Brands and retailers both drive revenue by serving and engaging customers, yet separate teams within each organization serve different functions and reach customers through different channels. Commerce media experts who spoke at a recent conversation hosted by Mars United Commerce described ways to bring these competing interests closer.

Commerce media combines two traditionally separate areas: the channels brands use to communicate with customers, and the touchpoints and data retailers use to engage shoppers and drive purchases. When brands align internally around commerce media strategies, they bring these teams together and move the organization closer to shared revenue goals.

Connected through commerce

Both brand engagement with consumers and retailers’ engagement with shoppers provide similar opportunities to drive revenue. Divisions within brand and retail organizations distort this similarity.

“Every brand experience is a commerce opportunity, and every commerce opportunity is a brand experience,” said Kandi Arrington, executive vice president, retail consultancy, for Mars United Commerce, in the recent talk. “The consumer journey is probably more connected than ever. I don’t feel like the customer experience is fragmented, but how we plan it is.”

Brands can gain exposure and consideration with customers through a host of occasions that are very different. For instance, a shopper could spot a new product on a store shelf, research the product on their phone later, or watch a TikTok video about the product, and even purchase it through TikTok Shop,” Arrington said.

“If teams aren’t sharing that this commerce opportunity can come from anywhere, they’re naturally going to prioritize different things,” she said. “So my question would be, are your teams really aligned on where growth is actually coming from?”

Fragmented teams at brands and commerce media networks

Search, in-store, social media, and other touchpoints all offer revenue-raising opportunities with customers. The trouble starts when separate teams at the brand manage each channel, and each brand’s unique strategies then struggle to align with retailers, according to Arrington.

“Retailer by retailer, there’s individual planning, function by function,” she said. “While a lot of times those are really strong individual plans, they don’t ladder up or connect or orchestrate to really drive the biggest enterprise growth opportunity.”

Retailers see this fragmentation, too, according to Brian Monahan, senior vice president, media, at Albertsons Media Collective, who also spoke at the Mars United Commerce talk.

“We see the siloed planning happening both with our supplier partners and in our own organization very acutely," he said.

Connecting media and merchandising

To align goals on the retailer side, Albertsons keeps the media team and merchandising in close contact.

“From an org design approach, we have our media arm, the collective, sit inside our merchandising organization,” said Monahan. “When we’re talking to suppliers about what we carry and how we price it and promote it, it’s one conversation.”

The media collective has a goal to increase the sales impact of ads, not just to collect revenue but to drive units, he explained.

“And by the same token, our merch partners are helping with participation in our media platform,” he said.

A single shared tech stack between the two teams also creates a unified view of the shopper, allowing team members to engage customers with enterprise marketing activities, retail media, and loyalty in a coordinated approach.

Connecting brand media and commerce campaigns

On the brand side, one way to achieve greater alignment for revenue goals is to connect retailer campaigns with other brand media efforts.

“We know from communications theory that effective frequency works,” said Monahan. “Speaking to the same person through a mix of media throughout their journey is the way to change human points of view and behaviors.”

To alleviate competing priorities, brands don’t have to change their media strategies, according to Monahan. Instead, they should consider bringing outside media efforts into the retail media program through off-site commerce media.

“Just take that off-site media and really target it against the same known customer list that you can reach with your retail media partners on their sites and apps, and in their stores,” he said.

In a recent Chobani campaign, connected TV (CTV) brand ads run through Albertsons Media Collective’s off-site placements achieved a 69% lift in return on ad spend compared with previous CTV ads Chobani ran separately, Monahan said.

“Showing what drives sales is going to help lead to this organizational alignment to unlock these opportunities,” Monahan said.

This was originally featured in the Commerce Media Weekly newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.