6 Retail Media Shifts Building Material Brands Should Be Watching

Retail media used to feel fairly straightforward. Run the ads, support the retailer, drive the sale. That playbook is getting a lot messier.

Today’s customer bounces between contractor forums, retailer sites, creator content, search, social, distributor conversations, and in-store validation before ever making a decision. Meanwhile, marketing teams are being asked to move faster, prove more, and somehow keep every moving piece aligned.

The brands pulling ahead are the ones figuring out how to connect all of it without losing the plot. 

After attending The Home Depot’s Orange Apron Media (OAM) InFronts Summit, one thing stood out clearly to our team. Retail media is evolving quickly, and building material brands are being pushed to rethink how they connect with customers across the entire buying journey.

For building material brands, this matters because contractors, builders, and homeowners are no longer making decisions in one place. Discovery happens across an extensive variety of sources, with customers often hopping back and forth between purchase stages. The path is fragmented, and brands that operate in silos are already falling behind.

What emerges is a very different retail media landscape than the one many manufacturers were built for. Here are the six retail media shifts we see reshaping the category and the implications for brands navigating it today.

#1. Silos Are Quietly Draining Marketing Budgets

For years, most building material brands treated advertising, sales, inventory, and merchandising like separate conversations happening in separate rooms.

Marketing launched campaigns. Sales focused on relationships. Supply chain worried about inventory. Everyone pretty much stayed in their lane.

The problem is the customer does not experience your business that way, so that separation doesn’t really work. 

For example, running Product Listing Ads without knowing whether inventory is available means paying for clicks that cannot convert. Launching campaigns without understanding assortment gaps creates friction for contractors who need products immediately.

Retail media performance is no longer just about impressions or clicks. It is directly connected to broader business health, including inventory readiness, product availability, and channel alignment.

Tools like OAM’s Supplier Analytics Program are pushing the industry toward a more integrated approach where media performance, merchandising, and business operations are connected.

JK Take

Retail media planning can no longer happen independently from operational planning. Before increasing spend, brands should pressure-test inventory readiness, regional availability, and distributor alignment. Otherwise, brands can run the risk of marketing uncovered or amplifying operational weaknesses instead of growth opportunities.

#2. Digital-Only Attribution No Longer Reflects Reality

One topic came up constantly throughout the summit and honestly, it is something this industry has been struggling with for years.

How are we actually measuring retail media success?

Too many brands still evaluate retail media through a digital-only lens, focusing heavily on e-commerce Return on Ad Spend while ignoring what happens in-store.

But building material purchases rarely happen in a perfectly trackable digital path.

OAM shared that for every $1 spent online, an additional $3 is influenced in-store. That shift is especially important in building materials categories where contractors often research digitally but complete purchases in person.

One example discussed was paint. While paint may show relatively low e-commerce conversion rates, it performs extremely well when in-store influence is included in the measurement.

This is forcing brands to rethink how they define success.

Instead of focusing exclusively on digital conversion metrics, many are moving toward broader measurement frameworks tied to larger business objectives, including in-store sales influence, contractor loyalty, and category growth.

JK Take

This shift forces brands to rethink how success gets reported internally. If teams are only optimizing toward trackable e-commerce conversions, they may unintentionally underinvest in the channels influencing larger in-store purchases, contractor relationships, and long-term category growth.

#3. Customers Buy Projects, Not Individual Products

One of the most interesting shifts discussed throughout the summit was how retail media platforms are starting to think more like actual customers do.

People are rarely shopping for one individual product.

Customers are not thinking about isolated SKUs. They are thinking about completing a bathroom renovation, rebuilding a deck, upgrading insulation, or replacing flooring.

Retail media platforms are evolving quickly to support this behaviour. AI-powered recommendation systems now surface related products based on entire project needs rather than a single product search.

OAM shared that moving from isolated product promotion to project-based solutions drove a 63% lift in click-through rate.

For building material brands, this creates a major opportunity.

