Your Biggest Media Channel Isn't Online - The Digital Silo Lie

Executive Summary

In this episode of the Mythbusting Series, we expose a massive blind spot in traditional marketing strategies: ignoring in-store retail media. While most retail budgets focus on online performance channels, roughly 80–85% of actual consumer purchases still occur in physical stores. Historically, physical store media has been treated as a marginal "shopper marketing" expense, siloed away from performance media due to perceived measurement challenges. This episode demolishes that myth and shows how modern in-store digital screens — from dynamic end caps to smart coolers and checkout displays — are now addressable, programmable, and measurable.

The Costly Blind Spot

For too long, retail media strategy has been limited by an outdated view of physical stores as warehouses and offline budgets as "less measurable." While a substantial amount of media spend pours into online channels targeting the 15% of transactions happening digitally, the majority of purchases still happen inside physical stores. The result is a massive imbalance: billions spent on digital while ignoring the 85% of sales that happen in store.

The Modern Store as a Media Channel

The episode challenges the traditional division between retail media and shopper marketing, explaining how modern stores have become fully digitized, programmable environments:

• Digital end caps can dynamically display targeted content based on inventory or shopper behavior.
• Smart cooler doors employ transparent LCD screens to play video ads and even track engagement time.
• Checkout line screens — where shoppers are a captive audience — offer high-impact displays that can influence last-minute purchase decisions with measurable effects.

Measurement Is No Longer a Barrier

Measurement — the classic industry excuse for underinvestment — is no longer valid. The IAB has standardized how in-store media is measured using a two-pillar system: "opportunity to see" (in-store impressions) and closed-loop sales lift. That means marketers can now directly tie in-store media exposure to register sales.

For example, a major CPG brand running ads on cooler screens across 250 Kroger stores saw a 14% lift in sales compared to control stores — proving measurable impact and true incrementality.

The Three-Screen Strategy

With measurement solved, the integrated three-screen strategy connects:

1. Awareness on Connected TV — reach consumers at home with brand messaging.
2. Reinforcement on mobile devices — retarget and remind on-the-go.
3. Conversion in the aisle on in-store screens — close the sale at the moment of decision.

A unified journey like this allows brands to guide the modern path to purchase, from initial discovery to in-store decision moments, with targeted, data-driven content at each touchpoint.

The Bottom Line

Physical retail is not obsolete — it's being transformed into a programmable and measurable media channel. Brands that activate digital in-store media and integrate it into a unified three-screen strategy will outpace competitors and unlock incremental sales that were previously ignored.

"If 85% of sales happen in-store, why does 85% of your media strategy live online? The silo is the problem."