What’s being underestimated in retail media?
Nick Morgan and Paul Blackburn welcome strategist, writer, and retail-media advisor Colin Lewis for a rapid-fire tour through creativity in retail media, why “conversion everywhere” should be your mantra, and how AI & LLMs are reshaping search and shoppability. Drawing on decades of experience in strategy, teaching, and marketing leadership, Colin makes the case that innovation is everywhere—and that retail media is its own channel with its own language.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
Creativity is a mindset, not a media format: True innovation in retail media lies in rethinking how networks are structured, scaled, and sold—not just how ads look on screen.
Think like a media company, not a retailer: To scale, retailers must think like media companies: get C-suite buy-in, hire media sales, align trade, ecomm, ops, and stores, and manage change.
The Era of Conversion Everywhere: Shoppable formats reduce the distance from inspiration to purchase across on-site, off-site, and in-store, without sacrificing brand building.
AI’s next frontier: LLM optimisation will upend “search” habits; brands need brilliant basics plus new skills to be searchable by LLMs.
Mind the Fab Four: Brand, Trade, Shopper, and Digital often operate in silos; retail media forces new ways of working.
From co-op to accountable media: Expect trade/coop budgets to fold into retail media with demands for ROAS, incrementality, and closed-loop outcomes.
Soundbites to listen out for:
Snobbery in the Aisles
“Part of the problem is that marketing and brand teams are snobbish about retail media. They think it's a performance based media and they've been kind of brainwashed into thinking that the only thing that matters is broad reach and 30 second TV commercials. Anything that is in store is, if you will, below the line.”
Trade Marketing Will Go the Way of the Dodo
“I have a thesis that not everybody agrees with, but I have a strong belief that the world of trade marketing or cooperative marketing will go the way of the dodo and everything will be folded into retail media.”
Shoppable Media Isn’t a Media
“What is shoppable media? It's not a media. It's a thing that enables the reduction of that distance from inspiration to sale.”
The TikTokification of Retail Media
“My new keynote is called the TikTokification of retail media. And of course, people think I'm talking about TikTok. I'm not talking about that at all. What I'm actually talking about is the role of a screen – that I can look at something, get inspired, buy it and do it on a reduction of friction.”
We Know the Eyeballs Are on the Screen
“We all know we're spending too much time on the screen. That's where the eyeballs are. And yet we'll go and have a marketing plan and say, yes, we want broad reach. Let's go and advertise in Australia on Channel 9 in Melbourne, Channel 9 in Sydney. It's this kind of weird dichotomy.”
The Shoppable Brief Is a New Art Form
“When you're writing that brief, what does shoppable mean? Does it say book now? Does it say shop now? Does it have a button on the bottom right? Does the person say that? What colour is the button going to be? Where would that button link to? Is it going to go to a landing page? Is it going to go to another app? All these thought processes have to be thought through, as I know from my e-commerce days, and it ain't easy.”
Rethink the Landing Page
“When I think of landing pages, I think you have something on a browser sitting in front of my laptop. But that's not the real world. The real world is I'm scrolling and shopping and I'm moving my phone up and down. So what role is a landing page?”
About our guest
Colin is the co-founder of Retail Media Works, a B2B advisory firm helping global brands and retailers shape digital commerce and retail media strategies. A sought-after speaker, Colin has delivered keynotes across Europe, the U.S., Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. He’s written a decade of columns for Marketing Week Magazine, serves as Editor-in-Chief (Retail Media) at InternetRetailing, and is a podcast Co-Host for The Retail Media Podcast.
Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn
Subscribe and leave a review!
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Commerce Media Matters and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform!
