Creators become retail media assets

Retail media networks are starting to treat creator videos like ad inventory they can target, measure, and sell — not just brand polish. (modernretail.co) Modern Retail reported on April 13 that Walmart, Best Buy, and Albertsons are building creator-led programs into their advertising businesses. Walmart Connect has paired Walmart purchase data with Omnicom’s Creo and Meta data to help brands find Instagram creators whose audiences are more likely to buy. (modernretail.co) (walmartconnect.com) Best Buy Ads said in 2025 that it would work with Dude Perfect through 2026, alongside National Football League and TGL programming, to give brands creator-driven placements around sports and holiday moments. Albertsons Media Collective worked with Linqia on a Lunar New Year campaign that ran from November 2024 to January 2025; Albertsons said it delivered three times more Instagram engagement and four times more Facebook engagement than benchmarks. (modernretail.co) (bestbuyads.com) The pitch from retailers is simple: they already know what shoppers buy, and they can use that first-party transaction data to show whether creator campaigns moved sales. Walmart Connect says its measurement products tie ad exposure across onsite, offsite, and in-store media to business results. (modernretail.co) (walmartconnect.com) That is a change from the older influencer model, where brands often bought sponsored posts for reach and engagement and judged success with softer metrics. The Interactive Advertising Bureau said in November 2025 that United States creator ad spend was projected to hit $37 billion in 2025, up 26% year over year, and that 48% of creator ad buyers now call creators a “must buy.” (iab.com) The same Interactive Advertising Bureau report said creator ad spending more than doubled from $13.9 billion in 2021 to $29.5 billion in 2024, while brands named measuring business outcomes and choosing the right creators as top challenges. That helps explain why retailers want to sit between social platforms and advertisers: they can offer audience data and sales attribution that a standalone creator deal often cannot. (iab.com) (emarketer.com) Linqia formalized that shift on September 30, 2025, when it launched an “influencer retail media” offering built to place creator content across social media, connected television, digital out-of-home screens, and in-store displays. The company said brands were projected to spend $60 billion on retail media in the United States in 2025, but much of that inventory still relied on repurposed brand ads rather than creator-made creative. (linqia.com) Industry executives are also describing creators less like celebrity endorsers and more like outsourced creative and media teams. In a Verge interview published April 13, Digitas chief executive Amy Lanzi said brands increasingly expect creator work to be measurable and tied to outcomes, reflecting a broader shift toward conversion-focused partnerships. (theverge.com 1) (theverge.com 2) Retailers still have to prove they can do more than add another middleman to a crowded ad market. But as creator budgets rise and brands ask for sales data, retail media networks are moving creators closer to the cash register. (emarketer.com) (modernretail.co)