Publishers Need Retail Media Networks’ Help

LinkedIn and Pinterest - two social platforms with seemingly little in common - are both embarking on a unique growth strategy. They are partnering with web publishers on selling one another’s inventory and audiences, reported The Information.

It’s an interesting experiment, and likely a welcome one as web publishers — and the open web in general — continue to take it on the chin.

Meanwhile, in the retail media space, as the sheer number of networks swells (by some estimates there are 600!) the majority of big players are talking about the need to go “off platform” - i.e. selling ads beyond their own e-commerce sites and apps.

You’d think that running targeted retail media ads all over the web would be the logical next step, but thus far there’s not a ton of evidence that such a tactic is taking off. Which brings me back to Pinterest and LinkedIn’s move…why wouldn’t we see the same kinds of partnerships between publishers and RMNs?

I could see a Walmart or Instacart selling ads for news sites, or product-oriented publishers like magazine brands or a Dotdash. That would be great for struggling publishers amid cookie-nowhereville and the movement toward first-party data. The question is, do retailers need this kind of thing as much as publishers do?

Meanwhile, here are some great reads from this week:

• Pinterest, LinkedIn Team Up With Publishers to Sell Ads - Sahil Patel [The Information]

• Flying the (Ad-Supported) Friendly Skies - Michael Beach [State of the Screens]

• The Biggest CPGs Face New Pressures To Increase Ads While Somehow Spending Less - James Hercher [AdExchanger]

• Retail media networks have a measurement issue—why standardization is a marketing challenge - Bill Duggan [Ad Age]

• As retail media networks widen their scope, is a reckoning inbound? - Peter Adams [Marketing Dive]

• The $600 Billion Digital Ad Business Is Hanging on a Few Words From Google - Suzanne Vranica and Patience Haggin [WSJ]