Big Retail: The big brand channel hiding in plain sight – taking retail media way beyond performance ads
(Originally published on Mi3.)
Retail media hasn’t always been used to its full potential. Too often, it’s treated as a performance channel. Tightly targeted. Box checked. But there’s another side to it. One built for scale, visibility, and brand storytelling at its best. That’s where VMO’s Big Retail network comes in, says VMO’s Paul Butler, a large-format network, built for big stories, big audiences, and long-term brand growth.
Rethinking retail media
The default assumption many marketers still carry is simple: retail media is a performance marketing channel built for tactical messages, discounts, and promotions.
But that mindset sells the channel short. It’s limiting and long-term value is being left on the table.
Retail media is where brand storytelling and performance intersect, becoming one of the most powerful brand-building channels hiding in plain sight.
And the brands leaning in? They’re turning foot traffic into brand equity.
Build brands, not just baskets
In a media landscape obsessed with attention, retail media delivers something more valuable – receptivity. Shoppers are in an exploratory state. They're open to influence, both rational and emotional.
Campaigns inside retail centres are driving uplifts you’d normally expect from “brand first” channels like TV or cinema: +35 per cent ad awareness, +36 per cent recall, +19 per cent brand perception, and even +11 pe cent recommendations1.
These are brand outcomes, the kind that justify brand dollars.
Retail media blends broadcast-scale impact with proximity to purchase. It delivers emotional influence and immediate action, making it one of the most strategically valuable spaces in the media mix.
The unique advantages of retail outdoor
Retail media combines elements that other formats can’t match. Premium full-motion creative delivers up to 2x more engagement than static2. High dwell times embed messages in memory through repeat exposures.
Retail media also plays perfectly with other outdoor formats. According to Analytic Partners, campaigns using two outdoor formats delivered 21 per cent higher ROI, while adding a third lifted ROI by 29 per cent3. Retail media is the perfect bridge – positioned between high-reach broadcast and point-of-purchase – and amplifies everything around it.
Think big, think retail
When marketers think “big,” billboards and TV often come to mind. But large-format retail media deserves a spot in that conversation. Both deliver prestige, reach, and cultural impact, but the retail environment adds more to the equation: full-motion creative, proximity to purchase, and hours of dwell time compared to mere seconds passing a billboard.
Those extra moments make all the difference. Large-format retail media isn’t just about being seen. It’s about being remembered in the moments that matter most.
We’re big where it counts
Big Retail is our large-format retail network, built for brand fame, not just sales activation.
It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with billboards in size and impact but lives inside premium retail environments where audiences are primed to engage and spend. Positioned in high-traffic centre locations, they dominate the environment with bold, full-motion creative that delivers impact and elevates brands.
And Big Retail is just the beginning. We amplify brand stories through immersive activations, 3D builds, AR, programmatic triggers, and experiential formats like Dimensions, giving marketers an arsenal of ways to go truly bold and big in retail.
The message is simple: it’s time to stop treating retail as the “proximity channel” and start recognising it for what it is: a brand channel built for fame, growth and impact. And with VMO, it’s built where it counts.
Sources:
1. VMO brand tracking average results across non-FMCG clients n=1,600
2. Quality Counts, Retail Study, 2022
3. Analytic Partners; Collected Mix Models from The Leading Edge & Analytic Partners 2002-2018
