Product discovery has moved beyond the search bar. Today, it starts in conversation on community-based platforms where people ask questions, compare products, and receive real-world validation before they purchase.

This behavioral shift is reshaping how brands connect with high-intent audiences. It’s also expanding the definition of retail media, moving beyond traditional placements to meet consumers in spaces where they’re actively exploring.

A new collaboration between CVS Media Exchange® (CMX®) and Reddit reflects this change within the consumer journey. By combining CMX first-party shopper data with Reddit’s deep community engagement, brands can now reach consumers with optimized precision inside peer-driven conversations. This allows for brands to introduce themselves in a highly relevant way, in timely moments, natively integrated into the platform’s conversations.

“Reddit is where high-intent shoppers come not just to browse, but to engage in real conversations, especially when it comes to health, wellness, and beauty,” said Mike Romoff, chief revenue officer at Reddit. “By collaborating with CMX, we’re connecting that unique intent and authenticity with the scale and physical presence of CVS, creating a seamless path to purchase experience for shoppers. It’s a natural alignment that gives brands a powerful way to connect with consumers at the heart of their decision-making journey.”

This initiative enables contextual commerce that prioritizes real dialogue and verified data over assumptions to help brands reach the shoppers most open to their messages by fully understanding consumer needs through authentic human conversations.

Discovery happens in conversation, not in isolation

Reddit is the No. 1 platform for product discussions, particularly in health, wellness, and beauty. It has more than 108 million daily active uniques and over 700 health and wellness communities. Reddit is where over half of all online conversations related to purchasing decisions take place, often in threads where users compare experiences and seek advice from those they trust.

This presents a valuable opportunity. Until now, platforms like Reddit have been unable to offer attributed sales via a clean room—but working with CMX unlocks that capability.

With access to over 90 million addressable ExtraCare® members, CMX brings verified shopper insights into Reddit’s community-driven ecosystem and anonymized forums to help brands understand how conversations can drive purchase behavior.

“The synergy between Reddit and CMX is powerful, bringing together authentic, real-time conversations and a deep understanding of the categories that are most relevant to our target shoppers,” said Kelly Kavanagh, senior director, integrated marketing and media, Haleon. “This collaboration offers the potential for our brands to connect with our consumers in an environment that offers both credibility and genuinely helpful support on their health and wellness journey, while providing measurable insights into how those interactions influence consumer behavior.”

The channel will be powered by clean room technology to offer data collaboration, SKU-level attribution, and campaign measurement to connect exposure with transparency (where permitted by federal and state regulations).

A new landscape for advertisers and brands

“Reddit’s deeply engaged communities offer authenticity at scale, which perfectly complement CMX’s precision. By integrating our loyalty insights with Reddit’s interest-based signals, we’re creating a truly differentiated channel for advertisers to drive outcomes with integrity,” said Parbinder Dhariwal, vice president and general manager, CVS Media Exchange.

Brands can now reach consumers based on behavior and intent, not just demographics. This drives more meaningful shopper engagement through conversation and context.

Conversion driven by conversation

The collaboration marks a broader shift in how advertisers approach relevance. As consumers turn to social discovery over traditional search, brands must be present where people are genuinely talking about what to buy. In parallel, they need tools to measure and optimize what happens next.

The CMX x Reddit offering will launch in closed beta in Q4 2025. Initially, it will be available to select brand advertisers across health, wellness, and beauty. As the program scales, measurement, targeting, and creative formats will also continue to evolve.

—Paul Lentz, Executive Director and Head of Strategic Development at CVS Media Exchange

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