Hammer time: All eyes on Bunnings as retail media era begins
Bunnings’ long anticipated foray into the booming Australian retail media market with the launch of Hammer Media has sparked fresh conversations about competition, innovation, and the potential reshaping of marketing budgets.
Retail media, forecast to reach approximately $2.8bn in Australia by 2027, is seeing explosive growth, beyond legacy players Woolworths’ Cartology and Coles’ 360, underscored by several recent launches including Priceline Pharmacy, Petbarn, and Australia Post.
The big question the Australian sector now faces is: how many retail media networks can the market sustainably support?
God help us with these market monopolies.
Is it just me or is anyone else concerned that the explosion of retail media ‘opportunities’ is effectively defunding mainstream / legacy media and the journalists they employ?
At this rate we’ll be left with the ABC and the internet.
….and that’s a bad thing?
Imagine a world where agencies have zero power and the 24yr old “Senior Account Directors” actually have to think!
Retail media has the chance to exist because the ‘legacy’ media (and many of their journos) have managed to tarnish their legacies so much in recent years. Customers trust Bunnings et al far more than they trust the Herald Sun – why advertise with the latter instead of the former? The truly valuable, needle-moving mainstream media will survive as part of the channel mix.