Shownotes
In this Omni Talk Retail interview, recorded live from FMI 2026 at the Simbe booth, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Brian Monahan, SVP of Albertsons Media Collective, to discuss how retail media is evolving and why in store media is emerging as the next major growth frontier.
Brian shares his background across Walmart, Pinterest, Dentsu, and now Albertsons, and explains why retail media is far from a bubble. The conversation explores how first party data, authenticated shoppers, and trip based insights are reshaping how brands measure performance and drive growth across grocery retail.
The discussion also dives into Albertsons Media Collective approach to collective growth, the competitive realities of operating as a challenger retail media network, and why local banner equity creates differentiated value for brand partners. Brian outlines why in store media represents the third leg of the retail media stool and how connecting the shopper journey from couch to checkout will define the next phase of retail media innovation heading into 2026.
Key Topics Covered
- How retail media is evolving beyond sponsored ads
- Why first party data and authenticated shoppers matter
- The role of trip based insights in driving brand growth
- Albertsons Media Collective approach to collective growth
- Competing as a challenger retail media network
- Why in store media is the next major retail media unlock
- Connecting off site, on site, and in store media touchpoints
- Where in store media stands on the adoption curve heading into 2026
Stay tuned to Omni Talk Retail for continued coverage from FMI 2026, and be sure to visit the Simbe booth, #118, in the FMI Tech section.
#FMI2026 #Albertsons #RetailMedia #InStoreMedia #GroceryRetail #RetailTechnology #RetailLeadership #OmniTalk
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Transcripts
Hello, everyone.
Speaker B:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker B:I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker C:And I'm Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And we are coming to you live from the simbi booth at FMI in sunny San Diego.
Speaker B:Booth number 118.
Speaker B:It's in the FMI tech section.
Speaker B:If you're at the show, stop on by and say hello.
Speaker B:And joining us today is Brian Moynihan, the SVP of Albertsons Media Collective.
Speaker B:Brian, welcome to omnitalk.
Speaker B:This is your first time with us.
Speaker A:First time, yeah.
Speaker A:Excited to be here.
Speaker A:Thanks for having me, Chris.
Speaker C:Well, as Chris said, it's your first time.
Speaker C:Give us your background, tell us a little bit about you before we dive in and what you oversee at Albertsons.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:So I look after the retail media business unit, the Albertsons Media Collective.
Speaker A: t my start in retail Media in: Speaker A:Oh, gee.
Speaker A:Oh, gee.
Speaker C:Before retail media was retail media, Correct?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we had some guys at Walmart Labs who were able to link our traceable tender identity in stores to our E commerce identity.
Speaker A:And we said, holy smokes, maybe we can actually chase audiences across the Internet now.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:Well, we went to market back then as WMX and went to the board of directors and said, this is going to be our next billion dollar business.
Speaker A:And was totally wrong.
Speaker B:They totally agreed.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Let me give you all the money and resources.
Speaker A:Right, Exactly.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:They're like, get out of here, kid.
Speaker A:But that turned out to be a wrong projection because it's much bigger.
Speaker B:Much bigger than that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Much like exponentially bigger than that, Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Who'd have thunk?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Anyway, after Walmart, I went to Pinterest and was leading the retail strategy at Pinterest at the platform.
Speaker A:And before joining Albertsons this past summer, I was at Dentsu and I was looking after the global retail media practice there at the holding company.
Speaker C:So you've kind of gotten it from all angles.
Speaker C:Consulting, social commerce, the retailer perspective, and now a retailer and grocery.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right, Bryce.
Speaker B:So we thought, what question could we ask to start?
Speaker B:So we want to put you on the spot right out of the gate, you know, depending on who we talk to.
Speaker B:Retail media, it's either it's, it's.
Speaker B:It's either the future of advertising or it's a bubble waiting to burst.
Speaker B:So where do you come down on that argument and why?
Speaker A:Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker A:I mean, listen, with 85% of the spend in retail media going to Amazon, I think there is A bubble that's ready to burst there.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I think, you know, Amazon has misled or allowed the industry to equate shopping with transacting.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so clearly we have work to do in the retail media space of making sure that our advertisers feel, feel the impact of the campaigns in their overall sales with the chain.
Speaker A:So there's work to do there.
Speaker A:But clearly I believe this is an awesome opportunity with retail media.
Speaker A:It's the only media transaction where the objective of the buyer and the seller is the same.
Speaker A:If we're only doing sponsored product ads and programmatic display, shame on us.
Speaker A:We should be able to do way more creative business driving impactful work together with our suppliers.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And we're just at the beginning.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, you know, retail media really started as more of a margin play for retailers, but the real value right now is for that first party insight, that data.
Speaker C:Talk to us a little bit about how you think about that and how Albertsons is structured to kind of use that as a revenue channel for the business to keep the business going.
Speaker A:Yeah, great question, Anne.
Speaker A: r brands that we carry in our: Speaker A:We're not like a grab bag of alt revenue streams like padding the P and L. We're trying to drive growth.
Speaker A:But your point about Insights and consumer insights is really the secret weapon.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:We're in 13 of the 15 largest DMAs, right.
