Retail Media Radar– April 2025: AI, personalisation, trust and smarter screens
April has spotlighted how rapidly retail media is evolving, with a clear shift towards smarter screens, sharper shopper insight, and more personalised, tech-enabled campaigns. With digital signage rolling out across more store formats, AI transforming customer journeys, and loyalty data shaping seasonal execution, this month also sees brands navigating the tension between trust and transparency in media spend.
From Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s data-driven Easter strategies to Instacart’s AI-powered Smart Shop and Nectar360’s immersive Nescafé campaign, this edition of Retail Media Radar explores how retailers and brands are refining their approach to be more timely, targeted and trusted.
1. Grocery giants deliver Easter with flavour, theatre and targeting
Sainsbury’s and Tesco both leaned into premiumisation and personalisation for Easter 2025, combining product innovation with loyalty-powered targeting and digital amplification.
Sainsbury’s expanded its Taste the Difference range with indulgent products like the Belgian Milk Chocolate Tiramisu Egg, supported by Nectar-personalised promotions and in-store media placements to drive conversion.
Meanwhile, Tesco launched limited-edition hot cross bun flavours like Rhubarb and Custard and Lemon and Blueberry, supported by Clubcard-exclusive pricing and data-informed digital and in-store activations.
Campaigns for Cadbury’s Easter Favourites were featured across both retailers, with in-store theatre playing a key role in driving visibility and seasonal engagement.
This coordinated approach across two of the UK’s biggest grocers demonstrates how loyalty schemes, exclusive ranging and retail media formats can converge to deliver high-impact, emotionally resonant seasonal campaigns.
Read more on Sainsbury's Easter range | Explore Tesco's Easter range
2. AI-powered personalisation transforming retail
Artificial intelligence (AI) has continued to revolutionise the retail industry, enhancing customer experiences and optimising operations.
AI-powered personalisation is one of the key capabilities that are doubling down in order to create individualised customer experiences. By leveraging AI and machine learning, retailers can analyse vast amounts of data to deliver tailored recommendations, improve product discovery, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Some great examples of this over the last month include:
Instacart has introduced Smart Shop, an AI-driven feature designed to simplify grocery shopping for users with specific dietary preferences. By analysing individual dietary needs, the feature offers tailored product recommendations, enhancing the shopping experience and aligning with the growing consumer demand for personalisation. Find out more here.
Etsy and eBay are adopting social media-like strategies in order to create hyper-personalised shopping experiences. By utilising advanced AI and machine learning, these platforms are aiming to present users with shoppable products that align closely with their interests, addressing previous challenges in product discovery and enhancing customer satisfaction. Find out more here.
Shopify has acquired Vantage Discovery, an AI search company, to bolster its platform's search functionality. This acquisition aims to provide retailers with enhanced AI tools to deliver more personalised and relevant search results, improving the overall shopping experience for consumers.
We see AI as central to unlocking the next evolution of retail media—enabling personalisation not only in advertising, but across search, promotions, and product curation. Find out more here.
3. Superdrug switches on smarter screens
Superdrug has rolled out new digital screens across select stores to enhance the shopper journey and offer brands more impactful in-store ad opportunities.
The new format supports full-motion video and contextual placements, allowing brands to deliver seasonal, skincare or product-led content at the point of decision.
For advertisers in the beauty and wellness space, this offers a new, measurable channel to drive awareness, education, and conversion in a high-intent environment.
The rollout supports Superdrug's wider investment in connected retail infrastructure, aiming to bridge online and offline experiences.
This is part of a growing category trend where health and beauty retailers are elevating their retail media offer to compete with supermarkets in both media scale and shopper impact.
Find our more here.
4. Nectar360 and Nescafé brew up a summer-ready in-store activation
Nectar360 has partnered with Nestlé to deliver an attention-grabbing campaign for Nescafé’s new ready-to-drink Iced Lattes, spotlighted at Sainsbury’s Lincoln.
The activation features a full store wrap—one of the most immersive executions in Nectar360’s in-store portfolio—paired with digital screens, theatre pallets, aisle takeovers, and at-fixture media to ensure standout presence at every stage of the shopper journey.
Designed to drive both brand awareness and product trial, the campaign is amplified with social and online placements, forming a cohesive omnichannel push.
The execution is a clear example of how retail media networks can go beyond traditional formats to deliver integrated, 360-degree shopper campaigns that resonate both visually and contextually.
At id8 retail, we see this as a benchmark for what’s possible when retailers, brands and media owners collaborate to deliver theatre, visibility and performance—all tailored around category growth and consumer behaviour trends.
Find our more here.
5. Walmart sparks debate over media trust with 25% mandate
Walmart has introduced a new policy requiring that 25% of a brand's total retail media investment be allocated to Walmart Connect in order to access premium placements like search, homepage takeovers, and sponsored video.
The move aims to consolidate spend and incentivise deeper investment into Walmart's media network, offering high-impact visibility opportunities in exchange for greater financial commitment.
However, the mandate has sparked significant industry backlash, with brands and agencies voicing concerns over reduced flexibility, increased pressure on budgets, and the potential for media bias in favour of in-house platforms.
Critics argue that such spend requirements could erode trust and limit brands’ ability to plan holistically across a media mix that spans multiple retailers.
Industry leaders are calling for more transparent ROI measurement, fair access to inventory, and buying models that support advertiser choice and performance-led investment.
This development highlights the maturing, but still fragile, state of retail media relationships. As platforms gain power, trust, value exchange and collaboration will be key to maintaining brand confidence and long-term growth.
Find our more here.
Future-proofing Retail Media: what comes next?
eMarketer outlines how retail media networks must evolve into integrated, insight-led ecosystems to stay competitive.
Future growth will hinge on expanding self-serve platforms, standardising measurement frameworks, and delivering more strategic support to advertisers.
The report calls for networks to move from inventory-selling to audience-building—offering the kind of content planning and performance data brands expect from mature media partners.
It also points to growing advertiser expectations for omnichannel reach, seamless tech stacks, and creative agility.
We believe retail media’s next chapter lies in combining publisher-grade planning tools with shopper marketing nuance-enabling campaigns that perform and brand-build simultaneously.
Find out more here.
Summary
This month’s headlines spotlight a maturing retail media landscape, where data, trust, and experience sit at the heart of how campaigns are being planned and delivered. From Nectar360’s full-store activation with Nescafé to Superdrug’s rollout of digital screens, and the accelerating role of AI in personalisation and product discovery, there’s a clear push to combine creativity with accountability. Meanwhile, the seasonal opportunity around Easter has shown how loyalty programmes and digital media can elevate customer engagement at scale.
As we look ahead, the challenge for networks will be to balance commercial goals with flexibility, creativity, and shopper relevance - delivering media that not only performs, but resonates.