Inside the Retail Media Playbook to Win the Future 

This post was created in partnership with Best Buy Ads

Retail media used to mean sponsored listings. That’s table stakes now, as the conversation has evolved to full-funnel and omnichannel strategies. In other words, using data and creativity to connect with shoppers everywhere—not just your website.

During an ADWEEK House Advertising HQ fireside chat, Megan Stevens, head of west/central region, agency partnerships at Best Buy Ads, and Alison Weissbrot, executive editor of ADWEEK, discussed Best Buy’s plans for the next era of retail media built on data, customer experience, and open partnerships.

An advantage built on data, not just transactions

Best Buy’s journey into advertising began long before the term retail media was an industry staple. Stevens painted a picture of the early days of meeting with agencies back in 2011. “I had to physically tell them we sell ads on bestbuy.com, they run on our site,” she recalled. “People truly didn’t know what we were even talking about at that point.”

Best Buy’s long history in the space has allowed it to build a solid foundation that’s difficult to replicate. The company’s strength in consumer electronics has also provided it with a unique perspective on high-consideration purchases.

“One in every three TVs in the U.S. is sold at a Best Buy store,” Stevens noted, but the true differentiator is the ability to connect those sales to real people. “We can see 93% of the transactions that happen at Best Buy, and we can match them back to a customer,” she shared. “That rate of transaction is unheard of.”

That rich, first-party data provides a major advantage for advertisers looking to reach specific shoppers. “We have 200 million customers that sit in our data graph,” Stevens explained. “We can layer on 15,000 unique attributes to build true custom audiences to scale across a full-funnel solution.”

The company’s proprietary data helps campaigns that appear on other sites, too. Stevens noted partners tend to see conversion rates double when using Best Buy’s first-party data compared to those who don’t, making it a powerful tool.

From hands-on demos to seamless clicks

While data provides the insight, Best Buy Ads’ strategy is centered on using it to enhance, not interrupt, the customer experience. Stevens argued that in retail, advertising should be an integral part of the shopping journey. “If we’re not additive or proving value in that, we won’t be around,” she shared.

That same thinking applies to their physical stores, which are still a large part of the business. It’s where customers can get a hands-on experience with products that a website can’t offer.

“There’s something really unique about what customers are doing in our stores,” said Stevens. “To surround that with your brand is a really fun opportunity.”

A recent example of a successful in-store media takeover was McDonald’s partnership with the Minecraft movie. “Minecraft fits really well with our customers,” said Stevens. “We have a really big gaming set of customers in our stores and on our site, so we had a really cool partnership with them.”

Accelerating growth through open partnerships

Having perfected its foundational data and experience offerings, Best Buy Ads is now entering what Stevens calls its “master’s or maybe PhD era,” which involves a focus on innovation and accessibility.

A key piece of that innovation is expanding major partnerships with the NFL and the new tech-focused TGL (Tomorrow’s Golf League), as well as extending its collaboration with publishers like CNET. However, Best Buy Ads’ most significant shift is a move to make its ad inventory more accessible to all advertisers.

“We are now launching on-site display through any major DSP, which is the first time you can access on-site display outside of just a managed service offering,” Stevens said.

The change is a direct response to advertiser feedback and a commitment to simplifying the media-buying process. “Just taking the friction out of the process is really important to us,” Stevens stressed. “That’s been a pain point in the past that we’re addressing.”

Stevens concluded that Best Buy Ads’ retail media evolution also extends to measurement, moving it beyond mere post-campaign analysis to proactive, data-driven planning. As she put it: “If you’re only able to tell a brand what happened to their campaign after it ran, it’s no longer okay.”

This forward-looking mindset, Stevens added, is reshaping the entire business. “It feels like a completely different team today,” she said. “With that, you’re going to see us show up in a different way.”