Jason, before we get into the detail, what first got you involved in retail media standards? And how did you come to chair IAB Europe's Retail and Commerce Media Committee? I got involved because retail media was scaling fast but lacked a common language-definitions, measurement, and processes varied widely. As retail media budgets scaled and more retailers mobilised, it became clear that robust, industry-wide standards were essential to unlock consistency and trust.
That led me to join IAB Europe's Retail Media Working Group in its early days, where I was an active member across several workstreams and helped deliver the group's early outputs through late 2023 and into early 2024. At the end of 2023, the IAB Europe Board decided to formalise the group as the Retail Media Committee, and I was elected Chair in January 2024.
Since then, standardisation has been front and centre of our agenda. We're fortunate to have a strong cohort of retailers alongside technology and media partners on the committee, which allowed us to kick off the work of building standards the whole industry can adopt.
Retail media is growing fast, but it's still relatively new compared with other channels. From an agency point of view, how mature do you think the market really is - and where are the biggest gaps right now? The question highlights a common misconception: retail media isn't a single channel. It's an approach that activates multiple channels-onsite search and display, offsite programmatic, social, video, audio, and increasingly instore. Powered by retailer owned inventory and first party data.
From an agency perspective, it's hard to assign a single maturity score to the market. Maturity varies by retailer, category, and country, and is strongly influenced by how established a retailer's network is and by consumer tech adoption. In every market you'll find a spread: a few highly mature networks alongside newer entrants still building out their product, data, and ops. We even comprised Retailer Capability Scorecards to help our clients make sense of this space.
If you include Amazon Ads, the picture is skewed. Amazon Ads is an outlier in media scale and capability. It's often more useful to assess the rest of the market independently. Outside of Amazon Ads, many retail media networks are progressing by leveraging their physical assets and loyalty schemes, valuable initiatives that will help grow the category.
The biggest gaps we see today:
Measurement standards: consistent definitions and application for campaign reporting
Measurement reporting: data granularity, reporting cadence, self-serve platform access
Interoperability and identity: privacy-safe data collaboration
Fragmentation: too many different buying platforms
Creative and capability building: stronger creative guidelines and shared playbooks to upskill teams.
Retail media is advancing quickly, but its maturity is uneven by market and retailer. With standards and better interoperability, we anticipate the retail media landscape, outside of Amazon Ads, will accelerate and become far easier for agencies to plan, buy, and measure at scale.
What kinds of problems do inconsistent definitions and self-reported results create for agencies trying to plan across different retail media networks and different media channels? Advertisers are rightly risk averse: when definitions and methodologies vary, confidence drops. Inconsistent definitions and self reported compliance create several practical and strategic problems for agencies:
No apples to apples planning: KPIs are calculated differently so outcomes aren't comparable i.e. how is attribution modelled in relation to ROAS in retailer A vs retailer B?
Weak benchmarking and forecasting: cross retailer baselines and MMM inputs break, making budgets and expectations unreliable.
Budget inertia and misallocation: spend consolidates in channels with perceived certainty slowing investment in newer networks.
Slower test and learn: experiments aren't transferable across retailers when methodologies differ.
Operational overhead: teams build custom taxonomies and manual reconciliations per retailer, delaying decisions.
If agencies can't convey clear, consistent value, budgets gravitate to the few places with trusted reporting. Common definitions and independent auditing restore comparability, reduce risk, and unlock scaled planning across retailers and channels.
The IAB Europe Retail Media Certification is now live. How does this programme actually close those measurement gaps, and what does certification prove in real terms? The certification operationalises the industry standards and closes measurement gaps by turning agreed definitions and methodologies into audited requirements. Built collaboratively with input from 15 of the region's leading retailers and a group of industry experts, it enforces common KPI calculations, attribution windows, and it requires transparent outputs that make performance comparable across retail media networks.
For the buy side, the certification badge is a shorthand for comparability and trust. Agencies can benchmark and optimise across retailers without rebuilding taxonomies; finance and procurement get auditable proof, and brands gain confidence to scale beyond the incumbents. Measurement standards are only as effective as the certification that verifies them-and this programme is the mechanism the market can buy into.
Independent auditors play a central role in the certification process. Why is that external audit step so important, and how does it strengthen confidence in the certification itself? External audit is the difference between self assertion and evidence. When the outputs of a certification will influence where ad budgets go, a neutral third party removes the conflict of interes
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
23/01/2026
Paramount is transforming its operations by unifying the media supply chains of their top brands into a scalable global pipeline.
This transformation enhances ...
23/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
23/01/2026
RT is delighted to announce that the RT and F s ireann / Screen Ireland supported short film Retirement Plan has been nominated for Best Animated Short at th...
22/01/2026
Last November, Ed Sheeran returned to his musical roots for an intimate, one-nig...
22/01/2026
Every delay costs. When a subtitle fails QC, even the smallest issue can mean missed deadlines, extra vendor costs, or frustrated teams. The new Accurate.Video ...
22/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz, Qualcomm, and Motorola demonstrate successful 5G Broadcast comp...
22/01/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
21/01/2026
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Backing Britain on the global stage: Sky becomes an o...
21/01/2026
Fox Corporation Executives to Discuss Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Resul...
