Adoption of brand building increasing on retail media: Medhavi Singh of Criteo

New Delhi: The retail media landscape is experiencing a seismic shift as it surges into a multibillion-dollar industry, with brands increasingly turning to platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and others to reach consumers at the point of purchase. 

Beyond the traditional focus on performance marketing, a new trend is emerging: the growing emphasis on brand building through retail media. 

As competition intensifies and consumer loyalty becomes harder to secure, companies are leveraging these platforms not just for quick conversions but to craft compelling narratives to fulfil brand-building and recall objectives.

In an interview with BestMediaInfo.com, Medhavi Singh, Country Head—India at Criteo, highlighted the potential of brand-building on retail media. 

According to her, brands have started expanding their retail media strategy to include branding, awareness, consideration, and engagement.

Calling it “retail media 2.0,” Singh claims to witness the adoption of brand building on retail media increasing. “Brands are utilising a variety of creative formats, including both standardised and storytelling-driven content.” 

Substantiating it with an example, Singh stated, “A notable example is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 5G launch on Flipkart, where precise audience targeting, focusing on users browsing phones within a specific price range, resulted in reaching 23.7 million highly targeted users with an impressive video completion rate exceeding 85%.”

“This illustrates the effectiveness of targeted branding campaigns in retail media, where precise audience segmentation leads to high engagement metrics,” she said. 

However, she added that a significant number of brands remain hesitant to use retail media for branding purposes. 

Singh explained, “Many brands approach retail media primarily as a performance-driven tool, focusing on low-funnel metrics. This hesitation stems from a perception that branding initiatives may be more effective outside the retail media environment.”

Challenges on retail media

Alongside the rise of the retail media ecosystem, there also linger several challenges that may add to the shifting-sand characteristic of this environment. 

According to Criteo’s Singh, market fragmentation, measurement and attribution, and varied levels of advancements may be some prominent hurdles in the way. 

Focusing on the core of matter, Singh elucidated, “From an Indian perspective, key challenges arise from the fragmented e-retail landscape, encompassing numerous e-commerce and quick commerce partners operating in silos. This fragmentation presents difficulties for brands attempting to navigate the market. 

Additionally, measurement and attribution across these diverse platforms vary significantly, as each partner employs its own metrics. Finally, the varying maturity of technology stacks among these players creates inconsistencies in the solutions they can offer to brands.” 

Managing ad frequency capping on digital platforms

As digital media consumption soars, a brewing debate over ad frequency capping is taking centre stage in the advertising world. With consumers increasingly vocal about ad fatigue—being bombarded by the same promotions repeatedly—brands and platforms are grappling with how to strike a balance between visibility and annoyance. 

Tackling this question, Singh opined that the resolution to the ad frequency capping is very much possible. According to her, ad frequency must be aligned with the “brand’s objective.” 

Addressing this nuance, Singh elaborated, “For performance-driven campaigns focusing on ROAS, frequency capping is often unnecessary. However, for branding and awareness campaigns, frequency caps and per-user reach are crucial to avoid ad fatigue and maximise reach within a budget.” 

Concretising her thoughts, Singh said, “The ideal frequency varies by vertical and user segment. The platforms also adapt to user behaviour, avoiding repetitive ads for already purchased items and prioritising relevant or complementary products. If a user shows disinterest, the system adjusts to showcase other relevant items, maintaining brand salience,” she explained. 

How Criteo leverages AI

Players like Criteo are helping brands navigate these rough patches with infrastructural assistance. Throwing a spotlight on the ‘how’ of it, Singh told BestMediaInfo.com that Criteo works towards building the right kind of “ad stack that adheres to the needs of both the brand  and the retail partners.”

Singh also shared Criteo’s heavy reliance on artificial intelligence while imparting their services in the retail media network. “From a Gen AI perspective, we always want to stay ahead of the curve. Hence, Gen AI creatives is something that we are testing currently.  

Zooming in on the topic of AI, she said, “Our AI is continuously evolving, deeply integrated into every aspect of our systems, from precise audience targeting and predictive bidding to optimised product recommendations and hyper-personalised creative delivery through dynamic creative optimisation.” 

“Crucially, our AI also powers advanced analytics, going beyond mere data interpretation to provide brands with a deeper understanding of their shoppers and users. This enhanced understanding is then used to refine and improve subsequent campaigns, creating a cyclical process of optimisation,” she added. 

Powered by AI, Criteo is also developing a self-serve platform called CommerceGo. Singh revealed that the platform is designed to facilitate easy onboarding for brands and retailers, enabling them to create and deploy advertisements independently. “This tool significantly expands Criteo's reach, both globally and within India, by empowering a broader range of businesses to leverage its technology.”