Sean Cheyney of Vistar Media shares the checklist for smart retail media strategy at OAC 2025

Insightful presentation at the 19th edition of Out of Home (OOH) Advertising Convention (OAC), Sean Cheyney, Head of Retail Media of Vistar Media, shared his deep insights on the theme– Monetising your retail media assets: A checklist for media owners/operators. Drawing from his experience in retail media, he offered a practical and behind-the-scenes look at what truly works and what doesn’t when it comes to activating digital media inside stores

He opened his session by making the audience dive deep into how retailers make bad decisions sometimes. “Just because you have 10,000 screens doesn’t mean you’ll have 10,000 times the impact,” he said, referencing a major U.S. retailer that installed far too many screens without a clear strategy.

He also stated that retailers sometimes try to solve a nonexistent problem and use manual tech that causes too much “busy work” and lacks critical features. Sean mentioned, “In retail, the linear model doesn’t work. In a store, more screens don’t mean more people, as you still have the same shoppers. You need to think about where screens make sense.” He urged media owners to resist treating screens as a one-size-fits-all solution and to start with business objectives.

Sean’s session also spotlighted the importance of having the right technology stack, calling out manual processes like scheduling ads via spreadsheets as outdated and inefficient. “You need to move to automated systems that reflect real business rules,” he said, stressing the value of unified platforms and AI-powered workflows that align with both retailer and brand goals.

His final takeaway was crystal clear at OAC– success in retail media comes from strategy, not just hardware.