• by Francesca Giordano , Amie Owen , Yesterday

Third in a series of three articles.

We believe in a "total commerce approach," considering all facets of commerce, not just the individual pieces. By focusing on this holistic path-to-purchase, we are yielding efficiencies for clients and streamlining communication for our audiences.

As retailers continue to evolve their media networks, brands that fully integrate retail media into their broader marketing strategies will be more likely to succeed. Those who view it as just another performance channel risk missing out on one of the biggest opportunities to excel: the ability to connect with consumers in meaningful, measurable, and impactful ways. 

But how do marketers ensure that retail media is integrated into the larger brand strategy? To maximize the impact of retail media, brands need to leverage retail media networks (RMNs) from strategy to execution. While retail media is typically seen as a resource for audience extension, it also provides a way to better understand consumer behavior. Retailers’ insights tools allow us to better understand how customers are engaging and what motivates them to buy. This provides a key opportunity for brands to create personalized messaging that improves customer loyalty. 

Another pillar supporting full retail media integration centers on creative. To improve customer experience, brands must ensure their creative is not only compelling but also consistent across all touchpoints. This means aligning messaging, visuals, and calls to action across in-store displays, digital ads, social platforms, and programmatic campaigns. A disjointed experience can disrupt the customer journey and weaken brand loyalty. With access to first-party data through retail media networks, brands can create hyper-personalized messaging, product recommendations, and offers that resonate with individual shoppers. This level of personalization builds trust and keeps consumers engaged beyond a single purchase. Not only does this create a deeper connection with your brand, it also drives effectiveness and strong ROI.

Choosing the right performance metrics will serve to further integrate the power of retail media into a brand’s marketing strategies. Historically, return on ad spend (ROAS) has been the dominant metric in retail media, but it only tells part of the story. To truly measure success, brands will be required to adopt a holistic approach that accounts for long-term growth. Metrics like new-to-brand customers help determine whether campaigns are expanding brand reach, while brand lift studies assess how retail media influences consumer perception and intent. By broadening measurement frameworks, brands can better optimize investments and drive meaningful business impact.

Retail media is not only beneficial to brands. It also unlocks a new revenue stream for retailers, which means brands have negotiating power to improve their position in store or sell in a product. The return on retailer relationships, although hard to measure, is an important piece to the puzzle that can ensure your brand’s visibility.  

For brands to successfully integrate commerce throughout their strategic working model, they must break down internal silos. Too often, customer marketing and brand teams operate separately, developing independent strategies. This fragmentation can lead to duplication across media channels, excessive frequency of messaging, and inflated costs.

We bridge this gap by focusing on integrated national and commerce media strategies for seamless execution. By serving as the connective tissue between teams, we enable brands to embed commerce media across the entire consumer journey. This not only expands consumer reach but also drives efficiency by eliminating duplication and enabling more strategic planning. The result: dollars can be reinvested into media, unlocking opportunities to test and learn such as leveraging RMNs for upper-funnel tactics like CTV, OLV, and OOH. 

Actionable Steps for Brands to Total Commerce Integration

• Break down internal silos: Align commerce, media, and brand teams.

• Leverage first-party data: Connect retailer insights with broader customer data.

• Optimize creative for retail media: Ensure messaging is cohesive across all touchpoints.

• Measure holistically: Move beyond ROAS to metrics like new-to-brand, brand lift, and lifetime value.

• Test and learn: Experiment with upper-funnel activations in retail media and track performance.

By taking a fully integrated approach, brands will maximize their retail media investments, driving both short-term sales and long-term brand growth. Retailers are no longer just a place to shop, they are transformative media partners.

Retail media has evolved beyond a performance marketing channel into a holistic brand-building tool for those who know how to best leverage them.