retail Media Playbook | Apply the eight-layer operating model, maturity path, implementation roadmap, and scorecard. |
Decision | Access the Retail Media Partnership 2026 Research Report | Review methodology, buyer evidence, operating implications, maturity progression, and executive findings. |
Commercial | Request a Retail Media Brand-Readiness Assessment | Evaluate advertiser experience, data value, activation, measurement, incrementality, transparency, and service. |
Activation | Schedule an Executive Partnership Workshop | Align commercial, marketing, data, measurement, and operations leaders on priorities, owners, evidence, and next actions. |
About Intent Amplify
Intent Amplify combines market intelligence, buyer-signal interpretation, content-led engagement, and precision GTM execution to help B2B organisations turn complex market themes into measurable pipeline programmes. [13]
Have questions or need strategic guidance? Contact Us.
Research and Citation Governance
Official publisher, trade-association, standards, and industry-research sources are used for campaign framing, buyer priorities, measurement, and partnership claims. Survey results retain their sample, geography, year, and sponsorship limits. Forecasts are identified as projections. Proprietary frameworks and recommendations are presented as Intent Amplify analysis, not as independent market findings. All URLs were checked as accessible public sources on the revision date.
References
[1] RETHINK Retail. Beyond the Transaction: What Brands Actually Want from Retail Media Networks - official webinar page and publisher announcement. https://rethink.industries/video/beyond-the-transaction-what-brands-actually-want-from-retail-media-networks-2/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official campaign source framing the session around stronger brand partnerships, credible proof of media impact, and brand investment conversations. Promotional market-share claims are not used in this suite.
[2] Advantage Group International. Retail Media Network Performance Measurement / Voice of Retail Media. https://www.advantagegroup.com/retailers/retail-media Accessed July 28, 2026. Official provider page citing Sevendots analysis across 21 major global retailers. It reports that the most collaborative retailers grew revenue by 4.6% on average while the rest declined by 1.2%, and that retail media was the largest measured capability gap. The relationship is treated as an association, not proof of causation.
[3] IAB Europe. Attitudes to Retail Media Report 2025 - key trends, challenges, and opportunities. https://iabeurope.eu/iab-europe-releases-latest-attitudes-to-retail-media-report-revealing-key-trends-challenges-and-opportunities/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Industry survey with more than 180 respondents across 31 markets. Buyers prioritised transparency, performance, and measurement options; fragmentation and lack of standardisation remained major barriers. Survey scope and geography are retained.
[4] Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Retail Media Networks: Optimism Tempered with Caution. https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/pr-2024-07-rmn Accessed July 28, 2026. Official ANA release based on a survey of client-side marketers fielded in November 2023. It reports lack of standardisation, attribution to sales, and data timeliness as leading concerns.
[5] Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC). Final Retail Media Measurement Guidelines and buyer research. https://www.iab.com/news/iab-and-mrc-releases-retail-media-measurement-guidelines/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official release describing measurement guidelines and a buyer study of 200 RMN ad buyers plus 30 senior interviews. It documents buying complexity, demand for measurement standards, transparency, and stronger collaboration.
[6] Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Retail Media Advanced Measurement and Data Collaboration. https://www.iab.com/guidelines/retail-media-advanced-measurement-and-data-collaboration/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official guide covering incrementality, randomised controlled trials, match-market testing, counterfactual models, media mix modelling, shadow-mode testing, and privacy-compliant data collaboration.
[7] IAB and IAB Europe. Guidelines for Incremental Measurement in Commerce Media. https://www.iab.com/guidelines/guidelines-for-incremental-measurement-in-commerce-media/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official 2025 guidance on matching causal methods to business goals, grounded in credible counterfactuals, bias control, and separation of signal from noise.
[8] IAB Europe. Commerce (Including Retail) Media Measurement Standards V2.1. https://iabeurope.eu/knowledge_hub/iab-europes-commerce-incl-retail-media-measurement-standards-v2/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Updated January 2026 standards with a refined measurement funnel, standard definitions for gross and net sales, a formal definition of incrementality, approved methodologies, and guidance on new-to-brand and new-to-category timeframes.
[9] IAB and IAB Europe. In-Store Retail Media: Definitions and Measurement Standards. https://www.iab.com/guidelines/in-store-retail-media/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official final standards defining in-store retail media, measurement principles, ad formats, and store zones to support consistent reporting and comparability.
[10] ANA, 4As, and IAB. Cross-industry leadership priorities for AI, commerce/retail media, measurement, and talent. https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/pr-2026-07-leadership Accessed July 28, 2026. Official July 2026 announcement identifying shared definitions and standards across commerce and retail media as a collective industry priority.
[11] Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). 2025 Outlook: A Snapshot into Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth. https://www.iab.com/news/report-digital-advertising-growth-retail-media-ctv-social/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official survey-based outlook reporting that buyer goals span the purchase funnel and projecting retail media spend growth above overall ad-spend growth for 2025. Forecasts are identified as projections, not realised results.
[12] Path to Purchase Institute / TransUnion. Retail Media Networks: Trends Report 2025. https://www.transunion.com/lp/2025-rmn-report Accessed July 28, 2026. Sponsored industry study in which CPG brand marketers evaluated RMNs across targeting, measurement, ROI, data sharing, sales growth, creative freedom, and traffic-driving capabilities. It is used directionally and identified as sponsored evidence.
[13] Intent Amplify. About Intent Amplify. https://intentamplify.com/about/ Accessed July 28, 2026. Official company description used for the About Intent Amplify section.
