BirdDog CEO Shaun Brown shares how audience-first strategies and marketing mix modeling transform retail media performance across channels. The conversation explores three critical gaps in the retail media market: the disconnect between brand and performance agencies, underserved mid-market brands, and limited access to advanced marketing technology. Brown advocates for brands developing their own source of truth rather than relying solely on retailer data, using marketing mix modeling to drive business results, and leveraging cross-retailer halo effects for enhanced performance.
Key Takeaways for Modern Commerce Marketers
- Brands need their own source of truth because “every branch should have its own source of truth” rather than relying solely on retailer data.
- Marketing mix modeling enables agencies to answer “where does the next best dollar go to achieve the business result we’re looking for” instead of just optimizing performance metrics.
- Cross-retailer audience duplication “is not always a bad thing” and can create valuable halo effects across platforms.
- Successful retail media requires “a more full funnel approach” where brand building and performance marketing work together.
The Three Market Gaps
Brown identifies three specific areas where the current retail media market fails to serve brand needs effectively.
Access to Clean Rooms and First-Party Data
“There’s really three big reasons, of why we decided there was a need for this. The first is this whole shift in access to clean rooms and 1P data is creating this, idea of audiences, an audience first approach to retail media. It’s been the holy grail that we’ve been chasing for twenty years – having access to data.”
However, Brown identifies a critical disconnect: “But the problem is is the gap between a lot of where those big agencies have been doing brand media for a long time, they tell the audience story really great, but they really are struggling with the performance side, and that’s why they’re making acquisitions. Meanwhile, on the flip side, there are a lot of performance agencies who grew up doing this digitally native through Amazon, but the idea of audiences is foreign to them.”
Underserved Mid-Market and SMB Brands
“The second thing that we thought was really important is there’s just a massive underserved need for mid market emerging brands and SMBs. Everybody is chasing these enterprise clients and rightfully so. But reality is there are thousands upon thousands of brands who are on Amazon or Walmart, marketplace or any retailer’s marketplace who need help.”
Democratizing Marketing Technology
“The third reason, is this idea of democratizing tech, data, and AI. A lot of these SMBs don’t feel like they have access to it, can’t compete with the big guys, and we wanted to work with partners like Keen and several of our other, partners to make those tools accessible so a brand of any size can compete with a brand of any size.”
Building Your Own Source of Truth
Brown advocates for brands developing comprehensive audience understanding rather than relying solely on retailer data: “I’m a big believer that every branch should have its own source of truth. We should be starting with how are who are our audiences and who are how are they behaving, what are their paths to purchase, and how are we using the analytics to understand that. And then appending that with the retailer 1P data.”
The strategic importance becomes clear when considering platform limitations: “If we solely work with just the retailer audience, I’m only getting a portion of the marketplace to look at. Right? And so we have to look at all these retailers in a hub and spoke of type approach with my data and theirs appended to it.”
Brown provides a concrete example of cross-channel signal integration: “You know, when you’re when you start integrating signals from other sources, I can find out, hey, that person just, has been researching ASPCA and be looking at pet adoptions. Well, those are signals that the retailer won’t have. But if I have my source of truth, then I can start to understand those audiences, start to hit them and start to then understand the their one p data.”
Marketing Mix Modeling for Business Results
Brown emphasizes business-focused measurement over platform-specific performance metrics: “That one’s probably the easiest question for me, because I think, again, going back to maybe why we started this, I’m a little biased of growing up doing shopper marketing and customer marketing, and our goal is always been drive the business result. Right? And so that is whether that be a top line revenue, category share, certain profitability, whatever that definition is.”
He contrasts this with traditional performance optimization: “And a lot of the performance agencies come up like, I’m just trying to maximize a performance metric. And that’s not what we’re about. Right? So medium mix modeling allows us to say, where does the next best dollar go to achieve the business result we’re looking for? Right?”
This approach transforms agency relationships: “And so then if we’re doing that, then I can guide a client as being a business partner and not a a service provider. Right? We’re not a service provider. We’re a business partner to help drive the results.”
Cross-Retailer Halo Effects
The conversation addresses audience duplication across retailers, which Brown sees as an opportunity: “They’ll each argue not very much. Right? Because they wanna say that they have a unique audience. And to a degree, they do. But I’d I’d also say that duplication is not always a bad thing. That, like, that halo effect and that’s what we’re not taking into account.”
Understanding cross-retailer impact helps brands demonstrate total business value. Brown recounts a conversation with a brand advertiser: “She wasn’t out for a bigger bonus necessarily, but she was competing for budget. And she was saying, don’t just give me my dollars to drive sales on Amazon. Give me dollars because my investment in Amazon lifts all ships.”
This requires sophisticated attribution analysis: “We believe more than any touch attribution because we you know, a lot of our experience and the data we’ve seen, gotten from our clients is those multi touch drive better results for each of those in drives better performance.”
Takeaways
The retail media landscape requires a fundamental shift from platform-centric to audience-centric thinking. Brands that develop their own source of truth, leverage marketing mix modeling for strategic decision-making, and understand cross-retailer halo effects will be better positioned to maximize their commerce marketing investments. The integration of brand building and performance marketing through sophisticated measurement capabilities enables more complete marketing approaches that drive sustainable business results.
Next Steps
For more insights on media mix modeling, cross-channel attribution, and retail media optimization, explore additional resources on the Keen blog or connect with our team to learn how MMM can transform your commerce marketing strategy.
