The world’s biggest advertisers converged at Cannes Lions last week. At the festivities, marketers discussed everything from AI (it’s everywhere) to retail media (it’s growing). Other hot topics included the creator economy, which people are optimistic about, and data privacy, which has people more concerned. Here are some hot quotes overheard at Cannes.

The year is nearly halfway over. As we prepare for H2, our analysts have been hard at work debating some very specific—and potentially unlikely—predictions that could play out in the coming months. Everything from retail media standardization to drone delivery to AI partnerships is at play over the rest of 2024. Here are some of our analysts' hottest takes.

CVS Media Exchange (CMX) announced yesterday the beta launch of a new self-service offering in collaboration with The Trade Desk. The offering includes enhanced audience targeting, transparent ad pricing, the ability to activate media through its data service provider, and improved performance insights.

Retail media is taking Latin America’s digital ad industry by storm, with advertisers spending nearly $2 billion this year, per our inaugural forecast. Here are the latest trends you need to know.

Retail media measurement is more important than ever.

Collective TV integrates CTV and retail media: Albertsons' new platform offers advanced ad solutions, driving digital video ad growth through shoppable content.

Retail media is the fastest-growing ad channel we track in the US, growing by 26.0% this year. Its share of total US media spend will reach 14.1% this year, and come 2028, nearly 1 in 5 ad dollars spent in the US will go to retail media. But the channel has the potential to grow even more. Here are four key factors that present challenges to retail media growth right now.

Albertsons adds non-endemic ads: Retail media expands its ambitions as the category matures.

With third-party cookies on the way out, marketers are leaning more heavily on first-party data to help power their digital advertising strategies. Retailers that want to increase their share of ad dollars should leverage customer data to help advertisers enhance campaign performance via measurement and attribution capabilities.

Building a retail media network (RMN) requires a major investment in time, talent, and money. While the largest retailers have these resources, independent and regional retailers often may not.

US in-store retail media ad spend will total $370 million this year. But as the channel expands, oversaturating stores with ads can cause tension between retail media teams, which focus on maximizing ad dollars, and merchants, which focus on the store as a whole. Online advertising and in-store advertising are not two distinct channels, but instead work together.

Programmatic advertising will account for 91.3% of US digital display ad spend this year, or a total of $157.35 billion, per our December 2023 forecast. Last week, advertisers at Programmatic I/O discussed where those ad dollars are headed and how programmatic advertising is changing. From ad spend waste to the expansion of retail media, here are three big trends discussed at the event.

Retail media is traditionally dominated by, well, retailers. But as access to customer insights becomes increasingly important for advertisers amid cookie deprecation and mounting privacy laws, other industries are hopping on retail media’s bandwagon.

Physical stores are the new frontier for retail media. But undeveloped tech capabilities, competing priorities, and unproven new formats are hurdles retailers need to address.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss what's fueling the non-endemic retail media fire, how to do non-endemic advertising the wrong way, and how success is measured. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian and analyst Sarah Marzano.

France’s relative digital immaturity is shifting, with digital advertising growth leaving traditional channels behind. Retail media is leading the way, and Amazon is benefiting the most, with the creation of the new triopoly.

Today’s podcast episode of The Banking & Payments Show explores the future role ATMs will play in retail media. Host Rob Rubin is also joined by Stuart Mackinnon, COO of NCR Atleos, to discuss why ATM networks continue to grow despite the surge in options for cashless purchasing. We also discuss how advertisers on the Chase Media Solutions platform can use purchase history data to target ads on Chase’s digital platforms. Listen today!

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.

UK retailers are leading the charge on in-store retail media, thanks to their already extensive digital screen networks. Here’s what brands and retailers worldwide can learn from the digitization of UK stores.