GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, has announced a strategic partnership with Incremental, a leading provider of neutral retail media solutions. This collaboration aims to advance GroupM’s integrated commerce media offerings by incorporating Incremental’s advanced retail media forecasting, planning, and measurement capabilities into Open Media Studio, an end-to-end media delivery platform developed by Choreograph and available to GroupM teams through WPP Open.
Advancing Retail Media with AI Technology
The partnership will provide GroupM clients with access to AI-driven planning, optimization, and analytics intelligence for retail media. Integrated within Open Media Studio, these capabilities enable GroupM’s client teams to efficiently plan and manage retail media alongside other digital media channels, maximizing incremental sales impact.
Retail media is the fastest-growing segment of digital advertising, with a forecasted growth of 17.5% in 2024, according to GroupM’s “This Year Next Year 2024 Midyear Advertising Forecast.” Despite this growth, measurement has been fragmented due to varying attribution methodologies across retail media networks. The partnership between GroupM and Incremental aims to address this by offering a unified approach to comparing, planning, and optimizing campaigns across both retail and non-retail media networks.
Standardizing Retail Media Measurement
“Planning and measuring retail media is more complex than other digital channels,” said Samantha Bukowski, Global Head of Commerce at GroupM. “By integrating Incremental’s retail media capabilities into Open Media Studio, our clients can maximize their retail investments with consistent measurement methodologies grounded in true incrementality. This partnership allows advertisers to plan holistically while maintaining the necessary specificity for retail.”
The combined capabilities are designed to provide unique commerce media solutions for GroupM clients, starting in the U.S. market with plans for global expansion. Key benefits include:
- AI-Driven Retail Media Planning: Advertisers can plan and allocate budgets based on predicted incremental retail sales, bypassing non-standardized retail attribution. This enables holistic media performance forecasting across various retail networks.
- Retail Media Optimization: Real-time sales data integration allows for AI-powered optimization of in-flight campaigns, focusing on driving incremental sales rather than just return on ad spend.
- Retail Media Analytics: Incremental and Choreograph’s neutral retail media measurement capabilities are embedded into Open Media Studio’s reporting suite, offering daily incrementality data to optimize retail media investments effectively.
“GroupM is pioneering the future of integrated commerce by merging retail media intelligence, data, and technology to dismantle channel silos,” said David Pollet, CEO of Incremental. “Our partnership encourages the industry to move beyond last-touch metrics toward a standardized measure of multi-channel effectiveness.”
Expanding Commerce Capabilities
This partnership follows WPP’s recent recognition as a leader in commerce services and GroupM’s global partnership with Shalion, integrating advanced retail media, digital shelf analytics, and unified market intelligence into Open Media Studio. These collaborations reinforce GroupM’s commitment to placing retail data and technology at the core of its comprehensive marketing proposition.
About Incremental
Incremental helps brands and agencies drive growth from their retail media investments through neutral and transparent measurement. Their approach is designed to be PII-free and compatible with data from walled gardens, enabling seamless deployment within a brand’s ecosystem of retail and media partners. Incremental’s methodology combines predictive accuracy with business utility, providing granular insights for daily campaign optimization and robust sales forecasting.
For more info: https://www.groupm.com/
