Marketers love dashboards, but shoppers love aisles. That gap is costing brands growth. My view is simple: we need to put the store back at the center of media planning.
Sean Crawford, Managing Director North America at SMG, cut to the heart of it. He reminded us where decisions actually get made.
“Most purchases still happen in-store but media strategies are built elsewhere.” — Sean Crawford, SMG
He is right. We have built media engines that optimize for clicks while the cash register rings in a place our plans barely touch. It’s time to align media with real shopping, not just screens.
The Store-First Shift We Keep Dodging
Brand teams often chase digital reach and lower CPMs. That looks good in a quarterly report. It does little when the shopper faces a crowded shelf and a five-second choice. If your media does not move a hand at the shelf, it’s vanity.
This isn’t an attack on digital. It’s a call to anchor digital to store outcomes. Crawford’s point is a wake-up call: the store is where attention, habit, and price collide. Media must speak to that moment.
What Reconnecting Media To Stores Looks Like
We do not need more theory. We need a tighter loop between planning, local context, and point-of-sale results.
- Plan with store missions in mind: stock-up, top-up, and treat trips call for different messages.
- Buy media by store trade area, not just DMA, and measure against that store’s sales.
- Sync creative with shelf language: sizes, flavors, promos, and planogram realities.
- Pair paid social with retailer media and in-aisle touchpoints in the same week.
- Use geo-fenced mobile to nudge close to visit time, not days earlier.
- Optimize for incrementality shown in POS, not only online attribution.
Each step brings messaging closer to the real decision. That is where persuasion actually counts.
Evidence, Not Hype
Most grocery and household goods are still bought in physical stores. Anyone who has looked at category sales knows this. You can feel it on a Saturday morning run. Shopping lists meet endcaps. Promotions meet habit. Media that ignores this moment wastes money.
Retail media networks can help, if used with discipline. Tie upper-funnel impressions to local store windows. Match audiences to loyalty segments. Then judge success with same-store lifts, not just online conversions. Add footfall data as a lead indicator. Finish with basket growth and repeat rates.
Creative matters too. A flashy video that never mentions the in-store promo misses the chance to close. Call out the exact offer near the exact store. Keep copy simple. Show the pack that will be on the shelf. Small changes drive real lifts.
The Counterargument—and Why It Falls Short
Some will say e-commerce is rising fast, so plan for clicks first. That view skips two facts. Many online orders still ship from, or get picked up at, the store. And for many categories, the aisle still dominates the week’s spend. Digital can start interest, but the store often seals the deal. Planning that treats stores as afterthoughts plans for missed revenue.
What I Want Brands To Do Now
I’ve sat in enough media reviews to know change won’t come from a slide. It comes from new rules.
- Make store-lift a required KPI for major campaigns.
- Brief creative with shelf realities and promo calendars upfront.
- Budget for local tests tied to POS, then scale what lifts.
- Share results with sales teams, not just marketing.
Set these rules, and teams will plan for the aisle again.
The Moment Of Truth Still Lives In Aisles
We chase precision, but ignore proximity. The shopper is closest to a buy at the shelf. That is the moment to win. Crawford’s reminder is blunt and overdue. Reconnect media to real-world decisions or keep paying for impressions that don’t convert.
My call to action: rebase your next plan on where your category actually sells. Start with store missions, align media by trade area, and measure in POS terms. If your dashboard can’t answer, “Which stores grew because of this flight?” rebuild it. Shoppers have already told us where they decide. It’s our turn to listen—and plan like it.
