The inaugural IAB Europe Retail Media Impact Summit, held on September 24 in Amsterdam, convened more than 150 senior leaders from the retail, brand, agency, and ad tech sectors in a landmark gathering to shape the future of retail media in Europe.
The summit’s structure was explicitly non-traditional: instead of sales pitches and passive panels, the organisers emphasized collaborative workshops and co-creation sessions on themes such as incrementality, first-party data & clean rooms, the “duo effect” of retail media + CTV, and in-store digital buying. As set out by summit hosts Patricia Grundmann (OBI First Media Group) and Jason Westcott (WPP Media), the hope was for attendees to leave “Inspired, informed, empowered” by their time at the Tobacco Theatre.
A significant announcement came right at the start of the day in the form of Albert Heijn becoming the first retailer certified under IAB Europe’s Retail Media Certification Programme, audited by ABC—a signal that certification is moving from concept to what the IAB hopes will be an essential operational benchmark.
In one of the opening keynotes, Drew Cashmore positioned Europe’s moment in retail media as an opportunity to “build with clearer eyes,” comparing the current executions and future opportunities between the United States and Europe. During a fireside chat following his presentation, Cashmore and Daniel Knapp, IAB Europe’s Chief Economist, debated the role of macro trends across retail and marketing in accelerating innovation and the adoption of measurement frameworks.
Standards, consistency, and transparency were recurring themes across all the sessions. One breakout workshop sparked consensus on establishing a core set of creative sizes across Retail Media Networks, striking a balance between uniformity and flexibility. During the discussion on in-store opportunities and what it will take to get in-store to the next frontier, Chris Riegel’s (STRATACACHE) presentation sparked discussions on how best to measure in-store effectiveness legally and the potential that in-store has to upturn the ecosystem, where it is estimated 34% of all digital ads are lost to fraud. In addition to in-store, inventory, and formats, Daniel Knapp explored the potential presented by connected television in a lively “death match”-style discussion.
The conversation at the post-event dinner reflected the optimism and excitement of those marketers, retailers, and solution providers present. Retail media is shifting from the realm of hype and hope to performance, but to truly realize the massive potential of combining customer loyalty, data, and creative execution, trust needs to be built and maintained across multiple touchpoints.
