A hurting US ad market is showing signs of recovery. Our forecast predicts 3.8% growth in overalUS media ad spend this year, for a total of $353.86 billion. Magna upped its US ad spend forecast for 2023 YoY growth from 4.2% to 5.2% in September. And in August, the US ad market achieved two consecutive months of growth for the first time since last June.

Walmart Connect now offers an ad certification program that helps advertisers understand how the retail media network operates and the types of ad formats it offers.

Advertising Week redefines representation: From diverse panels to strategic collaborations, inclusivity is both ethically and commercially prioritized.

Amazon Fresh, despite failing to gain traction with its brick-and-mortar endeavors, is trying to assert itself in the grocery space. Its customer base, though much smaller than competitors like Walmart and Target, is attractive to consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers because those shoppers are open to trying new products.

Cookie deprecation is closing in. It’s time for advertisers to evolve and adapt. Here are four questions to ask potential data partners that supply cookieless, permissioned, first-party purchase data to ensure you lock in a partner with staying power.

As ecommerce growth returns to pre-pandemic levels, it will continue to drive total retail sales over the next few years. Retailers looking to drive sales need to focus on a seamless omnichannel experience and use deals to convince consumers to spend. Meanwhile, retail media’s growth shows no signs of slowing, but advertisers and retailers must work together to ensure future success.

The store is no longer the only place where consumers can discover and shop for consumer packaged goods (CPG) products. Younger generations are finding products via search and social media, while Amazon Prime Day offers shoppers the opportunity to stock up on essentials for less.

Microsoft’s new ad network helps retailers build and maintain their own media networks, boasting “ready-built demand, expansive ad supply, and access to high-intent shoppers.” Using Microsoft’s new product can help retailers reach profitability, according to the software company.

On today's special podcast episode, we continue our monthly show where we discuss the biggest trends of the moment and the newest research, sprinkle in some analysis, and bundle it up into a quiz. Every month, three of our analysts representing their respective coverage area teams compete against each other. (We also encourage you to play along at home.) We keep a running score and will crown a winning team at the end of the year. Today, we cover retail media network investment and experimentation, the generative AI (genAI) bubble, and Google's dominance. Tune in to the discussion with this month's contestants: our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian, analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, and vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti.

Amazon faces a significant legal challenge: A FTC lawsuit that alleges Amazon illegally maintains monopoly power could force the retail giant to fundamentally alter its business practices.

As retail media grows, it is changing. At the moment, search remains retail media’s bread and butter and sales ads are the best awareness drivers. In the future, in-store media and shoppable video ads may take on a bigger role. But no matter how ad formats change, one thing is for certain: Measurement will be key for retail media’s continued growth.

We project US in-store retail media ad spend will nearly quadruple by 2027, but that’s starting from a fairly small base of $240 million this year, according to our forecast. Here are tips from experts on building an in-store retail media network.

This year’s Groceryshop 2023 event in Las Vegas focused on marrying in-store and digital experiences, the growing retail media wave, and the benefits of personalizing messaging based on each consumer’s motivations, among many other takeaways. All of that comes as US food and beverage retail sales are expected to reach $1.378 trillion this year and surpass $1.578 trillion in 2026, according to our June forecast.

Ecommerce success relies on a seamless search strategy. To help consumers find, learn, and buy products more easily, retailers are building out their on-site search capabilities, adding video, incorporating AI, and giving shoppers more tools to find what they are looking for. Here are some of the latest improvements from Walmart, Amazon, and Instacart.

Recent news of Walmart’s expansion of in-store ads, including audio and product demos, plus The Kroger Co.’s planned roll out of digital ads in the cooler aisle, has intensified the spotlight on the rise of in-store retail media. This fast-emerging segment is perhaps the most critical development in the digitization of the store, retail’s next mega-trend. Physical stores have enormous—and almost completely untapped—potential as the next major media channel, yet US retailers have been remarkably slow to adopt.

Kroger’s sales sag as grocery prices stabilize: That new state of play could drive the grocer to look to high-margin retail media to drive growth.

Instacart rolled out several updates to its Instacart Storefront platform: It added AI-powered conversational search and an in-store mode to its omnichannel digital commerce platform.

The stat: 84% of US marketers say that they are more likely to invest in retail media because of third-party cookie deprecation, per a LiveIntent survey.

Key stat: Ads for products on sale are the most effective form of retail media advertising, with 51% of US digital shoppers saying they pay attention to them and 44% of digital shoppers saying they purchase from them, per Integral Ad Science.