The Trade Desk takes retail media full funnel with Koddi, Gopuff integration

Retail media has swelled to an estimated $59 billion ad business in the U.S., but many marketers still must deal with often-fragmented media plans and siloed cross-channel measurement.

Take the sheer number of retail media networks: more than 275 globally, according to the retail media intelligence platform Mimbi. That makes it challenging for buyers to activate across multiple retailers without running into duplication and inefficiency.

The Trade Desk’s latest integration with commerce media platform Koddi aims to solve these issues.

For the first time, brands and agencies can now buy on-site retail media inventory through The Trade Desk, allowing them to connect their on-site and off-site buys — potentially creating a full-funnel planning and buying strategy all in one place.

The integration can also boost retail inventory alongside other channels like streaming, audio and digital out-of-home for omnichannel campaigns.

“This is a fundamental shift in how media can be purchased,” Matthew Fantazier, vice president of data partnerships at The Trade Desk, says. “When you operate in silos, you’re inherently inefficient. This is a way to drive more efficiency, and ultimately effectiveness across the marketplace.”

Gopuff is the first lead retail partner, with more major retailers expected to follow in the future.

“[This] significantly boosts demand for our retail partners while simplifying fragmented buying experiences,” Nicholas Ward, Koddi’s president and co-founder, said in a press release. “Together, we’re empowering retailers and advertisers to scale retail media as part of their programmatic strategies.”

For retailers, the integration could unlock new revenue, according to Fantazier. “It’s a way to drive incremental demand,” he says. “It positions [retailers] as a true data partner with brands and really positions retailer data as a critical component of a brand’s full-funnel activation.”

With so many retail media networks in the market, there’s not only fragmentation in data, but also among media agencies’ separate teams buying on-site and off-site inventory, according to Fantazier. The integration acts as a bridge to connect those groups.

Eighty percent of buyers say DSP access would simplify buying and shift budgets to retail media, according to research from Koddi.

“We want this to be an iterative journey with the advertiser because it is new,” Rajeev Vijay, head of partnerships at Koddi, said during a panel at Advertising Week New York on Thursday. “It is a conversion-based performance inventory channel. Seeing how it fits across their entire channel buys is critical for us.”

Capturing the other 90% of the retail marketplace

Amazon still dominates U.S. retail media, taking an estimated 77% of budgets, according to EMarketer. Yet, consumers spend only around 10% of their dollars within Amazon.

“For brands, it’s an unlock of a really powerful capability of the other 90% of their marketplace,” Fantazier says. “Now Amazon’s not the only game in town where you can activate against the full funnel.”

It also further underscores the ad industry’s move toward programmatic buying over the past decade. JR Crosby, director of ad tech and data partnerships at Gopuff, believes all digital media will eventually be programmatic because of this natural evolution.

“Media buying is going to look really different every year for the next several years,” Crosby said during an AWNY panel. “Agencies are changing. If I was advising a brand, I’d tell them to consider as you’re reorganizing and thinking about your tech stack to look at this and say, ‘This is the direction everything’s going.’”

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.