How to educate up the chain without getting side-eyed at the next town hall
You’ve built the decks. You’ve pulled the data. You’ve shown the ROAS, the iROAS, the beautiful basket-building potential of onsite, offsite, and all the “-sights” in between.
And yet—your CMO still looks at retail media like it’s a mysterious fee someone buried in a trade line item back in 2018.
If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. The truth is, many CMOs—especially those with strong backgrounds in traditional media or upper-funnel brand building—don’t quite get retail media yet. And that’s okay.
Because this isn’t about proving them wrong—it’s about pulling them in.
Here’s how to do that without accidentally starting a marketing civil war.
🧠 Step 1: Understand Where They’re Coming From
Your CMO likely lives in a world of national campaigns, TV spots, PR activations, and “building the brand.” Retail media can feel niche. Tactical. Like a shopper team’s pet project.
To them, it might sound like:
- “We’re paying the retailer to advertise to our own shoppers?”
- “Is this just trade spend with fancier acronyms?”
- “Do we really need this if we’re already doing Meta and Google?”
Your job isn’t to say, “You don’t get it.”
Your job is to say, “This is a tool that helps support your goals too.”
🎯 Step 2: Connect Retail Media to Brand Objectives
This is where many retail media folks go wrong. We speak in CTRs and ad types when what CMOs care about is brand growth.
Try reframing the conversation:
- Retail media drives trial. (That big brand campaign just got us new eyeballs. RMNs can convert them.)
- Retail media increases loyalty. (We can retarget existing buyers and re-engage them post-campaign.)
- Retail media fills the funnel faster. (First-party retailer data lets us identify, target, and measure impact across the path to purchase—no cookies needed.)
The best pitch?
“Retail media isn’t in conflict with our brand strategy—it’s how we activate it at the point of sale.”
📊 Step 3: Lead With Results, Not Jargon
You may love iROAS. But unless you’re sitting across from a performance marketer, your CMO probably just wants to know:
- Did we sell more units?
- Did we bring in new buyers?
- Did we grow the category?
- Can we replicate that success?
Keep it simple. Use visuals. Lead with outcomes. Retail media’s biggest superpower is closed-loop reporting—so don’t bury the lead.
🤝 Step 4: Invite, Don’t Lecture
Want to avoid the dreaded “Why wasn’t I consulted?” energy?
Loop your CMO in early. Show them the plan. Invite them to a retailer pitch meeting (or at least offer). Ask what success looks like to them—and shape your strategy around that.
If they feel ownership, they’re more likely to champion it later.
🛠 Step 5: Offer to Test, Not Transform
Don’t ask for a $5 million retail media budget out of nowhere.
Ask for a pilot. Propose a quick-win campaign tied to a brand launch, an LTO, or a key retailer push. Prove it works. Show the results. Then build the case for scale.
Think: “Let’s test this together,” not “Trust me blindly while I reallocate 20% of your media budget to a channel you barely understand.”
🗣 Final Thought: Education Is a Strategy, Not a Presentation
Getting executive buy-in for retail media isn’t about a single meeting—it’s about ongoing storytelling. Keep the narrative going. Share wins. Share learnings. Share how other brands are leaning in (peer pressure works, let’s be honest).
And above all: show them that retail media isn’t just a shopper tactic—it’s a brand accelerator.