CMO round table asks how MENA retail media becomes a measurable channel.
The Marketing Society has held a CMO Round Table on MENA retail media, in partnership with The Trade Desk and Campaign Middle East. Participants discussed how the channel can grow from a by-product of trade deals into one judged on sales results.
Taking part were Passant ElGhannam, Chief Marketing Officer for MEA at Kraft Heinz; Anne Tulloch, Divisional Marketing Director for Wellness at Alshaya Group; Mansour Salameh, Head of Retail, Ecom, FinServe and Auto at The Trade Desk; Adeel Allahwala, former Marketing Lead and Brand Director for Lipton Iced Tea at Pepsi Lipton International; and Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media and Partnerships at Publicis Media Middle East, part of Publicis Groupe Middle East.
Campaign Middle East's framing is that retail media in the region is no longer an extra bolted onto trade negotiations but is now treated as a channel in its own right, with dedicated data, ad formats, budgets and measurement. It argues the channel is moving towards the centre of media planning as retailers build richer data and brands ask for more accountability from their spend, while noting that the region has not yet reached the level of more mature markets. One regional difference it highlights is that large groups such as Alshaya Group, Majid Al Futtaim and Landmark Group run businesses across many categories, unlike markets where retail data is split among narrow specialists.
This is a partner feature rather than independent reporting: Campaign Middle East co-hosted the session, and The Trade Desk, a demand-side advertising platform, was a partner with a speaker at the table. The full discussion, including each participant's comments, is available to registered readers on Campaign Middle East.
For brands selling through Gulf retailers, the direction set out here means retail media budgets are increasingly expected to be planned and judged like other media, on data and measured shopper outcomes, rather than agreed as part of trade terms.
Why it matters
Retail media is moving out of trade negotiations and into media plans, so brands selling through Gulf retailers will be expected to plan, measure and judge it like other channels.
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