How Retail Marketers Are Preparing for a High-Stakes Summer: Q&A With Caroline Ballard from Profitero+

The 2025 summer shopping season isn’t business as usual. With tariffs a constant concern and inflation lingering, this year’s big summer shopping events will likely play out in a very different economic environment. Advertisers must make the perfect choices as they refine their summer shopping event strategies. 

The consumer disconnect between deal-driven interest and spending hesitation is the challenge facing retail media teams right now. Shoppers are showing up with intent, but not without friction. At the same time, consumers are worried that tariffs could drive prices even higher, pushing brands to rethink their pricing, promotions, and how to defend their share-of-voice when budgets are under pressure.

Retail media remains one of the most flexible tools marketers have — but only if it’s paired with fast, granular insights and the ability to act in real time to both retail operational signals and media performance signals. To understand how marketers are navigating this shifting landscape, we turned to an expert working directly with the teams in the thick of it.

Expert Insight: Caroline Ballard on Staying Sharp When Budgets Tighten

Caroline Ballard is Vice President of Commerce Media at Profitero+, where she leads Shelf Intelligent Media — a solution that turns digital shelf data into actionable signals for media performance. A veteran of performance strategy roles at Starcom and iProspect, Caroline brings deep hands-on experience with the technologies and tactics that move the needle across search, display, and retail media.

Today, she shares what she’s hearing from marketers right now, why reacting too quickly can backfire, and how to make smarter budget decisions when every dollar has to work harder. From tariff uncertainty to product-level execution, Caroline offers a practical view into what it really takes to stay competitive when consumer confidence is wobbling.

What are you hearing from retail marketers about the impact of tariffs and economic uncertainty on their strategies as we approach major shopping events, such as Amazon Prime Day and Target Circle Week, among others?

Tariffs are coming from multiple angles right now, and that’s what’s making them especially hard to plan around. Some brands are getting hit on the raw materials side — the cost of ingredients or packaging going up. Others are importing finished goods, so the product itself becomes more expensive before it even hits the warehouse. And some are being hit from both sides. Neither option is great, and both put added strain on marketing budgets heading into big shopping events.

That price pressure has to go somewhere: absorb it and cut into your margin, or pass it along to shoppers and potentially lose volume to cheaper alternatives. That forces marketing teams to rethink how they’re allocating every dollar. We’re seeing more brands scenario-plan their spend, not just in terms of media mix, but also in terms of how they protect share-of-voice or shelf position. Some are shifting brand dollars into retail media where they can drive conversion more directly. Others are revisiting content health across their product detail pages to make sure they’re not leaving performance on the table. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but most teams are building “inflation mitigation” plans heading into Prime Day and beyond.

What’s important is that brands don’t overcorrect in the wrong areas. It can be tempting to pull back on tools or platforms when you’re under pressure, but in many cases, those tools are what make your media work harder. The goal right now isn’t just to spend less — it’s to spend smarter. That means leaning on integrated data, automation, and smarter optimization to keep media efficient and responsive as conditions shift.

Ideally, these retail insights are integrated and connected to your media activation platforms to quickly take action on these signals.

In a recent Skai interview, Jacob Snelson, The Bluebird Group’s CMO, mentioned a proactive, data-driven approach to staying ahead of market shifts. With rising pressures, how are marketers thinking about where and how to cut costs if asked?

Jacob’s right. Staying ahead of shifts means being data-driven about everything, including budget decisions. It’s smart and necessary for brands to reassess their budgets right now, but it has to be done with care. A lot of teams are feeling the pressure to cut, but not all cuts are created equal. 

What we’re encouraging is a more thoughtful approach: take stock of what’s actually working before you start making blanket reductions. That means understanding not just what you’re spending, but what return you’re getting, especially from the tools and platforms that support media execution. When used right, some of those investments are actually helping teams spend more efficiently, not less efficiently.

The key is distinguishing between “working media” and “working tech.” If you’re paying for a platform that gives you automation, analytics, or insights that your team can’t get elsewhere — and especially if it’s enabling campaign decisions that save time or improve ROI — that tool might be doing more heavy lifting than it gets credit for. We’ve seen brands reframe these tools as value generators, not just cost centers. It’s also where you unlock more leverage from lean teams: when automation handles routine tasks, marketers can stay focused on strategy and analysis instead of constantly reacting.

There’s no silver bullet, but cutting without analysis is where brands get into trouble. With the right checks in place, brands can reprioritize confidently, consolidating where it makes sense, pausing what’s duplicative, and doubling down where the return is clear. 

It’s not just about protecting performance in the short term. It’s about keeping teams in a position to act on opportunities as they come up, which is especially important during fast-moving retail periods.

What specific insights can retailers gain from data-driven approaches, like competitive strategy, pricing changes, stock levels, and promotions that help them adjust strategies for key events such as this summer’s big shopping days?

What we’re seeing is that data isn’t just about hindsight anymore — it’s about shaping daily decisions. Especially in moments like Prime Day or Target Circle Week, the most successful teams are treating retail media more like a stock market and less like a set-it-and-forget-it campaign. 

That means reacting to real-time shifts like price drops, competitor out-of-stocks, and share of shelf changes, not just quarterly trends. And it’s happening across the board, from CPG to beauty to consumer electronics. Every brand has a slightly different set of signals it cares about, but the shared goal is agility.

