This week, I’m digging into a fiery debate that lit up LinkedIn — one that questions whether retail media is measuring the right things at all. After reading a thought-provoking post from Steve Gray, I found myself going down a rabbit hole of insights, rebuttals, and philosophical clashes about how brands actually grow—and what retail media should be optimizing for. Spoiler: the answers aren’t as simple as ROAS and impressions.

In this episode, I unpack the tension between Byron Sharp’s “How Brands Grow” principles and the reality of how budgets get allocated in retail media today. You’ll hear perspectives from industry leaders pushing back on performance-only thinking, calling for better context, better metrics, and a more nuanced understanding of the messy, chaotic shopper journey. If you’ve ever wondered why the theory sounds so elegant but the execution feels so broken, this one is for you.

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline

[00:22] – The LinkedIn post from Steve Gray that kicked off this entire discussion
[01:16] – A quick primer on How Brands Grow and why penetration matters more than loyalty
[02:45] – Steve Gray’s call for new metrics and why retail media struggles to operationalize them
[04:51] – Jordan Witmer's argument for why impression-based models misread retail media
[06:13] – Yuni Baker-Saito's warning that marketers are over-relying on measurement at the expense of context
[07:46] – Anne Hallock's “chaos pendulum” and why the shopper journey no longer follows a clean funnel
[09:15] – Why brands still default to ROAS, and why retail media keeps selling it despite its limits

Links & Resources

• This episode expanded on my recent article for The Drum - The ‘How Brands Grow’ crowd need to have a word with retail media
• The LinkedIn post from Steve Gray that kickstarted the debate
• Read my articles:
  • Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
  • How Can RMNs Tap Upper-Funnel Brand Budgets
• Are you based in Atlanta or plan to be in the ATL area on Weds Dec 3rd? Join me and a couple dozen of your new retail media industry besties for a festive happy hour! Register here
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri on LinkedIn