Retail media is moving beyond performance to become a tool that marketers can use to drive both sales and brand awareness. In this next evolution, off-site, in-store, and upper-funnel formats like connected TV (CTV) and social will play a larger role in marketers’ retail media strategies as they seek more scale and control over their campaigns.

Catch up on the big events and trends shaping how advertisers measure linear and connected TV advertising.

US digital ad spend will cross $300 billion for the first time this year, per our March 2024 forecast. That’s good news for advertisers, but it also means it’s harder to stand out. While exposing consumers to a brand multiple times across channels is vital to brand awareness, hitting consumers with the same creative over and over again or bombarding them with emails and text messages can hurt marketing impact. Here are five key stats on marketing fatigue across connected TV (CTV), email, and messaging.

In a recent meta analysis, Grocery TV discovered that consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands averaged a 14% increase in incremental sales when advertising through its in-store retail media network.

Consumers are more ready for shoppable TV than ever. “The opportunity around shoppable TV is changing due to significant advancements in technology and shifts in consumer behavior,” said David Cohen, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), in its recent Retail Media Goes to the Movies report.

Around $84 billion in digital ad spend was lost to fraud last year, according to Juniper Research. That number will more than double by 2028, reaching $172 billion. Some 22% of US digital media experts consider digital video to be one of the media types most vulnerable to fraud, per a study from Integral Ad Science and YouGov. But connected TV (CTV) has an advantage over other digital ad publishers.

Here are five charts that reveal the scale and outlook for CTV from the perspective of its access points.

As connected TV gradually eclipses linear, the measurement space continues to evolve. The market’s in for another year of transitioning from a single dominant currency to multiple currencies.

“[Cookie deprecation] is a monumental change. It has also been a long time coming,” our analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said on a recent “Meet the Analyst” webinar. The signal loss will force advertisers to shift targeting strategies, campaign measurement, and identity solutions. But other trends—programmatic transaction methods and connected TV (CTV)’s growing share of ad spend—will stay their course.

Chip maker NVIDIA last week launched a pre-roll ad product for cloud gaming that makes video game advertising look a lot more like connected TV (CTV).

Magna forecasts 9.2% growth in US ad market to $369 billion: political campaigns major driver, with spending expected to set records.

On today's podcast episode (part 1), we discuss what publishers can do about GenAI that summarizes answers, how to strike the right ad load balance, and who has the best 'what-to-do-about-social-media' strategy. "In Other News," we talk about what social app BeReal's next move will be and why X (formerly Twitter) is pivoting to CTV. Tune in to the discussion with our director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman and analyst Daniel Konstantinovic.

Even the oldest members of Gen Alpha (born between the early 2010s and 2024) are younger than the iPad. For this digitally native generation, YouTube is the place to be, but other media channels like streaming platforms and even podcasts are popular. With the future of Gen Alpha’s social media use uncertain as states like Florida bar children under 14, marketers should know where the demographic is consuming content.

Political ad spend will hit $12.32 billion this year, according to our December 2023 forecast. That’s nearly three times what it was in 2016.

Disney and NBCU signal a major shift in CTV ad buys: Both are working with The Trade Desk to make inventory available programmatically.

As Latin America’s digital revolution marches on, advertisers and retailers must keep pace with how and where consumers are spending their time—and money—if they wish to maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly evolving business environment.

Every major streaming company—and some not so major ones—is investing in live sports. As they compete for broadcast rights, they’re seeking advertisers. Exclusive inventory is a draw, but benefits like first-party data and the ability to execute on lower-funnel objectives are also helping streamers woo live sports advertisers.

The ecommerce giant’s launch of ads on Prime Video instantly gave it the largest audience for an ad-supported subscription video service in the US.

All eyes are on streaming. Last year, non-pay TV viewers surpassed traditional pay TV viewers in the US, per our forecast. Years of streaming platform proliferation are over, yielding to consolidation and fragmented ad measurement. Bundles between streaming platforms and partnerships with retail media platforms are forming, leaving media buyers with a headache over how to strategize.

Walmart makes a huge acquisition in hopes of taking on Amazon’s retail media dominance, while Amazon keeps churning out generative AI innovations. Plus, Target tries to steal share from Walmart’s prowess on attracting deal-seeking shoppers. Find out who else earned a spot in our Unofficial” Most Interesting Retailers List, a monthly ranking revealed on an episode of the “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail” podcast.