Retail Media: Key Takeaways from AdVision 2025
Retail media has firmly established itself as a dominant force in the advertising landscape, but as the industry evolves, questions remain about its true potential, where it’s headed, and how brands can maximise their impact.
We recently hosted Advision 2025 in partnership with Sphere Digital Recruitment. The event was teeming with industry pros excited to connect with their peers, learn from the experts, and discuss all things curation and retail media.
In two separate panels, leaders from retailers, tech platforms and agencies joined forces to breakdown the most prominent trends in retail media, and the challenges networks and brands need to overcome. So what did we learn?
Retail Media: Hype, Reality and What’s Next?
There’s a shift in focus happening in retail media. Scale alone is no longer the key differentiator; better performance, higher relevance, and seamless integration into the customer journey are all moving up the priority list for brands.
In pursuit of this, we’ll see a continued expansion into omnichannel this year, blending online and offline shopping behaviour data to drive the best results. Some see this as the evolution of shopper marketing – using data to turn a very analogue in-store experience into a digital one. Brands should prepare for a future where first-party data is leveraged more effectively, ad personalisation is refined, and new immersive ad formats emerge, based on a more unified approach from retailers that combines offline merchandising data with programmatic to create hyper-personalised experiences.
Alongside this comes an increase in creativity. Afterall, great tech is not enough if the ad creative is going unnoticed. Nick Titmus, VP Sales – Expansion at SeenThis advised that “retail media is booming, but without standout creative, even the best ad placements won’t drive results. Engaging visuals plus seamless UX is the key to driving higher conversions and brand impact.” When it comes to the store, the question is how headline-making creative activations can become scalable across multiple physical locations.
It wouldn’t be a 2025 panel without a mention of AI, which is promising to play a transformative role in retail media, from enhancing product discovery to automating content creation. Ross Caveille, Co-Founder at Acorn-i, explained how “AI-driven recommendations enhance product discovery, delivering more personalised and intent-driven search results. As consumers find products faster, brands that leverage AI effectively can drive higher engagement and significantly increase purchase intent.” The key for brands will be integrating AI in ways that enhance the shopping journey without feeling intrusive.
Retail Media Trends Transforming the Landscape
Retail is undergoing a significant transformation, with digital-first strategies and self-serve platforms becoming the norm. This shift empowers brands to take greater control of their media buying while driving efficiencies in campaign execution.
So what will be the top retail media trends for 2025?
- Social commerce acceleration – With 71% of marketers planning to increase budgets in this space, social commerce is emerging as a core retail media strategy. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest are becoming vital for discovery and conversion.
- Advanced measurement and attribution – Brands are demanding more precise measurement frameworks to prove retail media’s impact. Incrementality, attribution modeling, and closed-loop reporting are now top priorities.
- AI and automation – From predictive analytics to automated ad buying, AI is making retail media more efficient and performance-driven.
There is an ongoing debate around the role of incrementality in retail media. The panelists emphasised that the challenge isn’t whether it’s important, but how brands measure it correctly. Daniel Shering, VP EMEA and APAC at CommerceIQ, said: “In a world of rising ad spend and tighter margins, knowing what truly drives growth is the difference between investing and just spending”. Brands that refine their measurement approaches can differentiate between true growth drivers and wasted ad spend.
As brands work to understand the true impact of retail media, the tension between standardisation and differentiation is growing. The number of available retail media networks is expanding, and with that comes a growing desire for transparency and ease of use from advertisers. But the question is how a retailer stands out while also aligning its offering with these needs.
We can also expect brands and retailers to start looking outside of the onsite and instore ecosystems to social commerce, particularly for those looking to engage a younger audience. Consumers hold a lot of power when it comes to the future of shopping and the ultimate priority will always be their experience – meeting the consumer where they are most engaged.
The retail media space is evolving rapidly, with new opportunities and challenges emerging every day. As brands and retailers navigate this dynamic landscape, success will depend on their ability to embrace creativity, harness AI-driven innovation, refine measurement strategies, and curate impactful ad experiences.
Retail media is more than just a passing trend—it’s a fundamental shift in how advertising works in the digital age. For brands willing to invest in strategic, data-driven approaches, the opportunities are vast, and the future is bright. For more information on recent retail media trends, check out insights from our previous panels here.