LAS VEGAS –Instore retail media represents the “natural evolution” of the broader retail media category, said Marlow Nickell, founder of Grocery TV. Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Groceryshop convention, Nickell said the shift from online to physical locations reflects where most transactions actually occur.
“When you think about it, 90-plus percent of grocery transactions still happen instore,” he said. “It’s always been obvious that would be the next big thing. The challenge is how you actually do it.”
Unlike ecommerce platforms, building instore media requires real-world infrastructure. Grocery TV’s role, Nickell said, is to help retailers plan, execute and monetize their instore retail media strategies, from selecting signage and creative formats to integrating campaigns into broader media plans.
Brands are still finding where instore media fits
As retail media expands into physical environments, many brands are still deciding how to budget and organize for it.
“It’s such a new thing that most brands don’t even have an instore retail media budget yet,” Nickell said. “There’s still the question of where it lives. Is it with the shopper team, out-of-home, or programmatic video?”
He said Grocery TV helps brands bridge those silos by aligning objectives and creative formats. Increasingly, programmatic video teams are recognizing instore screens as part of the larger video ecosystem.
“It’s just video, like any other social or online video, but reaching a great audience in a new context,” he said. Coordination with retail media strategies remains critical to make it effective.
Data partnerships drive personalized shopper experiences
Nickell emphasized that understanding who shops where is fundamental to creating relevant campaigns.
“We start by helping retailers understand the audience coming into the store,” he said. Grocery TV combines retailer first-party data with third-party audience insights to build detailed profiles of each store’s visitors.
Those profiles allow advertisers to target campaigns more precisely across networks of stores and banners. Nickell added that measurement is another critical layer: “It’s about knowing who’s in front of the screens, typical foot traffic, and what those impressions mean in terms of campaign delivery.”
Retailers, he said, must also ensure they can track performance through tools like sales lift, brand lift or foot traffic studies, depending on the campaign type.
Creative relevance is where real innovation happens
Despite the surge of new retail technology on display at Groceryshop, Nickell said Grocery TV takes a pragmatic approach.
“We like things that are ready to go now and can scale,” he said. Rather than chasing unproven innovations, the company focuses on creative execution, the content that shoppers actually see.
“The exciting innovation is in the creative, not necessarily in some kind of intense tracking mechanism,” he said. “You can’t just port over what you did on TV or online. You have to be thoughtful about the context of the store.”
Brands that invest in contextually relevant creative for their instore campaigns see dramatically higher performance, Nickell said.
“If you’ve got great placements, visible inventory, and creative that improves the customer experience,” he said, “that’s where instore media truly delivers.”