Speaker A:So we have a different real estate footprint than a lot of other grocers.
Speaker A:So that means we see a different trip type.
Speaker A:We see a broader portfolio of trips like why you go to the grocery store.
Speaker A:And it's the classic stuff, right?
Speaker A:It's the stock up, it's the nightly meal solution.
Speaker A:But there's some interesting stuff in there, like you have a sick person in the household, like that stimulates a trip.
Speaker A:Or you actually a pet need stimulates a trip.
Speaker A:These are all insights that we're just starting to bring to bear of how you target and intersect that.
Speaker A:So not who and what, but why to drive growth.
Speaker A:So the insights and data underneath our customer relationships is the secret sauce.
Speaker A:It's how we bring it forward to our partners.
Speaker C: many different formats across: Speaker A:We think so.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So we have a big pharmacy business, we have a big adult beverage business.
Speaker A:We've got a really popular loyalty program.
Speaker A:90% of our sales are authenticated.
Speaker A:So we are building a really holistic profile of, you know, there's 174 million Americans in our trading radius and we've got a really interesting profile on those households.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:You're a data company also, not just media seller.
Speaker A:Yeah, data company.
Speaker A:But we understand our mission to be drive growth through the Albertson stores.
Speaker B:But that's an interesting leadership question too that Ann's inherently asking as well, which is like how do you evolve into a data and insights company?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like that's not a muscle that you necessarily had that existed before.
Speaker B:So what have you had to do as an organization to lean forward more on, understand the data, the insights and taking action on them vis a vis the retail media network.
Speaker A:Follow the performance, follow what drives results in our campaigns that we're deploying and look for clues both with messaging and targeting and placement so that we can get smarter about how it all works.
Speaker B:Got it.
Speaker B:So what's the hardest part of running a retail media organization inside of a company like Albertsons?
Speaker B:Is it dealing with the CPGs constantly battling for the dollars against Walmart and Amazon?
Speaker B:Is it hiring the talent to do the data and insight work?
Speaker B:Like we just talk about what's the hardest thing for you, Brian?
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean it's a fiercely competitive space and we are a challenger rmn.
Speaker A:So going up against the likes of Walmart and Amazon is no joke.
Speaker A:And so we're frankly trying to be the anti Walmart Amazon Retail Media.
Speaker A:We are trying to live up to our name.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Albertsons Media Collective.
Speaker A:Like we are here to drive collective growth for our our suppliers, our merchant colleagues and our shared customer.
Speaker A:We're not trying to shake down suppliers to line our profit.
Speaker A:We're not trying to capture a disproportionate share of their brand budgets.
Speaker A:We are just trying to really drive collective growth.
Speaker A:And then we're trying to walk that talk.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So last year we announced this BOGO initiative where anyone who buys an impression for us, last fall we matched it with one of our enterprise we just announced and last night we had a great awards dinner for our ALBI Award advertising partners.
Speaker A:So these were the top performers, advertisers in each of their categories guaranteeing roas for them going forward.
Speaker A:Because they've proven to us they know how to use our platform and the way that we're doing our sort of upfront contract, so we give people benefits from $1.
Speaker A:So we really are trying to be this.
Speaker A:The anti RMN that's truly living up to this promise of collective growth and putting real skin in the game.
Speaker B:The Albies.
Speaker B:Huh?
Speaker A:The Albies.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Is that something new?
Speaker B:Did you bring that in?
Speaker A:Get that?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:How long has that been in action?
Speaker A:First annual.
Speaker B:First annual Alby Award.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Awesome, awesome.
Speaker C:So, Brian, I have to go back to something I was asking you just a little bit earlier.
Speaker C:I mean, Albertsons has tons of banners that people will be familiar with.
Speaker C:Safeway, Vons, Jule Osco, Shaws.
Speaker C:But those are different geographies, different demographics in terms of customers.
Speaker C:How do you.
Speaker C:1.
Speaker C:How do you manage the complexity that's involved with a retail media network or a collective across all those banners?
Speaker C:And then what is kind of the.
Speaker C:How do you not let that impede, like, your unique anti Walmart or strategic position there?
Speaker C:Like, how do you balance all of that on your team?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, as a challenger, Ironman, we have to be easy to work with, right?
Speaker A:So we have to abstract any complexity around DCO or whatever from our advertising partners.
Speaker A:And we're trying to do a lot with technology to help automate that.
Speaker A:We think of the fact that we have all these local banners, right?
Speaker A:We talk about being locally great, nationally strong at Albertsons is a real differentiator.
Speaker B:It's an advantage.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, Listen, we're in SoCal right now, right?
Speaker A:This is Vons territory, right?
Speaker A:So like, Vons, So we have 10 banners in our chain that are over 100 years old, right?
Speaker A: Vons was founded in: Speaker A:In Los Angeles.
Speaker A:It grew as Southern California grew, was the first grocer that sold prepackaged deli meat, right?
Speaker A:So, like, we have literally fed Southern Californian families for generations, right?
Speaker A:And so there's a brand equity there.
