Well folks, we made it to the end of what I’m officially calling “beef week.”
Monday kicked off with a huge case that the FTC brought to Amazon regarding its ad auction, and we learned a lot more than Amazon probably bargained for about how things work under the hood today.
The other drama was an op-ed in ADWEEK from brand marketing thought leader Mark Ritson, who claims that retail media can’t possibly be used for brand-building. Of course there were impassioned retorts all over LinkedIn (here’s one of my faves from Benoit, the chief media officer at Liquid Death and another from Josh Clarkson at Mars) but the most impressive, partly because of the tight turnaround, came from Andrew Lipsman who rustled up a smart clap-back, also in ADWEEK, with a few well-placed jabs of his own.
Drama, deceit and intrigue. That’s why we’re all in this game, right?
Here’s what else I covered this week.
Is Retail Media Kidding Itself? (guest post)
I re-published a piece from Mike Shields of Next in Media, who covers retail media from the media side of the fence rather than the commerce side — outside the fishbowl, as he puts it. His question: are too many RMNs trying to become full-fledged media brands when the smarter play is to put the retail back in retail media? Read here
Ace Hardware’s RMN Upfront Home Run
Ace Hardware rented out Wrigley Field and made its case for retail media dollars at its first Upfronts. I wasn’t there — so I called Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, who was, to get past the press release and find out who Ace put on stage and what advertisers said in the hallways afterward. Read here or, NEW! Watch the video
Trip Report: Retail & Commerce Media Activations in Australia
My first Retail Media Trip Report, and it happens to be my hometown. After so long living outside Australia, I’m seeing retail here like a newcomer — and in-store retail media is absolutely everywhere. It’s RMN inspo. Poland is coming next. Read here
The UK Takes A Run At Retail Media Aggregation
I wrote a three-part series on retail media federations last year, and then the idea mostly sat there. In the US the conversation went quiet — but the UK just rolled a double, with SMG’s RMX and dunnhumby’s network alliance both launching in June. Viv Craske and Colin Lewis dug into both on Retail Media Therapy with Co-op’s Dean Harris. Read here
The Drum: The FTC says Amazon put a thumb on its ad auctions. What happens next?
The FTC and 22 state attorneys general allege Amazon spent years describing a second-price auction it wasn’t really running. My column is less about the conduct than about the defense: Amazon’s response characterizes advertisers as oblivious and incurious, and the most revealing thing in it is that it contains more detail about how its ad auction works than the company has ever published. My prediction on where budgets go is not much of a cliffhanger. Read here
Have a great weekend!
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