Brands that position themselves as part of a complete solution instead of a standalone product are more likely to increase basket size, build trust, and stay part of the customer conversation longer.

JK Take

The opportunity here can be even bigger than cross-selling. Project-based thinking creates opportunities to influence customers much earlier in the decision-making process. Brands that can connect products to timelines, installation considerations, complementary solutions, and project outcomes become significantly more useful during the planning stage.

#4. Discovery Happens Long Before the Search Bar

This next evolution feels especially important for building material brands because many companies are still investing heavily at the very bottom of the funnel.

When in reality, many decisions are heavily influenced much earlier during inspiration, research, and peer validation. What we’re seeing is that most customers are forming opinions long before they ever type a product into a search bar.

Customers may first encounter a solution through Pinterest inspiration boards, contractor discussions, creator content, Reddit conversations, or installation videos before they ever reach a retailer’s website.

In fact, at the summit, Pinterest shared that 96% of searches on the platform are unbranded, reinforcing how often customers begin in exploration mode rather than searching for a specific manufacturer or product. For building material brands, that overall shift is becoming harder to ignore. Discovery now happens across a far broader and less predictable ecosystem, and brands that only look at lower-funnel search activity risk entering the conversation too late.

JK Take

Building material brands often overinvest in capture and underinvest in influence. Brands should be asking themselves a harder question: where are customer opinions actually being shaped before retail ever enters the picture? The companies that can identify and show up in those moments will have a much stronger position once purchasing decisions move closer to conversion.

#5. Operational Efficiency Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage

The push for speed came up constantly throughout the summit, mirroring the pressure many brands are also feeling internally.

Everyone wants campaigns launched faster. Creative approved faster. Reporting pulled faster. Adjustments made faster. But simply adding more people to manage campaigns is not a sustainable solution.

Many retail media platforms are now using AI to automate repetitive campaign tasks, streamline activation, and reduce operational delays.

An example shared at the summit was OAM’s Creative Hub, which reduced creative submission forms from 17 down to 1 and shortened campaign activation timelines from weeks to as little as five days.

For marketing teams, this changes where value is created.

JK Take

Efficiency alone is not the goal. The real opportunity for building material brands is reinvesting saved time into higher-value thinking, testing and discovery. As more tactical work becomes automated, strategy, positioning, and customer understanding become even more important differentiators.

#6. Events Are Becoming a Growth Engine

The brands getting the most from retail media are planning further upstream, aligning launches earlier, and using retail events as strategic moments to accelerate demand and customer action.

In line with this, one theme that came up repeatedly was how much retail media strategy is now being built around events and seasonal windows.

And it makes sense in today’s market.

Many discretionary purchases are being delayed as customers wait for the “right time” to move forward with projects. Retail events help create that moment. They generate urgency, increase visibility, and give customers a reason to act now instead of later.

For example, the Home Depot US alone runs approximately 270 promotional event days each year, turning seasonal campaigns, cultural moments, and major shopping periods into high-intent buying opportunities. Think anything from spring clean-up to the Super Bowl. 

For building material brands, this changes how product launches should be approached.

Retail media is becoming less about turning campaigns on once products hit shelves and more about building demand across the full product lifecycle. That includes generating awareness before launch, activating around key retail events, and maintaining visibility after the initial rollout.

JK Take

Many brands still treat retail media as something that begins once a product is available for purchase. The stronger approach is thinking about the broader customer journey much earlier, building familiarity through demand, education, retailer alignment, and event planning well before launch day. By the time customers encounter the promotion or walk into the aisle, the product or need should already feel recognizable, relevant, and worth acting on.

So What Does All of This Mean for Building Material Brands?

Retail media is becoming far more interconnected than many brands realize.

Success increasingly depends on how well brands connect all media (retail and beyond), merchandising, inventory, creative, customer experience, and in-store execution into one coordinated strategy.

For building material brands, the opportunity is significant.

The companies that align their teams, connect their data, and support customers throughout the entire project journey will be far better positioned to grow in an increasingly fragmented buying environment.

And that is where retail media is heading next.