“2 Channels Are Really Going To Grow In Retail Media” | Alison O’Keefe @ WHSmith North America

I mean I think Omni channel has been a big buzzword in the industry for a couple of years but I think when you look back at sort of the start and the growth of retail media it was Brands really coming to retail media networks for that lower funnel conversion media whether that was off property digitally or on property right and now we’re starting to see that um it’s growing it’s becoming more of a full funnel Channel um and so I wanted to talk a little bit about two products two channels that I think are really going to grow one being connected TV um and the other being in store when you look at the connected TV space it really has the ability to bring personalized branded content to life and then it also has this really unique ability that traditional TV doesn’t have which is to actually connect it to e-commerce um and so I think that we’re going to see more and more Brands wanting to engage in that space I know a few years ago Walmart partnered with Roku where they have the ability to make an e-commerce purchase through your connected TV I know I personally worked on a shoppable um adte integration with bertson’s um where you can actually Place something in your cart without even leaving the experience that you’re on in just you know one click so I think we’re going to start seeing that channel really really continue to grow obviously you can feed your retailer first party data there and then from an inore perspective you know obviously a few of the larger retail media networks have folded in store kind of under their their umbrella um but there’s very few that have kind of launched like wh Smith did with like that really in store first kind of mentality we all know know that that’s where the majority of purchases are happening still right above 90% for most retailers and so what does it look like to do true Omni Channel meaning you’re having the same message from the digital perspective follow all the way through to the in store and how does that continue to drive incrementality um for those brands in store