ANA plans retail media measurement standards with Walmart, Target input
Comparing retail media network performance today is "like evaluating purple to bananas to 9.7 stars," said Jackson Bazley, ANA's evp of measurement for marketers, describing the problem behind the group's "Retail Media Measurement Standardization" report. The ANA's retail media measurement subcommittee pulled the guidance together with more than 40 brand heads of media, including Mondelez, PepsiCo, Hershey, Colgate Palmolive, Clorox and Intel, then brought the framework to retail media networks for feedback, among them Walmart Connect, Sam's Club Connect, CVS Media Edge, Instacart, Albertson's Media Collective, BJ's Media Edge and Roundel. The recommendations call for valid third-party measurement and validation, transparency into measurement methods and definitions, a standardized 14-day loopback window, fuller performance context beyond attributed sales, and a common definition of "outcomes." Amazon did not respond to the ANA's outreach, so it had no part in shaping the report. Jason Trubowitz, ANA's evp of media and measurement, said feedback on the draft was positive: "The overwhelming consensus was, everything in here makes sense."
Brands that run budgets across Walmart Connect, Instacart and other retail networks currently judge results against each platform's own definitions, the kind of self-graded reporting third-party validation is meant to check. A shared 14-day loopback window and a common definition of "outcomes" would let a media planner set one consistent bar across networks instead of translating each platform's reporting into its own spreadsheet. Third-party validators such as IAS and DoubleVerify, the latter in the process of being bought by Nielsen, are candidates to confirm those numbers once the framework takes hold. Amazon's absence from the drafting process means the largest retail media seller has yet to commit to the same definitions, a gap agencies will need to manage until it joins the effort.