Speaker A:There's a tribal nature there that doesn't exist with other national branded grocery stores and food, such an intimate part of their household.
Speaker A:So anyway, so there's equity in there that we need that we have to bring forward to our advertising partners, like right now, our creative.
Speaker A:You know, we're just like, tagging, like, available at.
Speaker A:But, like, there's so much more can do to bring that brand equity with the retail banner.
Speaker A:And that's also why we're excited about technology and how generative AI can help with that.
Speaker C:Well, yeah, I was going to say, how do you operationalize that then?
Speaker C:I mean, you have to start, I would think, with like the lowest common denominator, the most complex legacy systems, like, how do you build that up so that it can scale across all of those banners?
Speaker A:It's a lot of work.
Speaker A:And it starts with the item file, you know, item availability and price point.
Speaker A:And so then you can sort of layer on from there.
Speaker C:Okay, got it.
Speaker B:Who knew we were going to get a grocery history lesson today, too?
Speaker B:This is fantastic.
Speaker B:You're like a grocery historian for us.
Speaker B:All right, well, let's get you out here on this.
Speaker B:You know, if we.
Speaker B:We always like to put our prediction hats on whenever we can with our guests as our last question.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker A:It's the emergence of in store media.
Speaker A:In store.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's the third leg of the stool.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Off site, on site and in store.
Speaker A:And you know, there's a lot of retail media networks out there.
Speaker A:It's one thing to have a CDP and some search ads and a couple audience extension partners.
Speaker A:It's another thing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars putting advanced hardware and software in thousands of stores across America.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:That's not for the faint of heart.
Speaker A:We've got like, you know, we've been installing them and you get the, the contractor who, like breaks off the sprinkler system, and then you flood out the whole front of the store.
Speaker B:It's real.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So there's a lot that goes into the capital expense and building out this third leg of the stool.
Speaker A:But we're committed to it because we have seen in the initial data that one plus one plus one equals four.
Speaker A:So reaching a shopper from couch to checkout.
Speaker A:So while they're watching Peacock and they're in streaming connected tv where we can reach a known customer and track sales them.
Speaker A:She's on Facebook, she's driving in the store.
Speaker A:Digital out of home in our apps, walking into the store, throughout the store at checkout, all of that targeted addressability and measurement, we think is a real accelerator.
Speaker A:And I think that's what people are going to talk about at this time.
Speaker A:It's like, wow, this is when in store media, I mean, signs and like in store radio.
Speaker A:Not new.
Speaker A:But what's new is like the content management System, the ad serving, the beacon technology.
Speaker A:So we can do.
Speaker A:What has led to retail media's explosion, Right.
Speaker A:Is targeting and measurement and bringing that in store.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Even just in store audio, like radio, like, there's so much you can do now with the different tools and tips.
Speaker A:And tricks, like sync it with like the visual stimuli.
Speaker A:Like, totally.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And with AI, you can just create so much more content to push through there too.
Speaker B:All right, so then, if in store media is the defining moment, what mile of the marathon are we in on unlocking the in store media journey, would you say?
Speaker A:I would say early just because it's, you know, it takes a lot of work.
Speaker A:So, you know, we, we rolled out some next generation sign technology last year.
Speaker A:We put it in 80 stores.
Speaker A:We're going to expand it this year.
Speaker A:You know, our intention is to get to about a thousand by the end of the year.
Speaker A:So I think we're still kind of pretty early in just getting like the hardware in place.
Speaker A:And then there's like so much we can do with the craft of like, how you bring that to bear with connecting with consumers.
Speaker A:So I think we're still pretty early in the marathon.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker C:Brian, what do you think people are getting wrong about in store media?
Speaker C:Like when, when they are thinking about it and they're like, well, I don't know if it's worth the expense.
Speaker C:There's screens in stores that I have to manage.
Speaker C:Like, what do you think it is that people aren't thinking about that they should be thinking about?
Speaker C:When they're kind of evaluating that for.
Speaker A:Their own stores, they think of it as pure lower funnel.
Speaker A:A pure lower funnel impression, not the connected journey.
Speaker A:And also like, you know, so we don't have scan and go.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because we don't want people like staring at their phones.
Speaker A:We want them like looking around the store and discovering.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And like here at this show, gosh, you see so much great product innovation.
Speaker A:Like, so that discovery moment, that upper funnel awareness and preference, like that happens in the store, right?
Speaker A:And it's like collapsing the funnel from like, oh, I had no idea there was this product available and now I can go get it.
Speaker A:So I think the thing people are getting wrong is they're just thinking of the in store screens as like pure lower funnel.
Speaker A:And it's a great way to introduce and build some awareness of products as well.
Speaker B:That's really great.
Speaker B:That's really good stuff.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, Brian, thank you so much for taking the time with us.
Speaker C:We'll be following your journey with Elberton's media collective.
Speaker C:I have no doubt.
Speaker C:Thank you so much again to Simbi for helping us bring you all of our coverage here from FMI.
Speaker C:Stop by and see us.
Speaker C:We're in booth 118 all day today.
Speaker C:We've got tons of interviews coming at you, and until next time, be careful out there.