Carrefour, JCDecaux, Carmila and Unlimitail have announced a new retail media alliance in France, combining shopping malls, DOOH screens, transactional data and programmatic activation across more than 300 consumption hubs.
And this is where it gets interesting.
For years, retail media has been talked about largely through a digital lens: search, sponsored products, ecommerce, loyalty data.
But the next phase may be much more physical.
Because the store, the shopping centre, the leaflet, the screen, the car park, the mailbox, all of these are part of the same customer journey.
We believe this reinforces a powerful truth: proximity still matters.
The brands that win will not be the ones shouting the loudest online.
They will be the ones that show up at the right moment, in the right place, with the right message i.e close to where real buying decisions are made.
Retail media is not just becoming more measurable. It is becoming more local, more contextual and more connected to physical behaviour.
And that is exactly where channels like door drops, leaflets and local print continue to play a vital role in the marketing mix.
The future of retail media will not be digital or physical. It will be both.