Retail media investment is accelerating globally, with 67 percent of CMOs planning to increase spending on retail media networks (RMNs) in 2026. Yet only 53 percent believe today’s RMNs provide adequate measurement and attribution capabilities, highlighting a critical gap in proving true business impact across retailers and markets.
NIQ, a consumer intelligence company, and Unlimitail, a retail media network, have announced a strategic collaboration designed to help brands and retailers unlock a new era of retail media accountability through advanced measurement, consumer insights, interoperable data infrastructure and AI-powered analytics.
This collaboration will combine Unlimitail’s extensive retail media network, which spans 21 countries, 35 retailers, more than 120 retailer websites and over 250 million loyalty cardholders, with NIQ’s industry-leading measurement, analytics and consumer intelligence capabilities. Together, the companies will help advertisers move beyond campaign metrics to understand the true business impact of retail media investments while unlocking deeper consumer and category insights and gaining a consistent view of performance across retailers, markets and channels.
As commerce and media continue to converge, brands are under increasing pressure to connect fragmented data sources, prove return on investment and understand the incremental impact of every marketing dollar. This collaboration gives brands the tools to do just that – grounding every onsite and offsite recommendation in a rigorous analysis of their retail position, and linking media exposure to verified sales outcomes, with one goal: helping marketers understand how campaigns truly influence shopper behaviour and drive growth.
As part of the agreement, Unlimitail will deploy NIQ’s measurement capabilities as a core component of its evolving technology ecosystem, alongside a new data clean room environment and enhanced AdTech infrastructure. Initial deployment will begin with Carrefour operations in France, Spain and Brazil, with pilot programmes expected to launch in mid-2026.
Key Benefits of this Collaboration
- Help measure sales impact by linking media exposure to verified purchases
- Compare performance across markets and retailers to optimise global media investment
- Activate privacy-safe collaboration through clean room environments
- Provide greater transparency and accountability for retail media investments
- Standardise measurement across retailer ecosystems
- Deliver enhanced insights to support future AI-powered commerce and advertising applications
- Generate richer consumer, category and market insights to improve campaign planning and optimisation
“Retail media is becoming one of the most important growth engines for brands and retailers, but its future depends on trust, transparency and measurable business outcomes,” said Emilie Darolles, President, West Europe, NIQ. “As commerce and media continue to converge, brands need a consistent way to understand what is driving performance across markets, retailers and channels. Together with Unlimitail, we’re helping create a more connected measurement ecosystem that enables marketers to move beyond assumptions and confidently demonstrate the impact of their investments.”
This collaboration represents an important step toward breaking down long-standing silos between media and commerce data. Historically, brands have struggled to evaluate campaign effectiveness consistently across retailers, countries and consumer audiences. By harmonising retailer, media and commerce data within a common framework, NIQ and Unlimitail will enable a more complete view of performance and help advertisers make smarter investment decisions.
“Retail media has evolved from an emerging channel into a strategic pillar of modern marketing,” said Alexis Marcombe, Chief Executive Officer, Unlimitail. “Our ambition is to provide brands and retailers with the tools, data and technology they need to unlock greater value from every campaign. By integrating NIQ’s trusted measurement capabilities into our ecosystem, we’re enabling a new level of transparency and performance accountability that will benefit advertisers, retailers and consumers alike.”
The announcement reflects a broader shift underway across the industry as brands seek to unify media, commerce and consumer data into a unified view. Through its global data ecosystem, AI-powered analytics and The Full View of consumer behaviour, NIQ is helping organisations connect insights to outcomes and navigate the next era of commerce.
Representatives from both NIQ and Unlimitail will be available for media interviews during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where retail media and measurement will be key industry themes.
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