While retailers rush to launch new ad formats and in-store screens, brands have a simpler request: prove that their advertising works. With Circana’s acquisition of Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling business in August and NCSolutions in June, the company is positioning itself as the independent arbiter retail media desperately needs. Leading this charge is Cara Pratt, just 90 days into her role as President of Global Retail and Media, who brings the unique perspective of having built Kroger’s retail media network from the inside.
The Measurement Crisis
Measurement consistently ranks as the top pain point for media buyers across every industry survey, and Pratt doesn’t mince words about why. “There’s a lot of inconsistency in the go-to-market models across retailers with their media practices, which creates a degree of confusion,” she explains. This fragmentation cascades through the entire ecosystem—from planning and buying to data strategies and performance reporting.
The stakes are high. Retail media has ballooned into a $60 billion business, on track to capture one in five advertising dollars. Yet the growth trajectory faces an undoing of its own making. As I’ve previously reported, retail media buyers cite lack of measurement standards as their top challenge. Pratt says that consumer brands who are investing in retail media need to have confidence in every dollar invested. “And you just don’t see it yet,” Pratt says. “You can’t hold on to that share of influence and dollars without being more transparent and more consistent.”
Cara Pratt is President, Retail & Media at Circana.
Circana
Circana’s Strategic Position
The recent acquisitions create what Pratt describes as comprehensive measurement capability across the full marketing funnel. NCSolutions brings campaign-level measurement expertise, Nielsen’s MMM adds sophisticated marketing mix modeling, and Circana’s existing point-of-sale and panel data provides the foundational consumer intelligence. Together, these assets span 26 industries across 18 markets, with visibility into $5.8 trillion in global commerce—$3.3 trillion in North America alone.
“We have a unique ability—I would even go as far as say responsibility—to provide this new degree of transparency and consistency,” Pratt asserts. Unlike retailers who grade their own homework or ad tech companies with vested interests, Circana claims a neutral position. “We’re not buying any media on behalf of any brand today. We’re not influencing that.”
This is not a new drumbeat for Pratt. As I reported in my 2023 profile of Pratt while she was leading Kroger Precision Marketing, she was already pushing for greater transparency in retail media measurement, describing wasteful ad spend as ‘reckless’ and advocating for retailers to build their own tech stacks for better control.
At Circana, the company’s new Liquid Mix platform aims to make measurement accessible to smaller brands. While traditional consultative mix modeling targets brands spending $20 million on marketing and requires teams of 20-30 people, Liquid Mix was built for brands spending $5 million with teams of just 2-5 people, according to a Circana spokesperson. Companies can now scale the product across their entire portfolio, not just flagship brands, with results delivered in hours rather than quarterly or annually.
Bridging Trade and Media
One of retail media’s persistent challenges is the organizational divide between merchant teams and media teams, each operating with different incentives. Pratt sees measurement as the bridge.
“Every retailer gets to make some choices of how they wanna go to market,” Pratt notes diplomatically. But Circana’s role is clear: “help both retailers and brands understand the efficacy of a dollar invested and to support them upstream within that business planning process.”
This becomes particularly crucial as the traditional separation between brand-building and performance marketing continues to blur. “The days of very separate teams that are focused on brand versus performance are starting to mesh together,” Pratt observes, though she acknowledges the transition is challenging given that “a lot of organizations still operate in silos, and they still have very disconnected incentives.”
The Need For Speed
Perhaps the most tangible shift in Circana’s approach is the dramatic acceleration of measurement timelines. Traditional marketing mix modeling has typically been slow to field and refresh—often taking weeks to months to build and then updating on quarterly or biannual cadences, which means insights can arrive long after campaigns have ended. Circana’s Liquid Mix compresses that cycle to minutes, vastly improving how brands can respond to market signals.
“Gone are the days where it’s quarterly or monthly at most,” Pratt explains. This speed unlocks what she calls “in-flight optimization” that extends beyond creative tweaks. Brands can now adjust channel distribution, audience targeting, and budget allocation while campaigns are still running. The timing aligns with a broader industry shift—brands are increasingly demanding flexibility in their media investments, moving away from rigid upfront commitments. “Brands just want to be more flexible. They want to create that space for them to be able to deviate based on the performance that they’re seeing,” Pratt says.
For an industry where measurement has traditionally been backward-looking, this real-time capability marks a meaningful change. Liquid Mix even includes forward-looking scenario modeling, allowing teams to test different investment strategies before committing dollars. In a retail media ecosystem where every dollar faces scrutiny from CMOs, CFOs, and boards, the ability to course-correct in hours rather than quarters could prove transformative.
The Path Forward
Pratt’s return to Circana—she began her career at predecessor company IRI—represents both a personal full-circle moment and a strategic inflection point for the industry. With decades of data, newly acquired real-time measurement capabilities, and an independent position in the ecosystem, Circana is uniquely positioned to address retail media’s trust deficit.
“The future of media is going to be more intelligent, more accountable, and more connected,” Pratt says. Without solving measurement, she warns, retail media risks “a lot of damage for the growth trajectory that has supported the retail media ecosystem for so many years.”
For an industry racing to capture advertising dollars while struggling to prove value, Circana’s measurement-first approach under Pratt’s leadership offers a potential path through the chaos. The question is whether brands and retailers are willing to let a neutral party call the shots.