Month: February 2025

Product News | October 11, 2021

Retail media networks 101: What they are & why they matter

Imagine you’re a brand looking to engage shoppers at the exact moment they’re considering a purchase — or a retailer eager to turn first-party shopper data into new revenue streams. Retail media networks (RMNs) make both possible.

So, what is an RMN exactly? A retail media network is an advertising platform that allows retailers to sell ad space across their owned media channels — both onsite, offsite, and in-store — to brands looking to reach high-intent shoppers. This includes everything from sponsored search ads on retailer websites and apps to in-store digital displays and point-of-sale promotions. By leveraging first-party data, retailers can provide precise targeting while unlocking new monetization opportunities. And brands gain a highly effective way to reach shoppers at the point of purchase with relevant, data-driven ads.

In this article, we’ll break down what retail media is, how retail media networks work, and why they matter for both retailers and advertisers.

Jump to:

What is retail media? Understanding the bigger picture

While retail media and retail media networks (RMNs) are closely related, they aren’t the same thing. 

Retail media = any advertising within a retailer’s ecosystem.

This includes in-store advertising methods like digital signage, in-store radio, and point-of-sale promotions, as well as online strategies such as sponsored product listings and display ads on retailer websites and apps.

Retail media networks (RMNs) = the monetization platform behind retail media.

A retail media network is the formal system that allows retailers to sell ad space to brands. RMNs provide the infrastructure, data, and ad inventory that make retail media possible.

Retail media vs. commerce media

Retail media is also part of a larger digital advertising movement known as commerce media. While retail media focuses on advertising within a retailer’s ecosystem, commerce media extends that approach across the entire digital commerce landscape.

📌 Why this matters:

Commerce media connects the full shopper journey — allowing brands to reach consumers before, during, and after their purchases. As the retail media space evolves, many retailers are expanding their offerings to become full commerce media platforms, helping brands engage with shoppers across multiple digital environments.

Retailers are expanding across digital environments

Why retail media networks matter (Key benefits for retailers & advertisers)

Retail media networks are changing how brands and retailers connect with shoppers, creating highly targeted, data-driven advertising opportunities at the point of purchase. As brands shift more of their ad spend to retail media — with global retail media ad spend projected to surpass US$177 billion in 2025 — RMNs are emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising.

This rapid growth is reshaping the relationship between retailers and advertisers, offering new ways to leverage privacy-compliant data, optimize ad reach, and influence purchasing decisions in real-time. Here’s why RMNs are becoming a must-have strategy for both in 2025:

For retailers: A win-win opportunity

Retail media isn’t just about ads — it’s about smarter, more profitable retail. Here’s how retailers benefit:

  • Enhanced customer experience: Retail media doesn’t just benefit retailers and advertisers — it also improves the shopping journey for customers. Personalized promotions and targeted messaging shown on in-store displays help enhance the in-store retail experience, while well-placed online ads make it easier for shoppers to discover relevant products, access timely deals, and enjoy a more seamless path to purchase across both digital and physical retail environments.
  • Increased basket sizes: Well-timed messaging can influence last-minute purchasing decisions, prompting shoppers to add more to their carts. Strategically placed product promotions near checkout highlight relevant add-ons, limited-time offers, and value packs that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. By seamlessly integrating these prompts into the shopping journey, retailers can increase average order value and maximize sales opportunities.
  • New revenue streams: By selling ad space across their websites, apps, and in-store digital displays, retailers can generate high-margin advertising revenue — between 70% and 90%, according to BCG — alongside traditional product sales. Insights gleaned from their first-party shopper data make these (and any off-site) ad placements even more valuable, enabling brands to reach highly targeted audiences in a privacy-compliant way. As brands shift more ad spend to retail media, retailers that capitalize on this demand can drive significant new revenue while strengthening partnerships with advertisers.

READ ALSO: Learn how to influence add-to-cart moments with an in-store digital media channel, featuring strategies and key takeaways from our live webinar.

