ISBA, the body that represents brand owners advertising in the UK, has launched a Responsible Retail Media Framework, which is the result of a year-long industry-wide collaboration of brands, retailers and their tech and consultancy partners.
Designed as a guide to drive standardization across definitions, data availability, attribution and transparency, the Framework provides the emerging retail media industry with a responsible blueprint for development.
While retail media has experienced rapid growth and evolution in the UK, ISBA noted that brand investment has been slower due to a fragmented and uneven landscape across, for instance, definitions and measurement.
ISBA’s membership includes retailers as well as brand advertisers which resulted in a collective agreement to establish a cross-industry forum of all stakeholders. Armed with brands’ needs, and working in partnership with Omnicom Media Group’s (OMG) eCommerce division Transact, ISBA was able to facilitate a working forum of retailers and their tech partners to address brand requirements.
The OMG Transact team was able to collate and analyze the retail media offer across many leading UK retailers, both emergent and well established, to establish the Framework as a working guide for all parties, regardless of their stage of journey towards a full retail media offer, or individual tech deployment.
The body noted that the mounting pressure on brands to demonstrate the effectiveness of all their media investments requires the need for retailers to develop retail media propositions that effectively address those brand challenges.
The Framework marks out brand media investor expectations for now, next and in the future. Aware that some retailers are just beginning their media offering, while others are more advanced, for brands, the knowledge that retailers at all stages of their retail media programmes have collaborated in its development aims to provide them with the confidence to begin engaging.
OMG Transact’s expertise in e-commerce and retail media allowed it to simplify the brands’ ask for standards that define impressions, data availability and transparent attribution. Despite the rivalry that exists between retailers, ISBA said it was clear that the industry is united in welcoming brands expectations for a standardized approach.
This first phase of the Framework addresses digital inventory. It is UK-centric, reflecting the UK GDPR principles governing the acquisition, use, management and sharing of consumer data, and is mindful of the range and diverse maturity of the tech platforms deployed by individual retailers.
Mark Given, Chief Marketing Officer For Sainsburys & Argos, commented: “This is a very valuable piece of work, with brands investing more in retail media and driving growth, there needs to be ambitious and high-level goals which can only be achieved with collaboration and tech development.”
Charlotte Murphy, Retail Media Lead, Unilever UK & Ireland, added: “It’s been a privilege to work with ISBA and the wider industry to develop this new retail media framework. Seeing multiple retail partners and brands come together with a shared ambition of driving standardization across the industry has been inspiring. Retail media is an emerging and fast-growing opportunity, and this framework will play a crucial role in helping us all to work together and further unlock the potential of this collaborative and innovative space.”
Phil Smith, Director General at ISBA, concluded: “The promise of the retail media landscape is welcomed by brands, widening the opportunities for privacy-first marketing opportunities for brand penetration as well as being able to reach customers at the point of sale. But its rapid growth has been slowed due to the fragmentation and lack of standardization in the channel.
“Marketers need to properly understand the effectiveness of their media investments in all channels, and our members are keen to begin scaling in retail media. ISBA is thrilled to have worked with OMG Transact and a collaboration of key stakeholders to provide a framework that seeks to make the retail media offering work better for everyone.”
