The Digiday Podcast

Episode: Ferrero's Danielle Sporkin breaks down the reality behind retail media’s full-funnel promise
Date: September 16, 2025
Host: Kamika McCoy (Digiday Senior Marketing Reporter)
Guest: Danielle Sporkin, SVP Media & Marketing Services (North America), Ferrero

Episode Overview

This episode explores how Ferrero, known for brands like Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, and Tic Tac, is evolving its retail media strategy in the face of sweeping changes in digital marketing. The conversation, recorded at Digiday’s Retail Media Advertising Strategy Summit, dives into Ferrero’s approach to retail media as a full-funnel channel, the challenges of measurement and attribution, and the experimentation required to drive meaningful business growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Retail Media for Ferrero (18:30–22:43)

• Evolution from E-commerce to Full-Funnel:
  Danielle Sporkin explains that Ferrero began its retail media journey focused on e-commerce and search, aimed at boosting digital shelf presence. Yet as retail media offerings matured, Ferrero broadened its definition and tactics.
• Working Definition:
  “Retail media being any of the offerings that are coming from our retail partners… that could be data, that could be on site, that could be off site, everything that encompasses some sort of retailer partnership.” – Danielle Sporkin (21:38)
• Distinction from E-commerce:
  Retail media is now seen as a channel for both digital and in-store sales, rather than just online transactions.

2. Testing, Learning, and Measurement Challenges (22:43–29:24)

• Moving Up the Funnel:
  Ferrero’s strategy has shifted from strictly lower-funnel activities (search, conversion) to include upper-funnel tactics like display, social, and video, using retail media partner data for broader awareness and brand-building.
• Measurement Hurdles:
  There’s no industry standard—incrementality and ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) are measured differently across platforms.

  “It’s not fair to expect the same ROAS from a homepage takeover or a video asset than you’re gonna get from search… rethinking what the benchmarks look like for these different channels was the first step.” – Danielle Sporkin (23:00)

• Incrementality:
  Ferrero is actively using incrementality measures, but Sporkin notes:
  “Incrementality on Retailer A vs incrementality on Retailer B… they may not be using the exact same methodology. So it’s useful within that retailer but not necessarily something we can blanketly look across.” (24:53)
• Approach to Testing:
  Ferrero combines mass national campaigns with precision targeting informed by retail data, tailoring messaging to demographic or behavioral segments (e.g., lapsed buyers, occasion-based audiences).

3. Balancing Experimentation and Scalability (29:24–34:34)

• Funding Tests:
  The company avoids rigid budget silos, instead emphasizing collaboration across teams and fluid movement of marketing dollars based on goals.

  “We try not to be so linear… We have a lot of collaborative conversations across teams to understand, at the end of the day, we’re all working towards the same goal. We want to drive brand awareness, brand love and sales.” – Danielle Sporkin (29:34)

• Engagement with Smaller Retailers:
  The scale and capability of different retail partners affect Ferrero’s willingness to test new tactics. Larger, more mature retailers might offer advanced solutions, but Ferrero strives for inclusivity across its retail portfolio.

4. Measurement, Optimization, and Category-Specific Tactics (31:22–34:18)

• Seasonal vs. Evergreen Approaches:
  With products spanning many categories, Ferrero uses both seasonally focused “tentpole” campaigns and always-on activities (like search) to continuously optimize and learn.
• Success Signals:
  Immediate ROAS is the baseline, but sales lift, brand lift, and other studies are critical as Ferrero experiments further up the funnel.

5. Organizational Structure and Team Integration (34:18–36:34)

• Interdepartmental Collaboration:
  Retail media’s ownership stretches across brand, trade, shopper, and e-commerce teams. Sporkin emphasizes that there’s no single “right answer” about where it belongs—what matters is alignment toward shared business objectives.
• Retail Media as ‘Glue’:
  “Retail media becomes a bit of the glue that connects some of it all together.” – Danielle Sporkin (36:34)

6. Is Retail Media Truly Full-Funnel? (36:34–38:36)

• Progress Being Made:
  Ferrero sees retail media networks actively expanding their capabilities into brand-building and upper-funnel domains, but limitations around overlap and scale remain.

  “The challenge we continue to have… as we start to add more and more retailers to a retail media mix, are we just reaching the same people over and over?… There’s always going to be a place for national media. We use retail media to supplement that, to communicate to potentially different people in a slightly different way.” – Danielle Sporkin (36:42)

• Fluid Budgets:
  Brand and national funds are increasingly being used for retail media, particularly where retailer data can enhance broader campaigns.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Industry Definitions:
  “If I pulled the room and asked you how you define retail media, we would probably get no less than 10 different definitions.” – Danielle Sporkin (21:38)

• On Testing:
  “It’s not an either or, it’s an and to bring these things together and do it in a smart way, that one plus one equals three. Little cliche, but it works in this instance.” – Danielle Sporkin (28:09)

• On Failures & Learning:
  “You learn something no matter what, whether it was successful or unsuccessful. That gives you information that you can use for the future.” – Danielle Sporkin (28:46)

• On Collaboration:
  “It’s really about how all of our teams are working together… retail media becomes a bit of the glue that connects some of it all together.” – Danielle Sporkin (36:34)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:10–08:13: Industry news - pharma ad regulations, streaming mergers, Amazon-Netflix ad partnership, and FTC probes (host chat)
• 18:30: Danielle Sporkin introduction and Ferrero portfolio overview
• 19:53: Evolution and definition of retail media at Ferrero
• 22:43: Measurement, attribution, and the challenges of incrementality
• 26:09: Importance of testing and learning, precision targeting, experiments
• 29:34: Budgeting, fluidity, and funding experimentation
• 31:37: Measurement benchmarks, optimization, and success signals
• 34:34: Organizational structure and inter-team collaboration
• 36:34: The full-funnel promise—is retail media there yet?
• 38:05: National and brand marketing budget integration with retail media

Conclusion

This episode offers a grounded, transparent look behind the full-funnel promise of retail media from a major consumer brand’s perspective. Ferrero is on an ongoing journey—testing, collaborating, and iterating—while contending with imprecision in industry standards and the rapid expansion of retail media offerings. Sporkin’s insights are particularly valuable for marketing leaders navigating the blurred lines between e-commerce, traditional retail, and new opportunities in retail media.