For brands: Reaching shoppers at the right moment

For advertisers, RMNs offer something digital ads often struggle with: direct access to ready-to-buy consumers. This allows brands to benefit from:

  • Higher purchase intent: Ads appear when shoppers are actively looking for products, making them more effective and increasing the likelihood of conversion.
  • Precision targeting with first-party data: RMNs provide privacy-compliant insights, helping brands serve more relevant ads and refine their audience strategies. 
  • Measurable ad performance: Unlike traditional ads, RMNs offer closed-loop measurement, so brands can track sales directly linked to their campaigns. 

READ ALSO: Get a better understanding of why in-store signage advertising belongs in every brand’s retail media strategy

As RMNs continue to grow, they’re proving to be a must-have for both retailers and brands looking to maximize revenue, improve customer engagement, and drive measurable results.

In-store advertising turns shopping into memorable experiences

How RMNs work: Key players & their roles (RMN ecosystem)

Retail media networks don’t operate in a vacuum. They rely on a collaborative ecosystem of key stakeholders — all working together to deliver relevant, data-driven advertising that benefits everyone involved. Here’s a quick overview of who’s involved and how RMN advertising works:

  • Retailers create and manage the RMN, selling ad space across their digital and physical stores.
  • Brands and advertisers purchase these placements to promote their products to high-intent shoppers at key moments in their purchase journey.
  • Technology providers enable automation, measurement, and optimization to ensure seamless ad delivery and performance tracking via retail media platforms, ensuring ads reach the right audience at the right time.

Retail media ad formats & real-world examples

As RMNs grow, brands have more opportunities to connect with high-intent shoppers at key moments. Whether through in-store digital displays, sponsored search ads, or off-site campaigns, retail media offers targeted, data-driven advertising that enhances the shopping experience while driving measurable results.

Types of retail media advertising

Retail media comes in a variety of ad formats, depending on where shoppers interact with the brand:

1. Digital retail media (on-site advertising)

Retailers monetize their websites and apps much like traditional publishers, offering brands premium ad placements where shoppers actively search and browse.

Key digital retail media formats include:

  • Sponsored search ads: Paid placements that appear when shoppers search for products.
  • Display ads: Banner ads on a retailer’s website or app, either promoting their own products or paid for by external brands.
  • Video ads: Short ads featured on product pages, retailer apps, or even live-streamed shopping events.
2. Off-site retail media (beyond retailer ecosystems)

Retailers extend ad reach beyond their owned properties, placing brand ads across third-party websites, social media, and programmatic networks — all powered by first-party shopper data.

Off-site retail media formats typically include:

  • Social media & programmatic advertising: Retailers use shopper data to target ads on platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
  • Retailer-driven display/video ads: Placed on external websites and apps but still leveraging retailer data.

For example, Target’s retail media network, Roundel, leverages the big-box retailer’s first-party shopper data to deliver highly targeted ads beyond Target’s owned properties. Brands can reach Target shoppers across third-party websites, social media, and programmatic networks, keeping engagement strong and driving traffic back to Target’s stores and digital channels.

📌 Key distinction from commerce media:

Off-site retail media is controlled and sold by a retailer — even though the ad appears elsewhere. Commerce media, on the other hand, is broader, allowing brands to use retailer data but not necessarily purchasing the ad space from the retailer itself.

3. In-store retail media

Forward-thinking retailers are transforming their physical stores into dynamic ad environments, giving brands the chance to engage shoppers and influence purchasing decisions at key moments in the buying journey. 

Common in-store retail media formats include:

Walmart’s in-store advertising solutions help brands stay top-of-mind by engaging shoppers at key moments in their journey. With a nationwide network of in-store TV screens, targeted self-checkout ads, and in-store audio placements, advertisers can seamlessly capture attention and drive influence where purchase decisions happen.

By integrating a strategic mix of retail media formats into their RMN, retailers can maximize advertising revenue while enhancing the customer shopping experience — whether online, in-store, or beyond. At the same time, brands gain valuable opportunities to stay top of mind and influence shoppers at key moments, from discovery to checkout.

READ ALSO: Learn how in-store and online retail media shape consumer shopping behavior and why multi-brand retailers can’t afford to overlook in-store digital marketing networks.

