Filmed live at the Dentsu Beach House during Cannes Lions 2025, this panel discussed the explosion of the shoppable moment – touchpoints and moments are everywhere on every platform and present unprecedented opportunities for brands to meet consumers where they are.
Brian Monahan, dentsu Global Client President, Head of Retail Media Solutions, started the conversation. “Retail media is the only media transaction where the objective of the buyer and seller is the same, which opens up a world of collaboration and creativity for a consumer who no longer goes shopping but she's always shopping. I predict next year when we're back here at Cannes and we continue to talk about the fastest growing channel in the media mix of retail media, I don't think we're going to be talking about targeting data and incremental ROIs. I think we're going to be talking about shoppable off-site creative units, [and] I think we're going to be talking about creative messaging that really performs with consumers in those environments.”
He asked the panelists to describe what shoppable moments look like and how marketers may be able to use them to their businesses’ benefit.
Adrian Fung, Global CMO, eBay: “It's about how do you think about connecting inspiration to the ability to purchase something that fulfills that inspiration. Everyone has passions for things, and so our objective is to create opportunities to really flame that passion but then pay off on it by making it shoppable.”
David Young VP, Retail Media, Dick’s Sporting Goods: “I'm going to call consumers athletes; that's just how we think about our customers at Dick’s. I'd say it's a shoppable moment to me anytime an athlete recognizes themselves in a product. That could be straight purchase, ‘I can see myself in this piece of footwear or apparel’ or ‘I recognize my values (something about my identity) in this brand.’ We think as culture and commerce have converged, and the funnel has converged, everything could be a shoppable moment at some level. A shoppable moment … used to start on retail sites or through search … or even in store. … That shoppable moment should be a moment of joy and discovery and love and inspiring, and, if you're doing it really well, that shoppable moment should lead to a purchase.”
Lindsay Pullins, Director, Business Development & Partnerships | Retail Media, Commerce & Performance, Roku: “At Roku, it's also all about making sure that it's frictionless. It's easy, right? You're sitting in your living room, you're watching your favorite show, and it's a surprise and delight and discovery when you're watching a piece of content you see an ad break and … that product or that blouse or whatever it is piques your interest because it's personalized, and then taking that extra step and making it shoppable, reducing that friction. At Roku, we click okay, you get a text message, and you can shop right on your phone. We also have partnerships where you can actually check out right on the Roku screen, again, really focused on making it frictionless and easy for the consumer.”
Lindsay went on to share some of the learning from new research from Roku and dentsu that explores how consumers are engaging with Shoppable TV formats, which product categories are resonating, and how brands can stand out.
More about that research here.
Brian: “Sherry, we've been talking about how you bring an authentic brand into these cultural moments whether it's eBay Live, whether it's [Dick’s] GameChanger app, whether it's the Roku shoppable video ads. There's a lot of plumbing that needs to happen underneath particularly when we know that, if it's going to be effective, it has to be super relevant to that moment in time and to that person. How is Criteo thinking about technology data [and] AI to enable all of this?”
Sherry Smith, Executive Managing Director, Criteo: “We work with 225 retailers globally, so we have scale. It's everything from athletes, to eBay, to DIY, to grocery, and so on. We've had an AI lab actually since 2018, so it's something that we're familiar with that, of course, is on fire now with all of the innovation and the speed. At the heart of it is speed. Being able to test, and learn, and get creative out in the market, [and] get better personalization - it's just making us that much better at what we do and able to move faster and able to think even that much better in different environments, which hopefully leads to a much better experience for the customer. But, on the other hand, it's important to probably all marketers and publishers that you can't lose the listening and the empathy part of understanding your customer. … It's super important that we find a way to blend those two things - continue to test and learn, but make sure that we understand what we're there to do, and at the end of the day how do we deliver, and how do we make it the best experience for that customer.”
To close the discussion, Brian asked the panelists to look into the future and share their thoughts on where technology is going to allow brands to make moments in consumers’ lives authentically relevant and shoppable. For their answers and final thoughts, watch the video reply here.
