How CPG Product Suppliers Can Put FMI’s Retail Media Framework to Work

The FMI U.S. Retail Media Measurement Standards and Glossary gives CPG product suppliers a common framework to ask better questions, evaluate performance and compare results with more confidence.

By: Mark Baum, Chief Collaboration Officer & Senior Vice President, Industry Relations, FMI

For many CPG brands, retail media has often felt like a one-way conversation. The network sets the dashboard, defines the metric and presents the renewal. FMI’s new U.S. Retail Media Measurement Standards and Glossary, developed with NIQ and ThinkBlue, gives suppliers something they have needed for some time as retail media networks have evolved: a common standard for asking better questions and comparing results with more confidence.

Our last two posts addressed why the industry needed this reset and how stakeholders (i.e., sales, marketing and financial execs) within the retail and wholesale sectors should read the numbers. Suppliers are an integral leg of that stool, and the stakes are just as high. CPG companies now invest close to 40% of their advertising budgets in retail media, often across four or more networks, each with its own definitions of reach, attribution and lift. Without shared definitions, suppliers have had no consistent way to compare one network’s claim against another’s—or to know which investments are truly driving growth.

Here are four practical ways CPG product suppliers can put the framework into action.

Ask for the Math, Not Just the Dashboard

A Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) number without an incrementality test is still incomplete. Before signing a renewal, ask the network to show its performance metrics: What was the control group? What was the confidence range? Was the lift net of sales something that would have happened anyway? The framework gives suppliers a common language for making those questions part of normal business conversation.

Same Item First, Then Expand

The framework’s default measure counts only sales of the exact item advertised. Same-brand and cross-category lift can be reported, too, but the assumptions should be disclosed separately. If a network provides one blended number, ask them to break it apart so your team can see what the campaign influenced.

Watch for "Profit Pending"

The framework requires iROI calculations to use finance-approved margin and fee data. If that data is not ready, results carry the label “Certified iROAS, Profit Pending.” Suppliers should treat that label as a flag, not a footnote. Before budgeting against the result, ask what (data) is missing, when it will be finalized and whether the conclusion may change once the profit view is complete.

Report Online and In-Store Separately

A campaign that performs well online can mask a flat in-store result, or the reverse. The framework calls for online and in-store performance to be reported separately before they are rolled into one number. Suppliers negotiating against a blended figure should ask for the split so they can understand where the campaign worked, where it did not and what should change going forward.

The framework is only as effective as the users’ commitment to implement. For CPG product suppliers, that means bringing the standards into planning meetings, renewal conversations and post-campaign reviews. Download the report, read it with your retail media, sales and finance teams, and tell us where it holds up—and where it needs to keep evolving—as we continue to build a retail media standard the entire food industry can trust.

Download U.S. Retail Media Measurement Standards and Glossary