In December, 2025, IAB Ireland announced the launch of Ireland’s first dedicated Retail Media Report, Retail Media Revolution, at its biannual conference, IAB Connect. The report seeks to provide an explainer of the various stakeholders and foundational elements of the whole retail media ecosystem, as well as provide commentary on the state of retail media in Ireland in 2025 and into 2026.
Contributors include John Urch, Head of Clients, dentsu Ireland who suggests that Irish retailers need to work on their data capabilities to make the most of the opportunity: “Retailers are sitting over all of that wealth of brilliant data… but again, it’s all in different places and many retailers have not made sense of it yet.”
Core’s Head of Programmatic, David Mulligan, reveals in the report that financing retail media is also an issue: “Everyone’s saying it, it’s not just us: no one’s clear who owns retail media budgets – between the marketing teams, the trade teams, the shopper marketing teams and the agencies. A lot of the time the marketing teams say ‘that’s a separate team who look after that budget’ – and this is across the globe.”
The report notes that: “while retail media has entered marketers everyday vocabulary, there is still some way to go in Ireland. Many brand advertisers, retailers and agencies are unsure what the role of media is, why it is important and what their role is.”
Report author, Colin Lewis, Director of Retail Media Works, explains that the report comes at a crucial time in Ireland’s developing retail media ecosystem: “While retail media in Ireland is currently in its infancy, this presents a unique opportunity: we can learn from other markets and build a retail media industry that is specifically designed for the realities of the Irish market.”
Maeve O’Meara, Programme Director, IAB Ireland, says: “The report provides a very useful overview of the Retail Media ecosystem, formats, measurement and key players with a specific focus on the Irish market as well as a practical action plan to unlock the RM potential for our market. We look forward to working with our members to deliver this potential in 2026 and beyond.”
