Circana’s Cara Pratt on retail’s ‘trust problem’ and how to fix it

Cara Pratt has devoted her career to consumer signals, including eight years at Kroger’s retail media arm before joining Circana as the global president of retail and media in May. So she knows what she’s talking about when she says there is a “trust problem” in the retail media industry.

“Absent rebuilding trust on the measurement side, this industry is going to slow down on growth,” she told The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik.

“I think that there’s a very performant dollar that can still get invested. But we have to set a new currency for measurement standards.”

Pratt also shared her thoughts on agentic commerce and how it will disrupt the space.

This interview has been lightly edited.

Last time we talked, you were at a different company [Kroger Precision Marketing], in a different role. What are you focused on right now [at Circana]? 

It is awesome to be with another incredible company. I’ve been really privileged to have opportunities to drive change in dynamic industries. At Circana, I have responsibility across our global retail organization ... And as I think about the opportunity and responsibility [that] we have to help retailers and brands understand consumers and market shifts and take action deliberately, this is a phenomenal place to be.

You’ve had such an incredible view of retail media and retail data as it’s evolved. What changes are you noticing at this point in time?

Specific to retail media, there is no doubt that there is a trust problem in the industry. Frankly, one of the most disappointing things is … there is not trust in the efficacy of a dollar invested. Absent rebuilding trust on the measurement side, this industry is going to slow down on growth.

I think that there’s a very performant dollar that can still get invested. But we have to set a new currency for measurement standards, and as you can imagine, I believe Circana can play a role in that.

The industry tends to orient around price, sometimes at the expense of orienting around value. Does this get to the heart of what you’re saying? What do you think is behind that trust gap?

There are inconsistent methodologies. There are inconsistent data standards. There’s inconsistent delivery. There’s just a lot of inconsistency. And so it is near impossible for a brand marketer to look with consistency and continuity about how dollars are returning business results and business outcomes when you look across the magnitude of retailers in the ecosystem. So this is one of two spaces that will have the biggest disruption in retail media and the trends of retail media.

The other is agentic commerce. There are reputable sources that are talking about $1.7 trillion that is going to be spent through agentic commerce. The disintermediation that that brings within the retail environment, not just on ads, but the distance that the retailer then has with control and owning the relationship with the consumer will drive very different behavior.

Those are two spaces where we’re eyes wide open and looking to help shape and elevate and influence decisions for the marketplace.

Speaking of measurement over the last decade, at one point, MMM [media mix modeling] almost fell out of favor. But marketers are talking about it again. What do you attribute that shift to? And are we approaching it with a new lens?

It did fall out of favor for a little bit of time. There was a big push in the multi-touch attribution … MMM didn’t ever completely fall off; the utility started to wane a little bit as there were some interest in some new methodologies and new approaches. I think that’s healthy. I think it’s really healthy to be able to look around corners and understand different measurement techniques and influence the investment choices.

If there’s one thing we know, the dynamic nature of media, particularly with how much is moving digital addressable and the flexibility that advertisers are seeking, means that we need to make sure that we’ve got an always-on view to help tune investment choices over time.

You can see over the last couple of years the big heavyweights against upfronts have started to turn back because brands want flexibility. We have a tool that we’re in the midst of bringing  forward called Liquid Mix. That is a self-serve marketing mix that we’re turning responses for tuning future investment patterns within hours.

Instead of this big, heavy, annual or semiannual max quarterly turns that are happening with a marketing mix, you get all the value of marketing mix, but you can run it in near real time. And then you’ve got the flexibility within the investment choices.

Something I heard really frequently during this particular upfronts season, and perhaps it’s because of the economy to a degree, is that need for flexibility. I think we’ve really come to a place where we can’t set it and forget it for a year or semiannually.  

And near real time matters, right?

This is where the suite of solutions is going to be a really powerful complement, to really start to change behaviors.

Making sure that the next six months is informed by the last six months.

That’s right. Or the next six weeks is informed by the last six days, right? That’s the speed of change.  We’ve got to go from months to moments, and make sure we’ve got the right capability right in front of us.