When I was a Cub Scouts den leader, we held a talent show where the winner was decided by popular vote. My den and I came up with a fun song act where we performed the kids song "Worms." But there was a key twist: at the end of our performance, the kids threw dozens of gummy worms into the audience.
It was, transparently, a bribe, and everyone knew it. We won the prize in a landslide, and I think we taught those kids a valuable lesson about incentives. The voting wasn't really measuring talent – it was measuring who gave away free candy.
I see something similar happening in retail media today. Agencies and consultants that brands hire to manage their retail media channels are being incentivized to look at metrics that don't necessarily measure true performance. They're focused on ROAS numbers that look good on paper, while billions in ad spend might actually be going to waste.
The WOAS Initiative: Highlighting Retail Media Waste
Podean, a retail media and marketplaces agency, launched an initiative last week called "WOAS" – Waste Of Ad Spend – to tackle this issue. As Founder & CEO Mark Power told me, "Too often, brands unknowingly pour money into retail ad spend that isn't driving meaningful results."
What exactly constitutes "waste" in retail media? According to Podean, three main issues keep coming up:
- Ineffective targeting – campaigns that cast nets too wide instead of being precise
- Unoptimized budgets and bids that don't account for the dynamic nature of retail platforms
- Disconnect between media buying and broader business goals
This is the basis for the "WOASYs" – Podean's video series showcasing the worst offenders by creating a parody of the Oscars. The award categories include:
- "Hoping media will solve all my issues"
- "Getting their Google & Meta agency to manage retail media when they have no idea what to do"
- "Selling managed services with nobody to manage them"
- "Setting ridiculous media metrics"
- "Least skilled in-house team"
You can read my post for Forbes today about the WOAS campaign.
Industry Experts Weigh In
My personal viewpoint is that wasted ad spend is not the result of malicious behavior, or even ineptitude on the part of consultants, agencies, or internal teams.
Brand are wasting marketing spend because they have the wrong incentives and consistently optimize to the wrong metrics. Just like those Cub Scouts who voted for gummy worms rather than talent, we're measuring what's easy to measure, not what actually matters.
To get additional perspective and specific examples of WOAS in action, I spoke with other industry consultants about why we're still seeing such profound waste in retail media in 2025:
One-Size-Fits-All Strategies Don't Work
Vanessa Hung, CEO of Online Seller Solutions says that different product categories require different strategies - supplements need multiple touchpoints with educational content while kitchen gadgets convert faster with feature-focused messaging. "We audited accounts from a competing agency and found they had been applying the same strategy to all categories, virtually guaranteeing wasted spend," she says.
AI-Generated Content Creates More Noise Than Signal
Hung also points out that the AI boom has created another wrinkle – the proliferation of generic creative. It's now so easy to generate assets that many brands produce volume without substance. Generic headlines like "High Quality" or "Best in Class" simply don't cut through anymore. By introducing better quality creatives focused on personalization and real problem-solution approaches, her agency improved ROAS by 25% in a single week.
Traditional Digital Marketers Misunderstand Retail Media
Danny Silverman, independent ecommerce consultant, says that many brands are incorrectly migrating digital personnel to retail media roles without understanding the fundamental differences, bringing traditional ROAS frameworks that don't work effectively. "If a brand is in an RFP process, an agency's focus on ROAS should be an immediate disqualification as it shows they don't truly understand retail media," he says.
Fragmentation Creates Confusion
Tony Crecca is an eCommerce consultant working with the agency MPG and directly with brands. Tony says that for all the analytics and automation, retail media – like all media investment – is still a mix of art and science.
However, unlike more traditional platforms such as broadcasting or print, retail media networks are more fragmented with varying measurement standards. "There’s often a pressure to invest as part customer JBP commitments and brands don’t always know exactly what they are investing in or why they are investing," he says. "There’s still a lack of dedicated expertise within many organizations."
Identifying which 50% of your ad spend is wasted
Mike Feldman, head of retail media at Vayner, quotes the great John Wanamaker: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Feldman adds that "as an industry we all chase incrementality, but sometimes the fastest way to drive results isn't finding the next 30% of growth…it's cutting the least effective 30% of the plan."
From Gummy Worms to Real Results
WOAS isn't happening because agencies are trying to deceive their clients or because brands lack intelligence. It's happening because we've built an ecosystem with misaligned incentives. When we reward agencies for hitting ROAS targets instead of driving incremental growth, we shouldn't be surprised when they optimize accordingly.
The brands that will win in the next era of retail media will be those that can resist the temptation of gummy worm metrics and develop more meaningful ways to measure true incremental value.
