At POSSIBLE 2025, a powerhouse panel from Target, Unilever, and Lego laid out the next evolution of retail media: one where customer discovery isn’t just digital, and where media is as much about experience as it is about exposure.

The session challenged old thinking: that retail media is strictly about conversion, or that brand building and retail performance live in separate ecosystems. Instead, these marketers are building toward an omnichannel world that starts with joy, works backward from shopper intent, and treats the audience not the product or channel as the organizing principle.

It Starts With the Shopper, Not the Shelf

Beth McKenna Moore (Lego) and Ryu Yokoi (Unilever) both emphasized that media only matters if it connects to a real, felt moment in the shopper’s life. That might mean a nostalgic front-of-store display on Valentine’s Day. Or a “Whole Body Deodorant” launch designed to reframe personal care in language customers actually use.

Lego’s recent success with its botanicals line, a favorite among stressed-out teens and adults, proved the point. When Target moved these sets from the toy aisle to a Valentine’s Day activation at the front of the store, engagement spiked. It wasn't about placement, it was about context.

Retail Media That Feels Like Entertainment

Target’s Roundel team shared how they’re leaning into retail as a canvas for brand storytelling blending physical and digital to drive both foot traffic and full-funnel impact.

A TikTok-first “Scary Sundae” campaign with Unilever brands like Ben & Jerry’s and Breyers offered a clear example: community-driven, creator-led, and conversion-enabled. It didn’t just push ice cream. It created a moment people wanted to engage with and replicate.

This approach blurs the line between media and experience. As one speaker noted: “It’s not just about seeing the product. It’s about seeing yourself in the moment.”

Full-Funnel Means Every Touchpoint Talks to the Next

Gone are the days when national media, shopper marketing, and retail activations ran on separate tracks. Both Unilever and Lego are moving toward audience-first orchestration where teams are organized around shopper segments, not product lines, and every activation feeds the next.

That means investing in:

• Shared data models

• Sequential storytelling (especially for video and CTV)

• Real-time feedback loops across in-store, app, and social

The Lego/Target F1 Duplo campaign which ranged from video to live store activations brought this to life. Preschoolers could build cars, race them in-store, and take home their own mini kits connecting physical play with digital promotion.

Retail Media Is a Platform, Not Just a Placement

The Roundel team emphasized that they’re building retail media infrastructure that enables brands to activate smarter, not just spend more. That includes:

• Data partnerships with Pinterest and Google for signal sharing

• A focus on omnichannel optimization (e.g., 39% lift via The Trade Desk partnership)

• Real-time insights used to inform creative, not just target it

Retail media, in this model, isn’t a channel. It’s the connective tissue unifying audience data, media buying, and creative execution around actual behavior.

Organizational Change Drives Media Maturity

Both Unilever and Lego shared how they’ve restructured around audience-centricity. Unilever collapsed its media and shopper marketing teams to enable faster decision-making and better collaboration. Lego restructured by life stage: preschool, kids, adults to better reflect who their audience is, not just what they sell.

The lesson: to build seamless consumer experiences, brands must first create seamless internal ones. That means centralizing data, aligning incentives, and rethinking how teams plan and measure impact.

Takeaways from the Frontlines

🧠 Retail media isn’t a bolt-on anymore, it’s foundational.
At Target, it now shapes upfront planning and full-funnel creative.

📦 Audience-led org design beats product-led org design.
Know who you're serving then let that drive the work.

🎯 Media should create discovery, not just demand.
It’s not about forcing relevance. It’s about making people care.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with POSSIBLE.

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division