Interview with Raoul Zenon of OMG, part 1: Retail media — The new frontier for growth

Raoul Zenon, General Manager, OMG MENA, understands firsthand how retail media can be a powerful engine for brand and business growth. No longer a simple tool for pushing products through basic online ads, it has evolved into a sophisticated, insights-driven environment that is reshaping the way brands connect with customers.

To learn more, we sat down with Zenon for a two-part interview on how brands and agencies can successfully navigate what has been called the next “big wave in digital advertising” ¹ by leveraging retail media’s full-funnel, multi-channel capabilities. In part 1, Zenon provides recommendations for how brands and agencies can get started in this space.

In simple terms, retail media readiness means having the right tools, insights, strategies, and partnerships in place to effectively reach customers in the most impactful way possible using retail media channels. It’s about ensuring you can not only compete but thrive in this space by using retail media to attract new customers, boost sales, enhance your brand presence, and engage with customers more effectively.

Think of retail media readiness as being like getting a sports team ready for the big game. Just as a successful team needs skilled players, smart strategies, solid training, and great teamwork, a brand needs similar elements to excel in retail media. Specifically, brands can focus on building their analytics capabilities and infrastructure, creating a holistic marketing strategy where retail media plays a key role, providing training and knowledge-sharing opportunities to teams, and establishing joint business plans (JBPs) that help ensure brands and their retail partners are working toward the same goals.

To help brands figure out where they stand in terms of retail media readiness, OMG has developed a Retail Readiness Maturity Framework. Using this framework, brands can identify opportunities for improvement and create a roadmap for addressing those areas.

For brands, the shift to Retail Media 3.0 is about more than just buying ad space—it’s about weaving retail media into the fabric of your overall strategy. Retail media networks (RMNs) offer access to rich streaming and shopping insights so that brands can reach customers at the right time and tailor their campaigns to speak directly to them, increasing the chances of making a meaningful connection that drives both sales and loyalty.

For agencies, the move to Retail Media 3.0 means that you can now become a strategic partner to brands and help them get the most out of their media investments. This involves building deep relationships with RMNs, and then leveraging their insights and technology to create campaigns that align with a brand’s overall goals. Agencies can also embrace advanced programmatic buying so that they’re able to respond in real time to changes in customer behavior and market conditions. When done right, programmatic buying is not only about efficiency; it allows for campaigns to be more agile and effective at reaching the right audience at the right time. And of course, agencies should also keep in mind the importance of reporting. Brands need to see the full picture of how their retail media efforts are performing across the entire customer journey so that they can understand the impact of their campaigns and view agencies as vital partners in helping drive business growth.

(To learn more about how to build a holistic retail media strategy, see part 2 of this interview.)

Retail media offers an opportunity to enhance marketing effectiveness in ways that other channels can’t match. The key is in the retailer’s first-party insights, which provide a combination of signals to better understand customer behavior and tailor advertising experiences for them. Agility is crucial in today’s fast-paced commerce landscape—and with advanced retail media tools, brands can monitor performance and make adjustments on the fly, ensuring that they’re always getting the most out of their campaigns.

Most importantly, retail media enables combined attribution models that provide brands with a clear view of campaign performance. By understanding the impact of retail media on broader marketing efforts, brands can make more informed decisions on resource allocation and optimize their strategies for maximum effectiveness.

One of the biggest misconceptions about retail media is that it’s only for large brands with deep pockets. The reality is that small and medium-sized enterprises can benefit just as much. Retail media provides tailored advertising opportunities that are valuable for brands of all sizes looking to make an impact through a wide array of formats that can be tailored to different audience segments. With today’s advanced analytics and detailed reporting, brands can track their campaign performance to more precisely understand return on investment.

Another common misconception is the idea that retail media might cannibalize sales from other marketing channels. In reality, retail media often complements and enhances other channels, leading to an overall boost in sales and brand visibility. By integrating retail media into a broader marketing strategy, brands can create a more cohesive and effective approach to reaching their customers.