Creator-Led Retail Media Explained: The Truth About Influencer Marketing, Retail Media Networks & Shopper Data

Creator-Led Retail Media: Data, Not Format === Kiri: creators and retail media. If you've been anywhere near this industry in the last year, you've heard that these two things are coming together, that it's a big deal, a huge opportunity, maybe you're too late, and I kept hearing it too. creators paired together with retailer shopping data, closed loop measurement on influencer content, an underappreciated opportunity But I still had so many questions. where does this retail media creator intersection begin and end?

Who funds it? Who measures it? And one that I kept quiet about because I was afraid of sounding stupid, is this actually any different from any other creative that a brand commissions, or is it just another way to make an ad? So this episode is really a fact-finding mission for myself.

I don't have it all mapped out yet, but I've got enough to share some initial thoughts, and I wanna hear from you on the rest. Kiri: So let's start with the mood. The enthusiasm is real. Here is a clip from a series from Inmar called Inmar Retail Media Confessions with Leah Logan, Andrew Lipsman, and they're talking to Austin Leonard, the head of Dollar General Media Network.

Let's listen Andrew: creators are maybe having a moment because of retail media. They were already having a moment. They're already a growing media channel, but maybe this is the moment where it's starting to become, uh, a little bit more professional, a little bit easier to integrate into existing media plans, um, and starting to take it up a notch because of retail data. So, um, I know that you and I are big believers that there's a beautiful symbiosis- Absolutely ...

between creators and retail media and, uh, now is the time to, to fulfill its potential. Leah: Yeah, I'm just happy everybody else is here with me now. Kiri: And here's why I'm excited about that too. Creator content is culturally resonant in a way that a product photographed in a studio will never be.

A real person telling a real story with a hook in an exciting way, in a format that people actually choose to watch. Now, that is compelling, But even more so when you compare that with the thing that retailers have that nobody else does, which is first-party shopper data and the ability to tie exposure back to a transaction So this most human, least measurable corner of marketing suddenly gets some real numbers behind it. So far, so good. But creators in retail media also gets used to describe a whole bunch of things that aren't actually the same thing.

Amazon Live has creators. LTK and affiliate programs have creators. TikTok Shop runs on creators. Brands have contracted influencers directly for a decade or more.

And now retail media networks are running creator content too. Is this all the same thing? No, it is not. The cleanest way to sort them is by using the IAB's own definition of what retail media is.

It includes advertising space, data assets, and in-store opportunities that are owned by a retailer or a marketplace, which is made available to brands with campaigns using first-party retail data for planning, targeting, execution, and measurement. So those are the criteria that we can run some of these things through. So a brand paying an influencer directly to post, that is not retail media, it is influencer marketing because no retailer data is used, no retailer property is used.

LTK and affiliate links, these are commission-driven using the creator's own audience. That is not retail media. TikTok Shop, that is TikTok's inventory, TikTok's data, TikTok's checkout, that is more social commerce, not retail media. Amazon Live, this one breaks the test hon-honestly, but it is a very useful way to actually parse out what is creator-led retail media and what is not.

So most of Amazon Live is creators i-in the influencer program earning commissions on what they sell, like an affiliate. And brands can sweeten that through creator connections, which is adding a bonus commission on top with the brand setting the rate and the budget. So that is a classic affiliate model that's kind of supercharged. So as that stands, it is not retail media.

But Amazon also sells Amazon Live as an ad product, so a brand can fund the live stream and as of last year, the person viewing that live stream Is identified and flows into Amazon Marketing Cloud. So a brand can build audiences off of who watched a certain live stream that they promoted, and they can measure things like detail page views, add to cart, orders, et cetera. And so that version is brand bought. It is retailer data targeted and retailer measured.

So that one is actually retail media. this is indicating how the lines can be quite blurry. So this is the whole point really, that the format doesn't decide it, that the surface doesn't really decide it, that the money and the data do. So creator in retail media is a creative format.

The same creator video can be influencer marketing on a Monday, and it can be retail media on a Tuesday. The only thing that differentiates them is whose data targeted it and whose property it ran on So who is actually funding creator-led retail media? It depends I asked Alison Fowler, who is the director of media and consumer engagement strategy at the brand Rust-Oleum, about how her brand actually uses creators, because in her space, it's quite a big part of their strategy, and her answer captured a lot of the spectrum that we're seeing here.

So Rust-Oleum runs plenty of creator work through their own brand dollar influencer campaigns using brand money paid out to creators with no retailer in the middle. But they also run creators through retail media networks for two reasons. First, when the content runs from a retailer's own social handle, the brand gets the retailer's clout attached to it. So this is really the same value proposition as what Symbiosis offers, for example.

Or even it's done manually by many retailers where the brand will agree to set - spend a certain amount of money through the retailer's social profile or search profile on Google, and the ad for a widget will show up under that retailer's handle. So it's, it's more trustworthy. It has that clout, and so it's kind of a win-win as well. The retailer is pitching in, the brand is pitching in.

