The Path to Purchase Institute is a US-based member organisation that aims to serve the needs of commerce marketers in CPG and FMCG brands, as well as retailers, agencies and solution providers who are operating along the path to purchase. They are also our Retail Media Summit UK co-hosts who we’re excited to be partnering with again in 2024.
As editorial director, Jessie Dowd is responsible for all the content produced by the Institute across a magazine, websites, newsletters, webinars and events. On the morning of Retail Media Summit UK Jessie spoke to The FMCG Guys podcast host Daniel Dwyer Torres about how retail media has developed in recent years, the key differences between the industry in the US and the UK, and her predictions for the next 12 months.
Q: How have you seen the retail media space evolve maybe in the last couple of years?
Jessie Dowd: Retail media really became part of the commerce marketers’ toolkit a few years ago. Speaking with our audience back then, they were working on the fundamentals. What even is retail media? How should we be using it in our omni channel campaigns? Now it’s table stakes. It’s become a critical component of the omnichannel journey, because being able to deliver targeted messaging to shoppers is how you’re going to get your best return on investment.
Q: What key differences do you see in retail media from the US to here?
JD: UK retailers and brands are really excelling in-store. In the US, we’re ahead on the digital side, so there’s a lot of learnings we can share by bringing the US and UK industries together. We can talk about things that are working in store, things that are working digitally, and why we need to think about the two holistically as part of omnichannel.
Q: Are there any key learnings from the US that could be applied here tomorrow?
JD: Our biggest takeaway would be that internal teams need to be completely restructured to be able to create these omnichannel campaigns. You’ve currently got your brand teams and your shopper teams, and national, and trade, and everyone is still operating in their own little groups. That means it’s hard to make campaigns that are truly omnichannel. And so we’re seeing brands totally restructuring how they’re mapped internally.
Q: Where do you think we’ll be a year from now?
JD: AI is obviously the topic everyone’s talking about. Where AI plays into retail media really nicely is in thinking about the ways we can optimise campaigns, but we can also use AI on the creative side, knowing the digital shopping experience needs to be more immersive. Better creative leans into that, and it’s something we’re going to see a lot more of. And then looking at all the data and using AI to synthesise it will add to efficiencies, and then you can add your human element on top to really perfect it.
Register your interest for next years Retail Media Summit UK
This year Retail Media Summit UK, or as we like to call it “The Retail Media event of the year”, brought together a room full of cross-atlantic industry professionals to delve deeper into the value of retail media for both retailers & brands. Both the UK and US markets were represented by true experts, giving everyone an opportunity to learn from the challenges and opportunities the other is facing.
We’re incredibly excited to be once again co-hosting next year's Summit with the Path to Purchase Institute (P2PI), the leading publication in the United States that offers consumer product marketing executives and brand managers a holistic, 360-degree view of the shopper journey.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to be part of this dynamic community shaping the future of retail media. Register your interest today to stay informed and join us as we continue to unlock the potential of retail media together.