In-store retail media advertising can promote special offers to boost sales

As RMNs evolve, proven out-of-home (OOH) strategies like audience targeting, engagement, and measurement are driving the future of retail media — particularly through retail digital signage solutions that enhance in-store engagement and ad impact.

By integrating these solutions into a broader RMN strategy, retailers can unlock new revenue streams, enhance the shopping journey, and maximize the value of their first-party data. At the same time, brands gain a powerful way to connect with high-intent shoppers at the point of purchase. From sponsored search and display ads to in-store digital activations, retail media offers a highly targeted and measurable advertising channel that’s only continuing to grow.

Want to make the most of your retail media strategy?

Explore our latest RMN insights and best practices for building, scaling, and maximizing the impact of a retail media network — whether you’re a retailer monetizing your media assets or a brand investing in RMNs. 

Product News | October 11, 2021

Digital out-of-home for holiday marketing: How to win high-intent shopping moments

A busy two-level shopping mall atrium with shoppers gathered along the upper-floor railing. A large digital billboard dominates the center, displaying a SportChek holiday advertisement beneath a glass skylight.

If your holiday marketing strategy is still built around the same playbook from a few years ago, you’re already behind. 

In 2026, consumer trends point to a more deliberate, hybrid holiday shopper: one who starts deal hunting months before decorations go up, takes more time to research and compare options, and routinely moves between mobile devices, AI tools, and physical stores before making a purchase. As a result, the path to purchase is becoming longer and more fragmented, creating dozens of high-intent micro-moments where brands have an opportunity to inform or influence what shoppers do next.

As agencies and marketers seek ways to connect digital discovery with brick-and-mortar purchasing behaviour, digital out-of-home (DOOH) inventory offers them a unique opportunity to reach consumers at key moments throughout their IRL holiday shopping journey. And with programmatic making campaigns faster and easier to launch and adjust, DOOH can play a vital role in an omnichannel holiday strategy — with the flexibility to meet campaign needs as they evolve.

Why holiday shopping micro-moments matter in 2026 — and how DOOH can help

Major sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain at the centre of the holiday shopping calendar, but they represent just a few moments in a purchase journey that now starts earlier and moves fluidly between digital and physical touchpoints. According to new Microsoft research, the average holiday conversion journey now takes 52 days, with 63% of U.S. shoppers starting before Halloween. That journey is also increasingly hybrid: per Salesforce, 42% of shoppers visit stores to buy products they previously researched online, while 79% use smartphones while shopping in-store. 

It’s within this extended, omnichannel journey that holiday shopping micro-moments occur: reflexive, high-intent windows when consumers turn to a device or their surroundings to act on an immediate need, like:

  • Comparing gift ideas or researching products
  • Looking for a nearby store or point of sale
  • Seeking inspiration for holiday hosting, decorating, or gifting
  • Checking local product availability, promotions, or seasonal offers
  • Making a last-minute purchase

For advertisers, these moments create opportunities to reach shoppers with messages that reflect what they need in that moment. And because DOOH combines broad reach and repeated exposure with the ability to deliver relevant messaging in real-world contexts — often close to the point of purchase — it’s particularly well suited to making those moments count.

Chanel campaign displayed on Simon Media’s DOOH inventory at The Galleria in Houston, Texas

Strategy #1: Leverage advanced targeting to reach holiday shoppers at high-intent moments

Use advanced DOOH targeting to activate screens in and around the physical locations where your target customers are most likely to be — particularly when proximity to a store, venue, or other destination signals stronger purchase intent.

Depending on the campaign objective, advertisers can narrow their inventory using:

  • Location targeting: Go broad with nationwide or city-level campaigns, or get more granular with zip codes, POIs, custom geofences, and individual screens. A retailer promoting a Black Friday sale, for example, could prioritize screens within walking or driving distance of its stores.
  • Audience targeting: Use first-party data and third-party audience segments to identify screen locations where target customers are most likely to be present — whether that’s parents shopping for toys, beauty buyers looking for gifts, or travellers heading home for the holidays.
  • Venue and asset targeting: Match placements to the activity happening around them, from gift shopping at malls and stocking up at grocery stores to dining, celebrating, and travelling over the holidays.
  • Dayparting: Adjust when ads appear to align with relevant shopping and travel behaviours throughout the day.
  • Layered targeting: Combine multiple signals to get more precise. For example, target mall-adjacent inventory within a specific New York City geofence during peak afternoon and evening shopping hours.