Now, everyone talks about a “data-driven approach”, but what does that really mean? It sounds promising, but what specific tactics are being implemented using these insights? Here are a few real-world examples I’ve seen of how brands are using digital shelf signals specifically to make smarter moves in retail media:

• Non-brand bidding with Relative Price signal: Brands are tying bid and budget rules to daily Relative Price signals via Profitero+ to drive efficiency on non-brand keywords — bidding more when they’re priced competitively and scaling back when they’re not.
• Competitor conquesting using Availability signals: Some brands monitor specific competitors or private labels for out-of-stock events, then increase budgets to extend campaign duration and capture lost demand.
• Defending branded terms with Badge signal: Brands prioritize SKUs with high-converting badges (like Amazon’s Choice or Best Seller) and allocate more budget to defend those placements during peak periods when competitors are more aggressive.

What makes this truly work is the inclusion of advanced automation. When you’re running large portfolios, manual adjustments just aren’t scalable. But when campaign performance is directly tied to daily digital shelf conditions, brands can adapt with much more precision. That means fewer wasted dollars, more timely optimizations, and ultimately, a stronger chance of winning in key moments.

If you can’t connect your insights to campaign optimization via automation, you’ll never get the full potential out of your data investments.

How are Skai customers using the Profitero+ integration, particularly Shelf Intelligent Media, to stay agile and respond to market changes during critical retail periods like the summer shopping season?

For many of our customers, agility isn’t just a buzzword. Consumer behavior shifts quickly, competitor availability changes daily, and campaign performance needs to keep up with both. That’s where Skai’s integration with Profitero+ really becomes a force multiplier. Shelf Intelligent Media brings daily digital shelf signals via Profitero+ directly into the Skai platform, giving media teams the ability to take action in real time — and at scale. Without that connection, many of the bid and budget optimizations we’re running today wouldn’t be feasible, especially across large portfolios.

We’re seeing customers use this integration to execute hundreds, sometimes thousands, of daily changes to bids and budgets driven by dynamic signals like price, availability, content health, and badge status. Instead of waiting for a report or manually checking product pages, teams are reacting instantly to changes in the market. That means faster pivots when a competitor goes out of stock, smarter bidding when a product earns a badge or gains organic momentum, and better efficiency when prices shift relative to the category. 

These aren’t just tweaks, they’re material changes that can unlock real performance during high-pressure moments.

One standout example: Haleon Italy increased efficiency of their Vitamins & Supplements strategy on Amazon by capitalizing on days where their competitors were out of stock. Multicentrum saw a 24% ROAS lift as a result. Consumers’ shopping habits in this category have a higher propensity to switch brands based on what’s available, and what’s price advantageous – two strategies we can solve for with Digital Shelf signals & automation.

What makes it work is how seamlessly the intelligence flows into campaign management. The integration bridges planning and execution in a way that removes guesswork. It allows lean teams to operate like much larger ones — using automation, real-time data, and clear signals to guide spend where it matters most. And during moments like Prime Day or Deal Days, when the stakes are high and the window to win is narrow, that speed and precision can make all the difference.

Beyond the insights from data, how does Shelf Intelligent Media offer a broader solution to help marketers optimize their strategies throughout the year, not just during peak retail periods?

Shelf Intelligent Media is often seen as a retail media activation tool, but its real value runs deeper. Because it ties campaign strategy directly to product-level conditions like pricing, availability, and content health, it becomes a key input for planning, not just execution. Marketers can use these signals to track how shifts on the digital shelf correlate with performance, identify what’s working, and course-correct before issues escalate. That kind of feedback loop helps build smarter campaigns, whether it’s a major tentpole or an always-on program.

A lot of teams are also using shelf intelligence data to collaborate more effectively across functions. Signals like product ratings, review counts, and image completeness aren’t just performance indicators. They help explain why something is converting or not. When those signals are monitored consistently, they can flag issues early or highlight which SKUs are worth pushing harder. Some teams use this data to prioritize spend on products with strong organic momentum, while others use it to surface content or pricing gaps that need addressing before a campaign ever launches.

What’s powerful is how this information helps brands stay ahead of change, not just respond to it. We know the shelf is never static as price, availability, and competitor behavior can shift daily. Shelf Intelligent Media gives marketers a way to keep pace without having to manually scan every signal or guess at what’s driving results. It’s not just a lever for peak periods — it’s a strategic layer that makes campaigns more responsive, more informed, and ultimately, more effective all year long.

Conclusion: High Intent, Low Certainty—Why Smarter Execution Matters Now

This year’s summer events won’t just be big—they’ll be high-pressure. Consumers have historically been all for the summer deals, but many say inflation is influencing their willingness to spend, and tariff fears are nearly as widespread as pricing concerns. That means this season won’t go to the biggest spender. It’ll go to the most prepared.

Caroline’s point is key: visibility, agility, and shelf awareness are no longer nice-to-haves. They’re the baseline for success. The brands that win won’t be the ones who play it safe or the ones who panic. They’ll be the ones who planned for complexity, stayed close to performance signals, and adjusted confidently when the window to act was short. 

For more information about Skai’s commerce media solutions or our integration with Profitero+ powerful dataset, please set up a brief, tailored demo with our team. To learn more, visit the Profitero+ website today.