Albertsons’ retail media arm, Albertsons Media Collective, today introduced a new in-store incrementality measurement in an effort to solve for one of retail media’s most persistent challenges, per a press release. The grocer’s matched market framework looks to demonstrate the true incremental impact of in-store media, rather than attributing sales for purchases that would have happened regardless of media exposure.
“For too long, in-store media has been measured with tools that confuse correlation for impact,” said Liz Roche, vice president of media and measurement at Albertsons Media Collective, in the press release. “Our matched market incrementality approach cuts through that noise. By isolating causal lift at the store level, we’re showing brands the actual impact of in-store media activation — and giving them confidence that their investment is driving net-new sales.”
CPG giant Mondelēz used the new framework to measure the impact of a campaign that looked to drive household penetration, category growth and incremental sales for its Sargento Cheese Bakes snack crackers. The integration of in-store screens led to a 14% in-store sales lift, and the campaign saw over 5.5 million impressions and a $2.41 incremental return on ad spend.
“In-store is one of the most influential moments in the path to purchase, but historically it’s been difficult to measure with precision,” said Melissa Pitmon, customer director for omnichannel at Mondelēz, in the press release. “Albertsons Media Collective’s matched market measurement gave us clear, causal insight into how in-store media drove incremental sales, helping us optimize with confidence and validate the true impact of our investment.”
The new solution operates at the store level, comparing sales performance of store with and without media exposure, utilizing nearly 60 variables in an effort to reduce bias, scale nationally across store formats and work with new and existing in-store screens. Albertsons launched an in-store digital display network in June 2025, and more than 50 advertisers are using the solution. Mondelēz was a launch partner.
In-store retail media is forecast to surpass $1 billion in ad spend by 2029, per eMarketer, which describes the channel as a “sleeping giant” in the larger retail media market. However, challenges around buying, managing and measuring in-store media have persisted and hampered growth.
The new offering comes as Albertsons Media Collective works to develop other solutions in the retail media space, including ones at the convergence of other growing channels, like connected TV. The retail media arm is working with NBCUniversal to provide closed-loop measurement that bridges connected TV exposure and retail outcomes, an offering that helped Chobani see strong lifts in the return on ad spend across onsite and offsite media.
“We look forward to advancing the measurement capabilities we offer in the future with closed-loop measurement, while remaining compliant with and closely aligning our measurement roadmap with IAB current and future standards for in-store media,” Roche said in the release.
Albertsons Media Collective plans to expand its in-store digital display network in 2026. The in-store fleet is expected to include about 800 more stores, offering scale and continuity across 10 divisions.