De’Longhi recently put this kind of high-intent targeting into practice with a programmatic DOOH campaign promoting its Eletta Explore coffee machine during the competitive holiday shopping season in Poland. By activating inventory in high-traffic shopping malls, reaching gift-seekers close to the point of purchase, and using dayparting to align ad delivery with peak shopping hours, the campaign ultimately drove a 121% lift in brand preference and a 190% lift in intent to interact with the brand or visit its website.

For holiday campaigns focused on purchase-ready micro-moments, targeting can extend all the way into the store. According to Salesforce, 77% of consumers plan to shop in physical stores this holiday season, making in-store advertising a particularly valuable way to reach shoppers when they’re most likely to make a purchase. The same targeting principles still apply: advertisers can prioritize the stores, audiences, locations, and times most relevant to what they’re selling rather than treating all retail foot traffic equally.

Cineplex Media DOOH screen at CF Carrefour Laval in Quebec, Canada, directs shoppers to nearby Bell stores

Strategy #2: Use dynamic creative and contextual triggers to match DOOH messaging to the moment

Targeting can help put a holiday ad in the right place at the right time. Dynamic creative in DOOH takes that relevance a step further by adapting the ad itself based on what’s happening in that moment. Using signals like time, weather, location, proximity, product availability, or other live data, advertisers can automatically serve the creative variation that best fits the current context. 

For holiday campaigns, that opens up practical ways to make creative more useful and timely:

  • React to the weather: Promote coats, hot drinks, delivery, or indoor activities when temperatures drop, then switch creative as conditions change.
  • Make proximity useful: On screens near a store, dynamically show the closest location, distance, or a directional call to action.
  • Adapt as shipping deadlines approach: Shift from standard delivery messaging to expedited shipping, pickup, immediate availability, or digital gift cards as Christmas gets closer.
  • Build urgency around key sales moments: Use live countdowns to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, promotional deadlines, or other limited-time offers.
  • Respond to inventory levels: Feature products or offers based on what’s currently available at nearby locations rather than promoting something shoppers can’t buy. 

The most effective dynamic DOOH creative strategies are built around signals that meaningfully change what’s useful or relevant to the shopper, allowing advertisers to adapt messaging at scale without manually building and trafficking every possible variation. 

READ ALSO: What marketers need to know before launching their first dynamic DOOH campaign

Strategy #3: Pair physical DOOH exposure with mobile activity to extend reach and drive action

Mobile plays a major role in holiday commerce, with eMarketer projecting that nearly 60% of online holiday purchases will happen on mobile devices in 2026. That makes mobile and DOOH a natural pairing, with each channel reinforcing the other across the shopping journey. OAAA research also found that 74% of mobile users took action on their devices after recent exposure to DOOH ads, while an Ocean Neuroscience study found consumers are 48% more likely to engage with a mobile ad after seeing the same campaign on a DOOH screen.

For holiday campaigns, advertisers can use that relationship in several practical ways:

  • Location-based retargeting: Extend a DOOH campaign with follow-up mobile ads served to audiences who were near campaign screens. A shopper who encounters a holiday campaign while out shopping, for example, could later see a mobile ad featuring the same product or promotion. 
  • Mobile push notifications: For opted-in app users, use location signals like geofencing or beacons to deliver relevant notifications when they’re near a store or campaign location — for example, alerting loyalty members to an offer nearby.
  • Interactive QR codes: Give shoppers a direct path from a DOOH ad to an offer, coupon, product page, store locator, or other mobile experience. Dynamic QR codes are particularly useful on screens where consumers are close enough — and have enough dwell time — to scan.
  • In-app AR experiences: Use DOOH creative as an entry point to augmented reality experiences on a shopper’s phone, like virtual product try-ons, interactive holiday experiences, or content designed for social sharing.

