Retail Media x CTV: What's Working Now & What's Next

Retail media is no longer an early experiment. It’s entering a phase of maturity where the players, strategies, and expectations have all evolved. In this recent Strategus webinar, leaders from across the ecosystem came together to unpack what’s working now, where CTV fits in, and what comes next for brands and agencies navigating this space.

Panelists:

• Leora Kelman, Managing Director & Partner, Boston Consulting Group
  
  
• Parbinder Dhariwal, VP, General Manager of CVS Media Exchange (CMX)
  
  
• Steve Biddle, former Director of Retail Media at Meta
  
  
• Todd Bergey, President of Allebach Communications
  
  

The Maturity of Retail Media

The conversation opened with an analogy that summed up the state of retail media's maturity: if the industry were a baseball game, what inning are we in?

Steve Biddle compared today’s environment to “the top of the fifth,” describing a stage where the groundwork has been laid and teams are learning to adapt. “It’s your second time up to bat. You’re making adjustments. You’re making changes.”

Parbinder Dhariwal placed it slightly earlier, “the bottom of the fourth,” but agreed on the sentiment: foundations are built, and growth is accelerating. “Retail media networks have been investing significantly in the platform… are the foundations laid for real scale and growth over the next two years? Absolutely.”

For agencies like Allebach Communications, Todd Bergey noted the role of translation is key. “We're pitching it to our clients, because they’re not staying as up to date on this, nor should they have to. The agency should be doing that for them.”

Across perspectives, the takeaway was clear: the industry has entered its middle innings, where refinement, alignment, and education are the next priorities.

Retail Data + CTV: The Next Frontier

As retail media extends off-site, Connected TV is quickly becoming a centerpiece for reaching verified buyers at scale. Dhariwal explained that over the next two to three years, “you’ll see retail media networks really evolving into full-funnel platforms… CTV is a channel that’s going to drive performance for retail and, more importantly, for brands.”

Bergey echoed that enthusiasm from the buyer’s seat, calling the combination of retailer data and CTV “incredibly tactical and precise.” It’s about targeting verified shoppers through content they actually engage with and then measuring how those exposures translate to real-world sales.

The panel agreed this is where the “off-site” opportunity becomes tangible: CTV gives brands a way to extend their retail data activation into premium environments while closing the loop on performance.

Not All Retail Media Is Created Equal

While the potential is massive, Dhariwal cautioned that performance depends on the quality of a network’s data and its ability to maintain a consistent picture of the customer across channels. “We often talk about this, and even in retail media, I don't think all retail media is created equal,” he said.

He explained that signal loss, the breakdown of user identity as shoppers move between digital and physical environments, is a core challenge for many retailers. “Signal loss can happen in a number of different ways,” Dhariwal noted. “A customer moves from a digital environment to a physical environment and pays with a non-traceable tender, or they’re not logged in digitally before making an in-store purchase. There’s many different ways in which you lose data signal.”

That’s where loyalty programs become the differentiator. Retailers with large, active membership ecosystems can maintain a reliable “through line” of identity across transactions. “You’ve got to be able to have a through-line, and that’s where loyalty really comes into effect,” Dhariwal said. “We have that at CVS… the signals that we get on that consumer, right the way through from a physical as well as a digital perspective, are second to none.”

He pointed to CVS’s own model as an example, citing the company’s 90 million ExtraCare members as a base for understanding consumers across both physical and digital touchpoints. “When you couple that with CTV or social… you drive performance.”

Steve Biddle built on that point, emphasizing that few retailers have data on the same scale as CVS. “Not every RMN has the quality and quantity of loyalty data,” he said. “When they do not have that Caremark-level percentage… I would suggest to those on the call to really question the methodology for the modeling that accounts for that lack of clear through-line.”

The takeaway: Retailers with deep, verified loyalty ecosystems can tie exposures directly to transactions with greater accuracy. Those without it often rely on modeled or inferred data, which introduces uncertainty. For advertisers, understanding these differences is critical because in retail media, the value of the signal is what determines the strength of the result.

Measurement and Transparency Are the Next Battleground

Every panelist agreed that standardization and transparency remain the industry’s biggest hurdles and biggest opportunities.

“Clean room measurement is coming,” said Biddle. “This all begins with transparency, and transparency is healthy. It’s healthy for everyone to have the appropriate amount of data to make the best decisions.”

Dhariwal emphasized aligning on common metrics: “Providing full metrics of attribution and incrementality is important… ensuring that when you’re providing an incremental ROAS or reach metric, it’s aligned to how the industry measures you.”

And Todd Bergey brought it back to practicality. “We don’t ever want to be a student with our brand’s money. We want to be a professional with our brand’s money.”

That idea sums up why brands like Allebach Communications partner with managed-service experts rather than going it alone. Retail media and CTV measurement require experience, testing, and partnerships that take years to build. Strategus acts as the professional arm of that process, running the experiments, validating the partners, and delivering transparency that agencies can trust with their clients’ dollars.

In an environment where standards are still forming, having a partner who’s already done the homework helps you stay confident in the data and focused on results.

What’s Next for Retail Media?

By the close of the session, one theme stood out: the industry is advancing quickly, but success will come to those who keep learning, stay flexible, and focus on what drives outcomes rather than what generates buzz.

Bergey captured that mindset best when he said, “Be excited to be a student of all of this.” His point resonated across the conversation because this isn’t a space where anyone has it completely figured out yet. Even experienced agencies are still experimenting, testing, and building their understanding of how retail data interacts with channels like CTV.

Dhariwal’s reminder that “not all retail media is created equal” grounded that optimism in realism. As networks evolve, some will stand out for the depth of their loyalty data and the strength of their attribution models, while others will still be playing catch-up. Knowing how to identify that difference is where strategy meets success.

And Biddle’s final thought, “Push your retail media networks for progress,” underscored the responsibility on both sides, buyers and sellers, to keep advancing measurement standards, data transparency, and creative applications. The landscape is too dynamic to settle for the status quo.

The key takeaway: Curiosity and pressure drive progress. The most successful brands and agencies will be the ones who continue asking questions, demanding clarity, and investing in partners who bring tested expertise to a rapidly shifting marketplace.

The Strategus Perspective

Retail media and CTV are building the next era of performance marketing. But keeping up with that pace takes constant testing, partnerships, and proof. That’s where Strategus comes in.

We connect retail data with premium CTV inventory to turn audience insights into measurable outcomes. Our team stays immersed in the evolution of this space, refining strategies and technology so you don’t have to.

For brands, that means visibility into what actually drives sales. For agencies, it means having a trusted extension of your team, one that brings the experience, transparency, and results your clients expect.

Watch the full webinar or connect with us to see how retail data can fuel your next CTV campaign.