Travel retail media doesn't create supplier relationships. It strengthens the ones you already have

Most OTAs and tour operators approach travel retail media as something to build, a new department, a new sales motion, a new tech stack. This approach is completely understandable but it's also the reason so many retail media efforts stall before they properly start.

The businesses that make the fastest progress tend to start somewhere different. They're not building something new. They're formalising something that already exists: supplier co-marketing deals, sponsored listings and tourism board partnerships, all managed independently, all operating informally and all invisible to the rest of the organisation as a single commercial opportunity.

Retail media isn't something OTAs and travel retailers add to the booking journey. It's something they uncover within it. The opportunity already exists; success comes from giving it the structure, governance and operating model needed to scale.

That reframing changes where the real challenges lie. Despite common assumptions, travel retail media initiatives rarely fail because of technology. More often, they stall because organisations misunderstand what they're actually building.

Here are five misconceptions that regularly hold travel retailers back.

Misconception #1: You're starting from scratch

Most OTAs have the foundations of a retail media business, they just don't recognise it as one.

The planning conversation usually begins as if retail media is a greenfield project, new partners to find, new inventory to create, a market to enter. But most OTAs and tour operators already have dozens of supplier relationships doing an early, unstructured version of this work.

This includes activity such as co-branded email placements, sponsored airline and hotel listings, and tourism board campaigns negotiated deal by deal. The organisation just hasn't recognised it as one connected thing.

Retail media is less about invention than standardisation. It gives existing supplier activity a commercial framework, consistent products, clear pricing, measurable reporting and the ability to scale what already works.

Misconception #2: Retail media is an ad sales function

Hire a media salesperson, build a rate card, start selling banners, and you've built an ad sales operation, not a retail media business. Traditional ad sales competes with the core customer experience.

Retail media enhances it because it's built around relevant supplier partnerships and traveller intent, partnerships where both sides share a mutual goal: exposure and conversion. It sits on top of booking data, on-site intent and supplier relationships that already exist, and compounds their value rather than competing with them for it.

"Organisations that don't think of retail media as simply being a sales team bolted onto the business are more likely to succeed. They think of it as a new lens on relationships they already have, and that changes almost every decision that follows," says Roy Stratford, Director of Retail Media Services at Platform 195.

Misconception #3: The technology comes first

It's tempting to buy the ad server, campaign management platform or reporting dashboard before deciding who owns supplier relationships, how campaigns are approved or what governance looks like. Technology without an operating model doesn't accelerate retail media. It simply automates confusion.

The sequence that works best is the less exciting one, agree ownership, governance and resourcing first, then choose technology that fits the operating model you've defined, not the other way round.

Misconception 4: The goal is more paid placements

Framed the wrong way, retail media becomes a numbers game, filling every sidebar, email footer and confirmation page with paid inventory. That framing optimises for one thing: impressions sold.

The organisations getting this right start from a different question, what is the supplier trying to achieve? And does the traveller in front of us right now match that? A tourism board wants the right traveller discovering a destination at the point they're deciding where to go. A hotel group wants relevant travellers seeing their property when they're comparing options, not a generic banner shown to everyone.

Retail media works when it uses an OTA's reach and audience intent to put the right message in front of the right traveller at the right moment, an outcome that serves the supplier's goals and the traveller's experience at the same time.

The most successful media and partnerships teams take a consultative approach to understanding the common goals of their partners, and this leads to longer-term, repeatable campaigns with greater outcomes.

That's a very different retail media business from one focused simply on filling ad inventory. One chases volume. The other creates relevance and measurable value for partners. It's relevance that keeps partners investing over the long term.

Misconception 5: Success is measured in campaign metrics

Impressions, click-through rates and campaign-level reporting are easy to produce and easy to misread as proof of value. Ultimately, suppliers renew investment because they can see commercial impact. They want evidence that campaigns influenced bookings, revenue or customer acquisition, not simply that an advert was served.

A retail media business that reports beautifully on campaigns but can't answer that question is optimising the wrong scoreboard.

"To maintain partner budgets year after year, you need more than nice looking dashboards. You need to clearly demonstrate the commercial value of the partnership and the return from the investment," adds Roy.

Building on what already exists

According to Roy, the organisations making the biggest progress in retail media aren't starting with technology or advertising. They're starting with the supplier relationships, commercial agreements and audience value they already own, then building the operating model needed to scale them.

A travel retail media network doesn't create those relationships. It gives them the structure, governance and measurement needed to grow in a way that works for both sides of the partnership.

For travel retailers considering a retail media network, that's often the best place to start, understanding what already exists before investing in what comes next.

If you're exploring what a travel retail media network could look like for your business, we'd be happy to help you shape the right operating model and identify where that opportunity already sits within it.

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