Last week during Cannes, Albertson’s Media Collective, the retail media network (RMN) belonging to the second largest grocery chain in the US, released a white paper suggesting ways to standardize RMNs across the industry. The aim is to make RMNs more user-friendly, efficient and less of a headache for advertisers—feedback that has been well documented over the last several months.

As you’ll see in the recap below, Albertson’s suggestions are far from groundbreaking, which is perhaps a given when you’re talking standardization. That said, if all major RMNs can do the legwork to help make this a reality, advertisers’ lives will get exponentially easier as retail media continues to explode.

Consolidation of Measurement and Reporting

The proposal emphasizes the need for unified measurement and reporting across the retail media network ecosystem. By establishing standardized metrics, such as impressions, clicks, and conversions, brands can better evaluate and compare the performance of their campaigns across various retailers. This consolidation would enhance transparency and enable advertisers to optimize their strategies more effectively, leading to improved ROI and campaign success.

Enhanced Targeting Capabilities

Albertson’s proposes the implementation of advanced targeting capabilities within their retail media network. This includes leveraging first-party customer data to create precise audience segments, enabling advertisers to deliver personalized and relevant messages to their target consumers. By adopting a standardized approach to audience targeting, brands can unlock the full potential of retail media networks, ensuring their ad dollars are spent efficiently and effectively.

Streamlined Ad Operations

The Collective’s white paper puts forth the idea of a centralized ad operations framework, aimed at simplifying the planning, execution, and management of campaigns across the retail media network landscape. Standardized processes, automated workflows, and shared best practices can help eliminate redundancies and optimize resource allocation. This streamlining of ad operations would result in cost savings, faster campaign deployment, and improved collaboration between advertisers and retailers.

Cross-Retailer Attribution

One of the significant challenges in retail media networks is attributing sales and conversions accurately across multiple retailers. Albertson’s proposal addresses this issue by suggesting a standardized cross-retailer attribution model. This model would leverage data from various retailers to provide advertisers with a holistic view of their campaign performance, enabling them to assess the impact of their advertising efforts on consumer behavior and sales outcomes.

Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

The standardization proposal encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing among retailers, advertisers, and technology partners. By creating an environment of shared learnings, industry stakeholders can collectively drive innovation, develop best practices, and address emerging challenges. Collaboration can also foster the development of common industry standards, paving the way for interoperability and seamless integration between different retail media networks.