The best approach depends on what you want the shopper to do next. QR codes, push notifications, and AR can encourage action while a shopper is still nearby, while mobile retargeting can reinforce the message later in the purchase journey. 

Read more: 3 reasons why you should combine digital OOH and mobile advertising for maximum impact

Ready to make the most of this year’s holiday shopping micro-moments? Explore our inventory catalog to discover premium digital screens in high-impact locations.

Product News | October 11, 2021

How VAST Billboards is redefining out-of-home in New Zealand

VAST digital billboard beside a busy roadway in Christchurch, New Zealand, displaying the VAST Billboards logo.

In a market long shaped by a handful of dominant players, VAST Billboards has carved out a distinct identity as New Zealand’s independent, Kiwi-owned out-of-home (OOH) network. Headquartered in Christchurch, VAST has built its growth story not by trying to out-scale the biggest networks, but by complementing the broader OOH landscape with a strong presence across regional cities, suburban corridors, and strategically important locations.

We sat down with Gary Rosewarne, Head of Growth Strategy at VAST, to talk about the company’s rapid growth, its programmatic ambitions, and why Broadsign has become a core part of how VAST runs its media operations.

A network built on purposeful growth

VAST’s strategy is built on a simple but deliberate idea: the network doesn’t need to be the whole plan — it needs to be the right complement to it. “We don’t believe VAST needs to be the whole plan,” Rosewarne explains. “In Auckland, for example, we can provide a complementary layer around established networks; in Christchurch, we have significant strength across suburban and arterial environments; and regionally, we give brands access to audiences across a growing number of markets.”

That positioning shapes where VAST builds inventory and how it prices and packages it, with a focus on keeping the network competitively priced and easy to buy. Its predominantly digital, large-format footprint extends beyond New Zealand’s largest cities into regional markets including Tauranga, Hamilton, Napier, Hastings, Taupo, Nelson, Blenheim, Timaru, and Invercargill, across both landscape and portrait formats.

“The objective isn’t simply to accumulate screens, but to add locations that create useful geographic spread, strengthen coverage and give advertisers access to audiences they may not be reaching elsewhere,” says Rosewarne. “That combination of metro, suburban and regional inventory is really what defines the VAST network.”

VAST digital billboard on Ferry Road in Christchurch, New Zealand

Serving national brands and local businesses alike

The company’s advertiser base spans national agency clients, major brands, and local direct advertisers. In 2025, its network saw strong growth across these segments, becoming an increasingly important part of national campaign plans while maintaining its strong connection to businesses looking to reach audiences in their local communities.

VAST has also used its own network to experiment with new ways of engaging audiences and demonstrating the potential of OOH. One example is Bill Is Bored, a campaign that used curiosity-driven billboard creative to capture attention and encourage people to continue the experience online. More recently, the Win A Grand – Your Region, Your Voice campaign invited New Zealanders to share what matters most in their local communities. The responses helped inform Beyond the Big Three, a research study examining the scale, value, and audience opportunity of regional New Zealand beyond the country’s three largest cities.

Together, these campaigns have given VAST a way to test ideas, gather audience insights, and demonstrate what OOH can achieve beyond simply delivering impressions. “These projects let us test ideas on our own network, learn from the response and build evidence that can ultimately help advertisers use OOH more creatively and effectively,” Rosewarne says.

That combination of clarity of purpose and consistent execution earned VAST recognition as Beacon’s 2026 Sales Team of the Year—one of New Zealand media’s leading industry awards, and a notable achievement for a relatively small team competing against some of the most established names in OOH.

“In 2025, VAST grew revenue at 5x the pace of the broader market, but the story was bigger than the numbers,” Rosewarne says. “We stopped thinking about ourselves as simply selling billboards and became much more focused on solving planning problems.”

Central to that shift was the “complete, not compete” philosophy, helping agencies see where regional and suburban audiences could add incremental value. Being a smaller, independent player also gave VAST room to move quickly. “Being small probably helped as well: we could be nimble, authentic, try things, have some fun and respond quickly when an opportunity emerged.”

