Retailers spent a decade building online media businesses and, in the process, left the store itself underdeveloped as a media asset. That's changing fast, and budget owners on every side of the table feel the pressure. Retailers worry about competitors leapfrogging them for share of wallet. Agencies need credible in-store investment options to keep their advisory edge with brand clients. Brand teams face leadership asking where in-store dollars go and what they return.

This roundtable tackles the question underneath all of that: which budgets should fund in-store, and by what standard should it be judged? In-store audio and other emerging formats don't replace online retail media — they complement it, often doing brand-building work that online performance channels can't. That distinction matters for measurement. Holding in-store to a purely online-style attribution model may undersell what it does well, particularly when a $4 bag of chips and a $200 pair of running shoes call for entirely different creative, placement, and success metrics.

Expect a brisk discussion of how retailers, brands, and agencies in the room are solving for budget ownership, endemic versus non-endemic dollars, and the metrics that move category share rather than just IROAS.