#BizTrends 2025: 99c’s Andrew Brand - Retail advertising: The new frontier

Source: © 99c 99c Andrew Brand is the Group CEO of 99c says marketing in 2025 and beyond will by anything but business as usual

Retail Media Networks: Our new best friends

First up, let's talk about the elephant in the room – or rather, our clients’ cash cow in the store.

Retail Media Networks (RMNs) are set to become our industry's new golden child.

By the end of this year, it’s predicted RMN global spend will reach $160bn.

That’s well over R2tr – it’s not just a trend it's a seismic shift in how the world approaches retail advertising.

(If, like me, your understanding of trillions is less than perfect, global RMN spend for this year will roughly be the equivalent of 10% of the total market cap of the JSE.)

While RMNs are in their infancy in South Africa, they are poised to explode and for local agencies, this will become a whole new playground.

We're no longer just creating ads; we're orchestrating entire ecosystems of consumer engagement.

Imagine crafting campaigns that seamlessly integrate with a retailer's app, website, and in-store experience.

It's like being handed the keys to the kingdom – a kingdom where every shopping cart is a potential goldmine of data.

But here's the kicker: with great power comes great responsibility (and potential for unfortunate mishaps).

Our challenge will be to navigate this new terrain without appearing like creepy stalkers.

"No, Mrs Adams, we don't actually know about your secret ice cream stash. That targeted ad for gym memberships was just a coincidence, we swear!"

AI: The New Supplementary Creative Director (SCD)

There is concern that AI is going to replace creative departments.

I disagree.

AI isn't here to steal jobs; it's here to make them infinitely more interesting (and occasionally more bizarre).

Picture this: It's 3 am and our AI assistant has just generated 1,000 variations of a cereal ad, each tailored to a different consumer segment.
Most of those variations will be dull, predictable and insipid.

But among those 1,000 ideas may lie the genesis of our next great campaign that we would never have thought of over our fourth cup of coffee.

Our role as agencies is to harness AI power, combining it with what agencies were designed for: human creativity and strategic thinking.

We're not just creating ads anymore; we're curating and refining AI-influenced concepts, adding our human touch, cultural understanding, and linguistic nuance that turns an interesting angle into a great idea.

Agencies should no longer spend countless hours crafting visuals and designs to sell ideas when AI provides so many efficient output-oriented solutions.

Our efforts need to be firmly focused on crafting the important part: compelling, entertaining, and enthralling ideas that are sticky.

Utilising AI correctly is like having a brainstorming session with the world's most caffeinated intern – who also happens to be a supercomputer.

The in-store experience: Back to the future

When online shopping became mainstream globally, many predicted the demise of brick-and-mortar.

Well, surprise! Physical stores are making a comeback, and they're bringing more tech than a Silicon Valley convention.

In a South African context, due to our market’s own unique properties, geography and economics, the physical store was never in danger of extinction.

However, within our hybrid economy, while the utilitarian store remains the cornerstone of communities, urban shoppers are demanding more to entice them away from their shopping app and into the malls.

As agencies, our job is about to get a whole lot more... physical.

We're not just designing print ads, radio commercials and TV spots anymore.

We need to create immersive, multi-sensory experiences that blur the line between advertising and entertainment.

Imagine crafting a campaign where the store itself is the medium.

Digital signage that changes based on who's looking at it.

AR displays that let customers virtually try on an entire wardrobe in seconds.

Smart mirrors that double as personal stylists.

And opportunities don’t just exist for premium brands.

Our country’s education, literacy and online accessibility challenges create in-store opportunities for tech to be the “not so silent” salesman where augmented reality (AR) solutions can be developed for use in physical stores to enhance the presentation and saliency of product information to assist consumers in understanding features and benefits in their own language.

Our challenge? Making sure all this tech actually enhances the shopping experience, strengthens customer relationships, and drives sales.

Social commerce: Where everybody knows your name (And your shopping list)

If you thought social media was just for arguing with strangers and sharing cat memes, think again.

Social commerce is set to explode, and it's our responsibility to make sure our clients are riding that rocket.

It’s not about singular, isolated ads anymore.

It’s about crafting entire shopping experiences within social platforms. Like building a boutique inside a party where everyone's invited.

The key here is authenticity.

Users smell forced, sales-driven posts from miles away.

Our responsibility is to create content that's so seamlessly integrated into the social experience that users don't even realize they're being marketed to until they've already hit "buy now."

The privacy tightrope: Walking the line

As users of social platforms and ad practitioners who make use of them for selling products and services, we are uniquely placed when it comes to rationalising the “personalisation dilemma”.

Welcome to the greatest balancing act of our careers.

Our challenge as agencies is to create hyper-personalised experiences without crossing the line into unwelcome territory.

It's like trying to surprise someone with the perfect gift without letting them know you've been rummaging through their sock drawer.

The solution? Transparency, creativity, and a healthy dose of humour.

We need to be upfront about data usage and firmly allow our customers to control their experience.

Conclusion: Embrace the chaos

As we rapidly immerse ourselves in 2025, our role in retail advertising is evolving quicker than fashion trends on TikTok.

We're no longer just ad creators; we're experienced architects, data whisperers, and tech-savvy storytellers all rolled into one.

The world of retail advertising is a wild, wonderful, and occasionally weird place.

And for those of us willing to embrace the chaos, the coming opportunities are endless.

After all, in a world where a store shelf can talk back and your phone knows your shopping list better than you do, who says retail advertising can't be the most exciting show in town?