Yes, we believe retail media can be a very powerful element in your marketing mix. No, we don’t believe it’s always worth the premium—and hence this recent comparison of data costs we created in the planning process for a client.

Nearly all audience data signals come with a fee. In the chart below are various audience fees to reach the same audience. In all cases, the retail media options are more expensive than the alternatives that we believe generate equal data quality, but at lower (much lower, in some cases) costs. Some lessons:

1. Interrogate all data options before leaping into any one or mix.
2. When opting for retailer media, pair it with a larger partnership benefit to the brand, like incremental display, in store activity, or distribution. Without this broader benefit, retailer media, for now, will almost always be the higher cost and therefore lower ROI choice among the many options you have to reach your audience.