by Rhea Kumar, Director of Strategy, Creo

We are quickly embarking on a new era where rapidly evolving consumer shopping behaviors challenge brands and retailers to adjust to the speed of modern commerce for sustainable business growth. As noted in AdAge, the current situation presents a “paradigm shift in which disruptive forces and business imperatives have set the stage for how brands, retailers, and consumers interact in the realm of digital commerce” (O’Connell & Wang, 2024). Omnicom Media Group has made unprecedented moves to create connection points in the consumer lifecycle journey and is quickly adapting within media investment strategies. Moving to a direct sales model with connected commerce by utilizing retail media networks (RMNs) is the future in supercharging performance and scale for brands. In fact, Retail Media is on track to represent a quarter of all United States Ad Spend by 2027 (Lebow, 2024). An example of this comes through grocery stores and big-box chains offering advertisers ways to reach consumers using customer data.

Over the past few years, Omnicom has made deliberate steps to bring scaled capabilities to this specific part of the industry. From OMG’s Signal Report, we are finding that Third Party Marketplaces will add $2.1 Trillion in sales between 2023 – 2028, and account for 49% of all global retail sales growth by 2028.

Getting the Consumer Experience Right

As we consider the job to be done of “help me reach the right customers and attract new ones” RMNs are truly minimizing the path to purchase. With lesser friction, shopping online through connected commerce allows customers many more options through a click of a few buttons and in a way that works with their lifestyle. Case in point, one statistic from The Wall Street Journal on the topic notes that “according to OMG Signal, 51% of consumers say they now have more choices than ever before when they are shopping (e.g., buy online pick up in store (BOPIS), expedited shipping).” (Graham, 2023). Despite the mounting proof of RMNs efficacy, the success of retail marketing will also depend on adoption by clients, getting the “categories right” will be necessary. Some brands may be weary to shift large media budgets for forecasted trends, as shoppable ads come at a higher price point. Success here will also depend on their resources, processes, and profit formula to win against the competition. It is possible that brands could be deterred from innovation if they do not integrate this sustaining innovation.

Flywheel and Creo Bring Connected Commerce

Another point to mention is that disruptive innovation to the retail space also comes through influencers and content creators who can be seen as New Market Disruptors. Omnicom clients can now leverage TikTok for its e-commerce benefits in much the same way it would Amazon, Walmart, or other e-marketplaces — namely to drive incremental sales. As the holding company is building a new platform to enable purchase through creator campaign content across all social media channels, “consumers will be able to shop for items in creator content from more than 1,500 retailers in 85,000 stores with same-day fulfillment via Instacart.

It will be able to attribute orders purchased to a specific creator activation for their clients, via Omnicom’s Flywheel commerce cloud” according to DigiDay (Burgi, 2024). Making shopping much more streamlined and removing friction points provides customers the ability to shop directly from an ad, helping to reach an underserved or unserved consumer segment who would otherwise not be bothered to go out of their way to purchase a product recommended by a creator in-store. Creators and influencers thereby act as a new media channel, and thus are disruptive innovations. To account for this, the holding company is “combining a cross-network team that can incorporate Flywheel’s ability to manage and scale digital commerce executions with Creo, Omnicom’s influencer investment practice, to connect commerce, content, and culture to drive sales on TikTok Shop.” (Burgi, 2024)

There should also be room for brands to explore connected creative execution, so they do not lose sight of what makes creator programs special. Specifically, true value for influencer programs also lies in the ability to bolster sentiment, awareness, and demand creation for brands– not just push demand capture. Authenticity is at the core of creator marketing, and providing a way to balance budgetary motives with the honest storytelling provided by creators should be delicately handled. A potential solution here would be to bring together creative and media approaches to improve the consumer experience and help drive marketing performance. These moves are important because by doing so, Omnicom, Creo, and Flywheel  can connect creator content to sales, another example of the holding company striving to move beyond media metrics to reach sales metrics for clients’ investments.

Collaboration Across Marketing Teams is Key to Success

However, it is important to note that as retail media networks are getting increasingly sophisticated, some brands have yet to close the gap between “shopper” and “brand marketing” as these functions tend to sit in siloes. To get there, this disjointed experience would require clients to approve a comprehensive media investment strategy. As data triangulation from this connected strategy becomes more prevalent, clients must ensure they are organized appropriately for this course of action. For example, many clients can view this shopping experience as largely experimental since return on ad spend is not yet standardized. If clients hold retail marketing networks to the same criteria as their traditional shopper marketing campaigns, these campaigns could be seen as not successful. There should be time to test for this integrated innovation.

In all, it is evident that to keep pace with consumer shopping behaviors, traditional retail brands will need to abandon their siloed commerce approach, and instead focus on higher margin activity, by adopting a more holistic media plan and investment strategy inclusive of RMNs. Retail Media Networks are the future for brands, customers, and the holding company alike.

Creo uses data-backed practices to create dynamic experiences for our clients and forecast future trends to step boldly into the next evolution of influencer marketing.

Contact us to learn how Creo can help your brand.