VAST roadside screen in Ashburton, New Zealand

Why VAST chose Broadsign

As both the network and ambitions have grown, so has the need for technology that can scale alongside them. That search led VAST to the Broadsign Platform.

“For us, Broadsign came down to trust, reliability and fit,” Rosewarne says. “We wanted an established platform with deep expertise in OOH, rather than something we would potentially outgrow. As we scale, the technology sitting underneath the network has to be dependable, but it also has to give us the flexibility to keep evolving how we package, manage and monetise inventory.”

Broadsign’s position within the programmatic DOOH ecosystem and its established relationships with major trading platforms and partners were other deciding factors, particularly as programmatic became a larger part of VAST’s business. “Broadsign brings experience, expertise and an established ecosystem that we can grow alongside.”

Programmatic as a new route to market

Programmatic buying has shifted how the media owner thinks about its inventory, moving the conversation beyond locations and weeks toward a more dynamic view of audiences, availability, and demand. “It creates another route into the VAST network and makes it easier for advertisers who may already be buying other digital media programmatically to include OOH within that ecosystem,” Rosewarne explains. “For a challenger network like ours, reducing that friction is particularly valuable.”

That shift has also prompted VAST to rethink how it values and packages inventory for programmatic buyers, treating it as a distinct buying pathway with its own use cases rather than a variation of direct bookings. Just as importantly, programmatic expertise has been embedded across the sales team, helping ensure the right buying approach is recommended for each campaign.

Looking ahead

VAST’s long-term vision centers on purposeful growth, not expansion for its own sake. Rosewarne describes the goal as building “a highly useful independent OOH network that has a clear role within the New Zealand market”, one that continues to strengthen its regional footprint, protect its position in Christchurch, and selectively add metropolitan inventory that creates genuine new audience opportunity.

Looking at the broader industry, Rosewarne sees OOH becoming increasingly measurable, connected, and flexible, with programmatic adoption and audience measurement both continuing to mature. “Our job is to combine those capabilities with the things that still make OOH powerful: great locations, simple creative, local relevance and real-world visibility,” he says. “If we can keep doing that while remaining independent, nimble and easy to work with, we think there is a very exciting future for VAST.”

Ready to scale your network without scaling your workload? Learn more about the Broadsign Platform here.

Product News | October 11, 2021

How Canadian Tire achieved a 64% lift in store visits with programmatic DOOH

Canadian Tire Canada’s Garage and Triangle Rewards digital billboard displayed in a busy downtown office building.

To support its next phase of service-led growth, Canadian Tire, a staple in the Canadian retail landscape, launched a high-impact programmatic digital out-of-home (pDOOH) campaign to reach its target audience at scale. Specializing in essential mechanical care and seasonal maintenance, the brand sought to strengthen its position as a premier automotive service provider and drive measurable foot traffic to its stores across the country.

Objective

The campaign aimed to drive measurable foot traffic to Canadian Tire Auto Service Centres nationwide. To achieve this, the campaign targeted Canadian car owners, with an emphasis on growth segments including Gen Z, Millennials, and Newcomers to Canada, by highlighting that consumers can both earn and redeem Canadian Tire Money on automotive mechanical services.

Strategy

Partnering with Broadsign, Talon and Touche, the campaign deployed programmatic DOOH alongside Canadian Tire’s national TV, digital, and social media channels. Ads were activated programmatically on digital screens near Canadian Tire Auto Service Centres to reach drivers when vehicle maintenance was a priority.

The campaign ran across multiple placement types, including billboards, transit shelters, shopping malls, fitness centres, and campus environments, to remain highly visible throughout the day. Layering these location and venue parameters with contextual triggers and Canadian Tire’s first-party audience data maximized efficiency, ensuring the messaging reached high-intent drivers in real time.

Results

The campaign delivered a 64% net lift in store visits compared to the unexposed lookalike control group, achieving a 100% confidence level.

Want the campaign highlights? Check out the infographic below.