21/01/2026
Baselight v7 brings colourists and post-houses smarter mattes, faster workflows and deeper control
FilmLight, known for its detailed colour toolset and longsta...
21/01/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Fox as its new Washington Correspondent. Jackie is a multimedia journalist with RT News and has repor...
19/01/2026
Monday 19 January 2026
Sky News reinvents News at Ten for the modern audience with The Wrap
Sky News today announces The Wrap, a bold evolution of its 10pm ou...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones is striking a new chord in piano miking with the debut of its DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play miking solution that ta...
19/01/2026
DPA Microphones will present its 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone and redesigned...
19/01/2026
Trianel relies on Arvato Systems for future-proof data center operations
Moving to the cloud: Arvato Systems implements extensive IT migration project
Migrat...
19/01/2026
Celebrating 21 Years of the RT Choice Music Prize
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Irish Album of the Year 2025 - Shortlist Announce...
18/01/2026
January 18 2026, 21:30 (PST) Dolby Cinema Arrives in Bengaluru: Dolby Laborator...
16/01/2026
The start of a new year brings fresh possibilities. Whether you're diving in with big goals or simply setting new intentions, audiobooks can bring inspirati...
16/01/2026
In 2025 we launched the Spotify Partner Program to give creators more ways to tu...
15/01/2026
The SGL Carbon site in Bonn has a long tradition of training. For many years, young talent has been successfully trained here, regularly achieving excellent exa...
15/01/2026
The JEC Composites Innovation Awards annually honor the most innovative and ambi...
15/01/2026
X-energy Reactor Company, LLC ( X-energy ) and SGL Carbon LLC ( SGL ) have signed a 10-year framework agreement to provide graphite for the deployment of X-ener...
15/01/2026
RT is tonight announcing that Mari Hurley has decided to leave her role as RT 's Chief Financial Officer to take up a new position outside RT . Mari will r...
15/01/2026
15 Jan 2026
VEON's Kyivstar Reaches 3.0 million Customers with Starlink Dir...
15/01/2026
Views to free streaming service U grew by 15%, average monthly active users by 23% and registrations by 18%
UKTV's channels achieved record viewing share, ...
15/01/2026
Thursday 15 January 2026
Sky Sports to show Final Stage of inaugural FIFA Women's Champions Cup
Sky and FIFA have agreed an exclusive new partnership whi...
15/01/2026
Thursday 15 January 2026
The official trailer for the second season of Seth Mac...
15/01/2026
Wuppertal January 15, 2026
Riedel RefCam Takes Center Court in German Basketba...
15/01/2026
Arvato Systems Named Launch Partner for AWS European Sovereign Cloud
As a launch partner for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, Arvato Systems enables customer...
14/01/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 13th January, 2026 ITV, one of the UKs leading broadcasters, has selected Yospace, the global leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), to ...
14/01/2026
Steiger Media's adoption of Calrec's compact Argo M console not only makes its innovative new hybrid truck faster, more efficient, and agile, but also e...
14/01/2026
Press Release: The Boston Globe Names Cartesian a Top Place to Work in 2025
January 14, 2026
News
Cartesian - January 14, 2026 - EINPresswire.com - Sp...
14/01/2026
Comscore and Marcus Theatres Announce Five-Year Extension for Cinema ACE and Ent...
14/01/2026
Comscore and Santikos Entertainment Announce Five-Year Circuit Wide Commitment t...
14/01/2026
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Sky News announces Cathy Newman to lead flagship new political programme
Sky News today announces that award-winning journalist and ...
14/01/2026
The first stamp of An Post's 2026 Stamp Programme, marking 100 Years of Broadcasting, was unveiled at the GPO by Patrick O'Donovan TD, Minister for Cult...
14/01/2026
It's official! Beverley Callard has landed in Carrigstown. The beloved actor, known for her unforgettable roles and iconic screen presence, is joining the c...
13/01/2026
Independent media in Brazil and Colombia is facing an urgent crisis of traditional business models alongside a deteriorating security environment, according to ...
13/01/2026
Some days you want your music to reflect a specific feeling, memory, or vibe that goes beyond a single artist or genre. You want to do more than listen. You wan...
13/01/2026
Luxembourg, December 17, 2025 - SES S.A. ( SES or the Company ), a leading spa...
13/01/2026
Written and executive produced by Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna, produced b...
13/01/2026
New updates to Hitmaker Expansion from Celemony and Softube Edit pitch-perfect vocals with Melodyne Essential and get radio-ready guitar tones from Softube...
13/01/2026
Live broadcasts from RT 2FM Breakfast with Carl, Roz & Aisling, RT Radio 1 Tod...
12/01/2026
Spotify's new co-CEOs, Alex Norstr m and Gustav S derstr m, start off the new year with a message of renewed leadership, creative responsibility, and what&#...
12/01/2026
At Spotify, we listen to a lot of music. And every year, our global editors and artist partnerships teams come together to spotlight the emerging voices we beli...
Jason, before we get into the detail, what first got you involved in retail media standards? And how did you come to chair IAB Europe's Retail and Commerce Media Committee? I got involved because retail media was scaling fast but lacked a common language-definitions, measurement, and processes varied widely. As retail media budgets scaled and more retailers mobilised, it became clear that robust, industry-wide standards were essential to unlock consistency and trust.
