Retail media is now the fastest-growing digital advertising channel in Latin America. EMARKETER’s latest forecast expects sustained double-digit gains through 2029, with Mexico and Brazil accounting for around 80% of regional spending. Nearly half of the region’s retail media networks launched in 2024, more than in the entire period from 2017 to 2023. The appeal is easy to understand: retailers combine shopper attention, transactional signals, and a direct connection to commerce outcomes.
Here is what concerns me: the money is arriving faster than the proof.
The brands paying for that growth keep asking the same question: What did the investment actually change? Inconsistent measurement standards remain a constraint across Latin America. Mexico’s Valor Total Media Study now includes retail media within digital investment — useful progress in sizing the market — but not yet a common…
