Social platforms like Reddit and Pinterest are striking more retail media partnerships
More digital platforms are teaming up with retail players to widen their advertising reach.
This week, CVS Media Exchange and Reddit, and Instacart and Pinterest, respectively, announced they are teaming up. CVS Media Exchange, the retail media arm of the drugstore chain, announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that it is joining forces with Reddit on a data clean room collaboration that will allow advertisers to target CVS shoppers on Reddit based on data and insights from the two companies. Meanwhile, Instacart is collaborating with Pinterest to tie the social platform’s ads to campaigns on Instacart Marketplace. These new types of partnerships come as no surprise, as nearly every retailer has set out to build an ad network over the past few years.
According to the Instacart announcement, the initial phase of the partnership will allow select brands advertising on Pinterest to promote their products to Instacart’s first-party audience segments. “A second phase is expected to introduce closed-loop measurement, which would tie Pinterest ads to actual product sales across the Instacart Marketplace of over 1,800 retailers and help prove campaign impact with real purchase data,” continued the release.
Reddit, meanwhile, is trying to help brands target more users in its communities. Reddit boasts 108 million daily active users, and in the first quarter of 2025, the company’s growing ad revenue hit $358.6 million, up 61% year-over-year. Meanwhile, CVS currently has 90 million ExtraCare loyalty members in its fold. The retailer’s retail media division, CVS Media Exchange (CMX), continues to expand capabilities, through both its digital channels and in-store displays.
Advertising executives say this new spin on retail media is the next logical step for companies building out ad businesses, such as Instacart and CVS.
Sherry Smith, executive managing director of the Americas at Criteo, told Modern Retail, “The momentum we’re seeing at Cannes is a clear signal that retail media is no longer limited to traditional retail players.” Retail media networks have even increased their presence at industry events, like this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, where Instacart and Doordash Ads have set up pop-ups.
Smith went on to say that the next phase of growth for retail media networks “is being fueled by expansion into adjacent and even unexpected verticals.” Digital platforms and non-endemic partners like Reddit and Pinterest are leaning into these collaborations to harness the power of commerce data as a way to better engage audiences. This allows advertisers to better target prospective shoppers across different formats, Smith explained, including CTV, video, display and sponsored product listings.
Evan Wray, president of social media and influencer marketing provider Later, agreed, adding that digital-first platforms are striking more partnerships with retail media networks “because the lines between browsing, socializing, and buying continue to blur.”
Wray said that it also makes sense since more shoppers are discovering products on social media, comparing them on grocery apps and purchasing without entering a store.
“The Reddit X CVS partnership is a strong match,” Wray said. “Reddit’s community-driven content gives CVS new ways to reach health and wellness audiences in places where people are already discussing prescriptions, routines and self-care.” This gives CVS ad campaigns relevant messaging in the right context.
On the other hand, Wray said, the Instacart and Pinterest deal taps into visual discovery and turns it into actionable conversion. Recipe boards and beauty pins can now lead directly to Instacart carts, he said, which lowers the friction between inspiration and purchase. “For brands, this means more efficient media spend and better alignment between discovery and action,” Wray said.
The data mine that social platforms have also gives retailers and brands better targeting capabilities beyond their own channels.
“Retailers know how to bring suppliers in front of consumers in-store and through their e-commerce platforms, but this is where their jurisdiction ends,” Angus Dowie, global head of sales at retail media ad platform ADvendio, said in an email. So partnerships with social platforms can expand retailers’ digital footprint, Dowie said, “and move up the funnel in order to drive more comprehensive supplier outcomes.”
Moreover, collaborative retail media may also be the answer to the changing ad tech landscape. Smith said strategic partnerships allow companies to combine their audience scale, first-party data and measurement infrastructure, which are also built for privacy-forward and AI-enabled advertising in the future.
All in all, Wray said these types of partnerships work because each platform brings its own distinct strengths. The social media players bring user scale, targeting and engagement, while retail networks offer purchase intent and first-party data. “Together, they give advertisers a more direct line to conversion with greater visibility across the funnel,” Wray said.