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Media budgets are shifting from awareness-heavy digital channels toward environments that combine first-party data, real proximity to purchase, and measurable outcomes. Retail media has already proven the model online. The next frontier—and the real scale opportunity—is omnichannel commerce media, where physical environments, digital touchpoints, and data-driven activation come together.
In the Nordics, we are not just observing this shift—we are at the forefront of the commerce media movement, with a particular focus on in-store retail media. The Nordic markets, and Finland in particular, have been building extensive in-store media networks for years, while in other regions the scaling phase is only just beginning.
Together, ReTALE (Aller Media Nordic’s commerce media venture), Doohlabs (retail media platform), and Craneworks (a pioneer in building in-store media networks) are actively building an open commerce media network designed for scale—first across the Nordics, and next across Europe.
The Nordics are a natural launchpad for commerce media innovation. Retail environments are digitally mature, physical store networks are dense and commercially relevant, and advertisers are already comfortable with data-driven media buying.
More importantly, the region has something Europe as a whole often lacks: a natural willingness to collaborate across companies and categories. Instead of isolated, retailer-by-retailer solutions, the Nordic market allows network thinking—shared standards, shared learnings, and faster adoption.
This is exactly where ReTALE’s ambition meets Doohlabs’ technology and Craneworks’ in-store execution capabilities. Together, we are not building just “a commerce media solution,” but an operating model that can be replicated in markets to come.
One of the biggest structural problems in building commerce media is fragmentation. Every operator builds its own stack, its own inventory logic, and its own measurement story. That slows down advertisers—and limits growth.
Our joint approach is intentionally different and agile. The open network welcomes all media owners to join in and start benefiting from their valuable audiences. Our collaboration creates an operating model and a platform that makes joining in easy and straightforward.
Open retail media also creates entirely new opportunities for advertisers to reach high-interest audiences without requiring their products to be sold on the shelves where the media appears, as is typically the case in traditional retail media. For example, an insurance company may want to reach consumers who travel frequently or own pets. Our aim is to unlock a significant number of new opportunities for these non-endemic advertisers.
ReTALE focuses on commercialisation, packaging, and go-to-market, helping media owners to turn real customer encounters into credible media products. Doohlabs provides the commerce media platform, enabling targeting, activation, and measurement based on first-party data. Craneworks ensures the physical infrastructure and scalability of in-store networks.
The result is an open model that lowers the barrier for media owners to enter commerce media—and makes buying easier for brands and agencies.
We started together in Finland about a year ago and results speak for themselves. In that time, ReTALE with our close co-operation has rapidly built a multi-partner commerce media network that is already delivering real commercial value to operators and advertisers alike. Major media owners like discount retailer Tokmanni and many others across various fields on consumer-facing businesses have already joined the network. These deployments are not isolated cases; they demonstrate a scaling model for open retail media that brings advertisers closer to consumers at key moments in the purchase journey, and they lay a strong foundation for broader Nordics & European expansion.
Real operators, real stores, and real campaigns have already demonstrated that commerce media works beyond the largest global retailers. This matters, because Europe’s growth will not be driven only by a handful of giants. It will be driven by hundreds of mid-sized, audience-rich commerce environments that need a faster path to market.
What truly sets commerce media apart is not just its proximity to purchase, but who owns the media—and where it lives.
In commerce media, media owners come from multiple industries, not only from traditional retail. Each brings different customer relationships, environments, and data points. This diversity is a structural advantage, but it also changes the rules of measurement. When media is owned by companies operating in fundamentally different contexts, performance cannot be measured using one-size-fits-all digital metrics. Measurement has to be designed specifically for commerce media.
In Europe, this is amplified by the central role of the physical store. Unlike in the US—where commerce media has largely developed around e-commerce platforms—European commerce media is deeply rooted in in-store environments. Stores remain the primary point of purchase and the most frequent customer touchpoint across many categories. That makes in-store commerce media not a supporting channel, but a core pillar of the ecosystem.
In-store environments generate unique signals: real-world exposure, dwell time, visit patterns, and contextual relevance. Translating these into scalable, advertiser-ready metrics requires a measurement framework built for physical presence, not retrofitted from online media.
This is why our Nordic approach matters when moving into Europe. We are not scaling a single retail media setup—we are scaling a commerce media framework designed for multi-industry media ownership and in-store-led markets. One that embraces heterogeneous data, respects physical context, and keeps campaigns anchored where European commerce actually happens: close to the customer, inside the store and in digital channels along the customer journey.
Ultimately, the retail media market as a whole benefits from open commerce media networks. As more advertisers come to understand the value of advertising in truly relevant contexts—and the power of first-party data—the market expands overall, creating a win-win for all participants.
Commerce media in Europe is growing fast—but scale will belong to those who can execute, not just promise.
By proving an open, repeatable commerce media model in the Nordics, and by expanding through standardisation, measurability, and network thinking, we are building something designed to travel.
First the Nordics. Then Europe. And not as an experiment—but as an operating system for commerce media.
