Albertsons Media Collective Pushes for Retail Media Standardization

Company unveils whitepaper at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

6/22/2023

Albertsons' retail media arm has laid out a preliminary framework for standardization of the advertising practice.

Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media arm for Albertsons Cos., has released a whitepaper detailing a preliminary framework that would help standardize specifications, methodologies, terminology and disclosures across retail media networks. This initial framework focuses on product characteristics, performance measurement, third-party verification and capabilities.

According to the company, advertisers are experiencing difficulties in cross-platform comparison, limited transparency and inconsistent reporting due to the necessity of producing varying ad formats, as well as transacting, measuring and integrating insights from each separate platform they use. In addition, Albertsons says standardization will help improve the consumer shopping journey.

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“While retail media is booming, the lack of standardization has produced an unnecessarily complex, inefficient and costly ecosystem,” said Kristi Argyilan, SVP of retail media for Albertsons. “For retail media to achieve its full promise, we must tackle the issue of standardization head on.”

Continued Argyilan: “To ensure the survival of this industry, we must come together toward a greater goal. We believe this framework will serve as a starting point for creating a unified approach to retail media standardization. Setting a new gold standard is the first stepping stone to revolutionizing how advertisers, agencies and retail media networks work together.”

Albertsons Media Collective is hosting a discussion about retail media network standardization at Cannes Lions this week alongside leaders from Omnicom Media Group, Pinterest and R3.

“Omnicom Media Group shares Albertsons Media Collective’s commitment to assuring advertisers can have confidence in their retail media investments, and their belief that confidence can best be achieved through standardization,” said Ben Hovaness, SVP, marketplace intelligence, Omnicom Media Group. “That’s why OMG created the Council on Accountability and Standards in Advertising (CASA), and why we stand with The Collective as active advocates for assuring clarity, safety and transparency in this rapidly growing investment channel.”

Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons operates more than 2,200 retail stores in 34 states. The company is No. 9 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company as one of its Retailers of the Century.