Retail Media Overtakes CTV As Advertising's Biggest Impetus

by Joe Mandese , January 14, 2022

Retail media has overtaken connected TV (CTV) as the biggest trend on the mind of advertising and media executives heading into the new year, according to an ad industry tracking panel organized by the equities research team at BMO Capital Markets.

"Retail Media is eclipsing CTV as the No. 1 secular growth trend as 2022 begins," BMO analyst Daniel Salmon writes in a report sent to investors early this morning. The report singles out Amazon as the main beneficiary, but also cites Uber, DoorDash and InstaCart, as well as Criteo's acquisition of Iponweb, as "emerging businesses" likely to get a boost from the trend.

The report cites anecdotal evidence for retail media's ascendence, including the fact that GroupM's packaged goods clients have doubled their ad spending on the "top three retail media platforms in 2020, and ones again in 2021."

One major factor driving the shift to retail media may be the deprecation of cookies and other consumer identity trackers in digital media that began last year and will accelerate this year. The reason, Salmon writes, is that retail media's ability to attribute advertising effectiveness "against actual transaction data is very well suited to a digital world that is re-wiring attribution" as Google and Apple step up consumer privacy controls.

While CTV is taking a backseat to retail media, according to the BMO panel, it actually stands to gain long-term from that other "secular" shift.

"In all fairness, we believe CTV will also have its own retail media convergence over the course of the decade -- especially the back half -- as voice controls and shoppable advertising (lead by Amazon and YouTube) will take the concept of a home shopping network to an entirely new level," Salmon noted.

ad spending, advertising, amazon, connected tv, cpg, digital, packaged goods, research, retail, television

5 comments about "Retail Media Overtakes CTV As Advertising's Biggest Impetus".

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John Grono from GAP Research, January 14, 2022 at 5:53 p.m.
I find the comment "Retail Media is eclipsing CTV as the No. 1 secular growth trend as 2022 begins," as very odd.

I've never heard the phrase "secular growth". Referencing the Cambridge Dictionary. secular means "not having any connection with religion". Can someone please explain what is meant by "secular growth" in relation to the above quote?
Reply

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., January 14, 2022 at 8:52 p.m.

@John Grono: It was a Wall Street analyst using it in financial terms, not religious ones:

"In finance, secular is a descriptive word used to refer to market activities that occur over the long term. Secular can also point to specific stocks or stock sectors unaffected by short-term trends. Secular trends are not seasonal or cyclical. Instead, they remain consistent over time."

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/secular.asp

John Grono from GAP Research, January 14, 2022 at 9:54 p.m.

Thanks Joe.

I never knew that. Not surprising though that finance adopts religious terms.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 15, 2022 at 7:40 a.m.

John, the financial people---well many of them---worship money.

Roger Dunn from Criteo replied, January 15, 2022 at 4:25 p.m.

A cyclical market exhibits peak-trough-peak movements. Cyclical stocks tend to move with macroeconomic conditions such as consumer spending or economic growth. ... A secular market is a long-term event with persistent conditions regardless of economic slowdowns and cycles.

While there is no precise number or metric to determine what falls into this category, the idea behind what constitutes “secular growth” is simple - a period of fundamental change or evolution occurring in a sector or industry, leading to significant and persistent growth.