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By Mike Black · October 13, 2025 · Curated by George's Blog
💰 More #RetailMedia spend ≠ more category share — especially for brands already on top.
Example: Laundry Detergent on #Walmart, past 52 weeks.
The largest brands (high category share, right side of the X-axis) — Tide, Gain, Arm & Hammer — also have the highest sponsorship activity (biggest bubbles). 🫧
Yet they sit at or below the horizontal line (average change in share), meaning their category share is flat or declining — despite heavy investment.
Meanwhile, smaller brands and #PrivateLabel (left side) are showing positive share growth — often with zero sponsorship spend.
🧠 The strategic implication for #Ecommerce and #CPG leaders
Instead of asking:
“Is retail media worth it?”
Ask:
“What must be true for retail media to actually deliver share growth?”
Areas to investigate 👇
✅ Proposition – Can our products truly compete on value and benefit vs. price?
Should we drive more traffic to SKUs or formats that win on fundamentals? (Sometimes, it’s not a media problem — it’s a portfolio one.)
✅ Content – Is our PDP content maximizing conversion?
What are challengers doing better?
Which products could climb to Page 1 organically with better #SEO?
✅ Keywords – Are we investing in the most incremental keywords to attract new buyers and use cases?
Should we conquest more competitor terms?
✅ JBPs – How much ROI is dragged down by private label winning unfairly through organic dominance?
Can we use #CategoryManagement stories to show retailers how that’s hurting category growth?
✅ #Data – Are our measurement tools linking #DigitalShelf fundamentals to media ROI — or do those insights still sit in silos?
P.S.
If your leadership ever questions the value of retail media…
👉 Turn it off for a month.
Then watch how much sales and share you lose. 😅
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Data sources: Profitero+
Category share = the percentage of sales in a category that belong to a certain brand. Amongst the category best selling items.
Sponsorship activity = Sums the number of sponsored item occurrences by day and keyword.
Brands in analysis limited to top 10 in total category share.