Retail media has transformed the advertising landscape, and ADWEEK has launched a new channel dedicated to it. We’re now poised to demystify it for both buyers and sellers and reveal everything about its major players and those who are striving to be major players.

Lauren Johnson, who covered this sector extensively at Business Insider, will spearhead this initiative for ADWEEK, alongside editor Kathryn Lundstrom. Walmart Connect is our launch partner.

Retail media networks are a huge opportunity for the ad industry, one that EMARKETER believes will rake in $140 billion this year. 

While Amazon and Walmart were among the earliest companies to sell ads powered by their knowledge of what consumers bought, numerous others are now jumping in. The department store Belk, for instance, is in the process of building an ad-selling business, ADWEEK exclusively reported. And earlier this year, United Airlines launched its own ad-selling business, calling it a “commerce media network” because it’s not a retailer.

It shows how much retail networks are evolving and pushing well beyond their initial promise.

Read a brief Q&A with Johnson, highlighting why she thinks retail media is so important for the ad industry.

ADWEEK: What’s the most exciting thing about retail media today?

Lauren Johnson: How much time do you have? It’s one of the fastest-growing areas of advertising, and there are a bunch of new companies in it. I’m seeing a lot of product innovation happening, and it’s largely not understood or covered.

What’s the most misunderstood thing about retail media?

People don’t even know what it is. A lot of the money that goes into retail media has been around for a very long time as shopper marketing budgets, so it requires creating ad budgets differently. And everybody wants a piece of it because trade marketing budgets can be quite lucrative. If you get Procter & Gamble, it’s a lot of money.

What are the big trends?

A lot of retailers are moving their ad businesses off their retail sites, which creates more players, a bunch of new middlemen, and also more friction. More big holding companies are also investing in this. Omnicom bought Flywheel, Publicis owns what used to be CitrusAd and is now Epsilon, as well as Profitero. A lot of these companies were also founded by a bunch of former Amazon people who’ve left, formed their own companies, and turned them into startups that bigger companies are interested in.

What’s the last thing you spontaneously bought online, and was it worth it?

An Apple Watch, on Prime Day. I wasn’t planning on it, but Apple was prominently featured at the top of Amazon’s page on Prime Day and it was $100 cheaper than it normally is. I like it so far, but I’m still trying to figure out how to use it, and I find the notifications a little annoying.