It's called collaborative bidding. I'm a huge fan of it because of the shared outcome that is achieved. And so in this case, this is how Rust-Oleum is actually using a retailer's Data to identify the right audience to get in front of for that influencer content. So that's, that's one way that they're doing it.

The second thing that Rust-Oleum does is they make sure that the creator is enrolled in the retailer's affiliate program. Because a creator is more motivated to promote your product if they're earning a commission on it. Why not? It's not like Rust-Oleum is paying for these commissions.

It's something that a retailer is already offering, and a pre- it's a pretty smart way just to make sure that the whole engine is a win-win for the creator, for the retailer, and for Rust-Oleum. So it's all about whose handle that post runs from and whether the creator has a commission incentive. The rules of retail media are being rewritten. Discovery is shifting, the economics are following, and the retailers and brands defining the next era aren't watching it happen from the sidelines.

Meet the Miracle Ads team at Cannes Lions June twenty-two to twenty-six for curated conversations, exclusive events, and one-on-one strategy sessions built for where the industry is headed. Kiri Masters: Commerce First Media starts in Cannes. Click the link in the show notes to learn more Kiri: Now, there was a great article from Digiday a few weeks ago that dug into the financial structures that are in place for creator-led retail media, and the reality is, as of right now, the financial structures are still evolving deal by deal.

So here are some examples of what they found in their reporting. Number one, it can be a fee structure that is built into an agency's offering. A lot of agencies work with the retailer to actually m- help them to monetize their media networks, lots of examples of this, and agencies obviously also work with brands as well to help them navigate their ad spend. So it can actually work into what an agency is doing.

They are the ones finding the influencers, negotiating the contracts, monitoring the creative, and then also figuring out where and how and when to put that creative into various campaigns across different retailers. So that is one way of doing it, where an agency is negotiating all of that on behalf of the brand and buying the media for them. Another is a retailer actually creating their own creator network and coming up with a cost structure directly with creators, and then billing a brand to actually tap into that network of preexisting, pre-vetted creators.

Everything is already negotiated. Really the easy button for a brand to know that, you know, this subset of creators already works with my retailer customer, and I can just slot into that ecosystem already. So those are a couple of the ways that it is working right now. Back to Allison at Rust-Oleum, she says that out of all of the retailers that her company works with, some have creative programs stood up, some don't.

And so this is at least in that category that she sells in, not evenly distributed infrastructure. It's far from being a universal capability that retailers are offering. So let's get back to my original question. Is this actually any different from other creative?

this is really my, like, dumb question that I wanted to answer for myself. If we strip away all of the excitement, is creator-led retail media different in kind from any other creative that a brand commissions? Let's listen back to the INMA Retail Media Confessions episode, how this group of practitioners and analysts describe running it Leah: And, you know, myth-busting here, you can measure creator just like anything else. Um, lift reporting's been available for, like, 10 years, so anyone who's not getting that yet, um, call me, I'll help you.

Um, and I, and I think that the synergy is like, it's not, it's not enough just to offer kind of creators in retail media, like it has to be bought the same way as all of the other tactics. Kiri: Buy it like every other tactic. Measure it like every other tactic. Leah is right to push for that rigor.

But if it should be bought, targeted, and measured like everything else in the plan, then structurally it is everything else in the plan There is only one real exception And this is where this type of media gets both the benefit and the caution levied at it as any other type of retail media ad buy. Let's listen to Austin Leonard from DGMN describe what this caution is Austin: Yes, and I'll say that we also need to be careful not to get too into that closed loop trap. Leah: Yeah.

Austin: Just because we can measure it doesn't mean that it should be measured the same way as the rest of the tactics. I'm probably stealing some of your, your lines here. Maybe I just heard them from you somewhere recently. Leah: Hey, hey.

Austin: But, but I do think, like, to you, the first thing you said was like, "We can actually go more up funnel with it," and the second thing you said, "But we can measure it like performance media." Yep. So I think that both of those- All in one ... can be true, but also don't get trapped in it.

It has to be a bottom-of-the-funnel conversion tactic either Kiri: So this is the thing that makes a creative valuable. It's authentic, top-of-funnel storytelling. It is the same thing that doesn't show up in a closed loop ROAS report. If you measure it like a sponsored product, you will optimize the soul right out of it So did everyone go gaga over nothing?

I don't think so. Creator content performs, and pairing it with retailer data and measurement is a reasonable thing to want But here's where I land. Creator-led retail media isn't a new species of advertising. It's a creative format, a very good one, that is running through targeting and measurement infrastructure that retail media already has.

The creator is the asset. The retail media is one of several wrappers that a brand can put around it alongside brand direct influencer marketing and affiliate programs. What's new isn't the fact that there is a creator creating that creative. It is the retailer's data and measurement layer that is reaching out to claim a creative format that brands were already buying which if you've followed my coverage of retail media networks reaching for brand budgets should sound somewhat familiar.