Walmart Connect’s Khurrum Malik shares why he thinks the burgeoning sector of retail media affords brands a more creative sandbox than they may first think.
For years, retail media has been seen as the final stop on the customer journey – a place to close the sale, not spark imagination. Today, CMOs and their agency partners are increasingly recognizing retail media’s potential to win carts and minds across the funnel, such as Kellanova’s experimentation. But there’s still one critical unlock underrecognized by marketers: Retail media as a creative canvas.
Retail media is no longer a strictly transactional space; it’s the next creative playground for marketers to explore. Even Cannes Lions recognized this shift by introducing Retail Media as a new award subcategory this year. Retail media is a fresh canvas for creative experimentation, much like the early days of social or mobile marketing – where customer insights meet storytelling, and relevance meets resonance. And we are just beginning to uncover what’s possible.
Retail media networks are no longer just about driving sales. Once dominated by lower-funnel performance advertising, retail media now offers premium placements, rich formats, and full-funnel reach – all powered by first-party data and closed-loop measurement.
Combining these elements can achieve maximum marketing punch. Our recent study with WPP Media found that brand-switchers exposed to CTV and Search ads were 39% more likely to buy the advertised products, compared to those only exposed to CTV ads (14%).
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With retail media’s full-funnel promise now realized, it’s opening a powerful new space for creativity to meet commerce. According to a study we conducted with NielsenIQ, nearly 40% of Walmart customers surveyed say they click on ad if it’s relatable, while 77% click on an ad that looks exciting. This tells us that relevancy alone won’t make your ads standout – especially in a sea of one-dimensional ads that have become too common in performance-driven channels.
This is the time for marketers to move beyond rinse-and-repeat retail media approaches to build full-funnel experiences that captivate and inspire – from immersive video content, interactive brand experiences, or highly personalized activations. Retail media’s unique blend of customer insights, targeting and omnichannel reach creates a space that’s ripe for experimentation:
This new creative playground isn’t just for the biggest brands, it’s opening doors for emerging players, too. For example, how AI is automating creative solutions. We’re also making influencer marketing more accessible by tapping into the power of Walmart Creators – connecting brands with vetted creators relevant to their customers.
These creators generated videos for Walmart.com and TikTok, and Pinterest images. Designed to target Walmart customer audiences, Cap Barbell, a Walmart Marketplace seller, found their creator-driven Sponsored Video drove 81% of campaign purchases from new-to-brand customers and achieved a click-through rate 58% higher than our normal benchmarks – a clear win for engagement and growing brand interest.
“We just don’t have a ton of content or the capacity to create strong content on a regular basis, or at least at the rate needed in today’s marketing landscape,” said Caitlin Brown, marketing manager for Cap Barbell. “One of the biggest wins of this program is being able to get authentic brand content and not having to manage that communication with creators directly ourselves.”
Now is the time for creative leads and CMOs alike to reframe how they see retail media – not as an end-of-funnel afterthought, but brand experiences that resonate with audiences on a deeper level. Because the next wave of creative breakthroughs won’t come from social feeds or pre-roll videos. They’ll come from the aisle, the app, and the add-to-cart moment – and the brands who see that first will win.
Retail media isn’t the end of the story, it’s the place to start your boldest ideas. Marketers who do will shape the future of advertising.
Read more opinion on The Drum.
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