Australia’s retail media sector, currently lagging the US but catching up fast, is about to hit a growth spurt.
The local market, which produced CitrusAd, the software as a service platform which helps retailers sell digital advertising to brands, is behind the US because it started its run later.
Australia’s retail media is estimated to be attracting more than $1 billion in ad dollars and perhaps growing at 20% a year.
Morgan Stanley forecasts retail media spending in Australia on in-house/owned ad platforms to grow to $2.8 billion in 2027 from around $1 billion in 2022.
CitrusAd is now part of Epsilon at Publicis. CEO of the France-based global company, Arthur Sadoun, called out Epsilon at the latest results announcement as one of two key drivers of growth. The other is media.
David Peterson, head of global retail media at Epsilon, based in the US, has been visiting clients in Australia
“They've been building out nice businesses on their web sites and platform but now they're really looking to accelerate off site, which is a very similar move to what we saw in the US,” he told AdNews.
“But I think I think they'll get that up and running faster.
“Retail media pairs up nicely in the CTV space because of the ability to reach known shoppers and households with the data the retailers have.
“So I think that's going to be a big trend.
“And then I would say even though a lot of people are talking about in store now and there is some activity there, I think the scale for that is probably going to be out at least three years out before it has any meaningful scale.
“I think the focus right now is the retailers take what they built on their sites, leverage the data and the great knowledge they have about their shoppers, to help brands reach those shoppers.
“And what we try to do is make sure you do that in a way that the shoppers see relevancy. And that's good for them because if they do that right, everybody wins.”
Peterson sees media agencies very important to the retail media ecosystem. Many have speciality units within the organisation, whether they call its an ecommerce unit or a retail media.
“And then there's boutique agencies popping up in the US specifically around retail media and shopper marketing,” he said.
“Media agencies traditionally have been thought of upper funnel, driving media for the brands, and retail media has been more lower funnel type action.
“That funnel is collapsing and retail media is now starting to address all types of spend and all types of objectives.
“Because of the scale that it brings, I would call it more targeted awareness at scale.
“And that's where I think the media agencies are leaning in and seeing the opportunities there too. So I think that's going to continue to evolve.
Rob Odd, regional CEO based in Brisbane, says Australia and Asia Pacific is a huge opportunity and growth region for Epsilon.
“I'm slightly biased, looking after APAC, but I would dare argue there's a level of saturation in other markets that we haven't reached here yet,” he told AdNews.
“We’re here at the forefront to take these retailers and brands on this journey.
“If you talk to someone about retail media, everyone's got a different interpretation of what that is but there's also not one plan that's going to suit every retailer.
“The key for us is not just plugging in a technology platform and then hoping for the best because that's going to set them up for failure.
“It's really going through that blueprint with them and not drilling products.
“Blueprinting of the plan is super critical and that's where we have a huge strength in, especially globally. And that's what we're going to invest heavily in this country, in this region.”
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