Snack Brands Are Hungry for Retail Media

Summary

Snack Foods led retail media's Food category in 1H 2026, capturing nearly one-third of all impressions and outpacing candy, condiments, and prepared meals. The competitive landscape featured a mix of legacy CPGs (Frito-Lay, Oreo) and emerging wellness brands (David Protein, Khloud), with rankings shifting throughout the half due to major campaigns. Notably, Target's January OTT wellness push propelled David Protein to #1, while Frito-Lay rode Amazon's June Prime Day OnSite Display campaign to overtake rivals.

Retailer partnerships varied: most brands depended on one primary RMN but built lighter presences elsewhere. Frito-Lay won Kroger via a FIFA World Cup tie-in; Clif chose Amazon but used OffSite Display with lifestyle creative to emphasize branding over CTAs; and Oreo gained top SOV at Sam's Club through a Jason Sudeikis 'Come Join Us' feature.

Channel strategies differed sharply. Amazon (1.3B) and Walmart (710M) produced the largest impression volumes, both relying heavily on OnSite Display, while most other RMNs favored OffSite. Instacart saw 60% of impressions on OTT, led by Crunchmaster's 'Instacart Stories,' and Walmart generated a category-high 13% Snapchat share via Khloud's youthful Protein Popcorn ads.

Actionable takeaways: Ad ops teams should monitor retailer-specific campaign dynamics, since rankings can spike unexpectedly. They must align creative and channel mix with each RMN's strengths—OnSite for Amazon/Walmart, OTT for Instacart, Snapchat for youth-focused at Walmart. Flexible strategies that adapt to campaign-driven momentum, and balancing a primary partner with secondary presence, are essential. Competitive benchmarking across RMNs can reveal white space and optimize SOV in this fast-moving category.

Analyst Note

What's notable here is how the snack food category is exposing the structural diversity within retail media. The fact that Amazon and Walmart lean into OnSite Display while other RMNs rely on OffSite channels underscores that 'retail media' is not a single inventory bucket — it’s a patchwork of distinct ad surfaces with different creative requirements. For a brand, winning on Instacart means mastering OTT storytelling, while at Walmart the same product needs Snapchat-friendly creative.

The key implication for monetization and UA teams is that retail media is becoming less about buying the biggest impressions and more about calibrating creative and measurement to each retailer’s channel mix. Also worth watching: the leadership volatility among snack advertisers. With campaigns rotating across retailers and sinking into sports or wellness tie-ins, retail media is behaving more like a performance-driven, event-driven channel than a stable branding tier.

That underscores the operational complexity for ad ops teams, as pacing, format, and audience strategy must stay responsive to retailer deal cycles.