‘We’ve got to call their bluff’: Amidst retail media spend scrutiny, advertisers pull out of negotiations

As ad spend in the fast-growing retail media network ecosystem continues to grow, marketers and media buyers are increasingly concerned about the transparency in negotiations, otherwise known as the joint business planning (JBP) process.

In response, some advertisers are pulling their ad dollars and walking away from the negotiation table. Notably, there’s been executive dysfunction in the $140 billion global business that is retail media, according to 2024 figures from eMarketer. When it comes to the purse strings for retail media spend and budgets, there are disparities among advertisers over which teams control retail media budgets as well as what budgets should support retail media spend.

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Retail media networks have become big business, expected to account for almost a quarter of all U.S. media spend by 2028, according to eMarketer. Still, retail media networks are asking for more ad dollars, positioning themselves as media companies to take in media dollars instead of the shopper and trade dollars they’ve been historically relegated to. But as the industry grows, so do complications in negotiating with the retail media giants.

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