When Pratyush Kumar Kumar sat down with me on the podcast, I was ready to talk shop about digital advertising. What I actually got was a masterclass on the future of how brands sell products.
Pratyush is the Ex GM/Head of Ad Products at Loblaws, meaning he is right in the thick of the retail media revolution. He explains that we are currently living through the third wave of digital advertising. Search was the first wave, social media was the second, and right now, retail media networks (RMNs) are completely taking over.
If you are a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand trying to figure out where your ad dollars actually go, Pratyush dropped some massive insights during our chat that you need to hear.
📺 Catch the Full Episode: To see our entire back and forth and hear Pratyush break down these strategies firsthand, watch the complete podcast interview on YouTube.
The Ultimate Fix for Broken Marketing Measurement
I asked Pratyush about one of the biggest headaches modern CPG marketers face: proving that their advertising actually drives new sales. So many brands spend millions on awareness campaigns but have no idea if those ads moved the needle.
Pratyush explained that retail media completely solves this transparency problem by giving marketers bottom of funnel data that no one else can match.
"Retail media has proven to drive incrementality. It is not just about impressions and clicks; it is about translating those interactions into sales."
Because retail media networks sit directly on top of real, first-party transaction and loyalty card data, the analytics are locked in. Marketers can finally stop guessing and start tracking exactly how digital ad views turn into physical store purchases.
Winning the Internal Budget Turf Wars
One of my favorite parts of our conversation was when we tackled the internal friction brands face when trying to modernize. It is incredibly tough to convince a traditional corporate marketing team to pull money out of legacy channels like direct mail or broad awareness flyers and put it into digital retail networks.
Pratyush pointed out that this hesitation usually comes from a misunderstanding of the channel. Leadership teams often view shifting funds as a zero-sum game, but retail media actually injects measurable revenue back into the business.
His advice for winning that internal buy-in? Stop pitching retail media as just another advertising line item. Instead, present it to your leadership team as a strategic product. When you highlight its precise targeting and closed-loop data attribution, the conversation changes from a cost debate to a growth strategy.
The "Grilled Cheese" Strategy: Thinking Beyond Single Products
We started brainstorming how brands can maximize their impact on these networks, and Pratyush brought up a brilliant concept: cross-brand collaboration.
Instead of an individual brand trying to shout louder than everyone else, smart retailers are looking at how complementary products naturally influence consumer behavior. He pointed to a campaign that paired a bread brand with a cheese brand for a coordinated grilled cheese promotion.
"It is not just about showing a product; it is about demonstrating usefulness to the consumer. The goal is to create a recipe that resonates with the audience."
Modern shoppers want convenience and inspiration. By creating collaborative, solution-oriented ad placements, brands give real utility to the consumer while effortlessly expanding the size of the digital shopping basket.
Smashing the Silos Between Brand and Performance
Historically, brand marketing teams (the people building long-term awareness) and performance marketing teams (the data analysts driving immediate clicks) have operated in separate universes. Pratyush argues that this divide ruins the customer journey.
The modern consumer path to purchase is completely non-linear. A shopper will routinely stand right in front of a grocery shelf while checking prices and reviews on their smartphone. To win that fragmented attention span, internal brand and performance teams have to destroy the silos and merge their goals into a single, cohesive omnichannel strategy.
My Top Takeaways from Our Conversation
If you are looking to audit your marketing playbook based on our episode, focus on these core pillars:
Treat Retail Media as a Product: Move past the idea that it is just an ad placeholder. Use it as a data-driven tool to scale your business.
Demand Closed-Loop Proof: Stop paying for empty metrics like impressions. Lean into first-party loyalty data to prove true incremental sales.
Focus on Consumer Utility: Collaborate with complementary brands to build ads that solve problems or offer recipes, rather than just flashing a product shot.
Unify Your Marketing Teams: Force your brand and performance teams into the same room to build a seamless experience across digital and physical screens.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is retail media?
Retail media is advertising placed directly on a retailer's e-commerce website, mobile app, or even digital screens inside the physical store, letting brands reach shoppers right at the point of purchase.
How does it drive real sales?
It meets consumers when they are already in a high-intent shopping mindset, serving up highly relevant, targeted ads that naturally lead to better conversion rates.
Why is measurement such a big deal in retail media?
It ties marketing spend directly to real, first-party point of sale transactions, taking the guesswork out of ROI.
How can marketing teams overcome internal resistance to it?
By showing leadership the deterministic, incremental data and reframing the channel as an efficient, trackable revenue driver.
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