Google is in the zone and rules are out the window
Welcome to the Friday edition of Unmade, where we bring you a selection of retail media news from the past fortnight. Also, a few thoughts on Google’s return to centre stage with some mega numbers.
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Reminder: A billion is a thousand million anythings
Google dropped its Q2 earnings overnight Wednesday, and the numbers were good. So good that the scale of the goodness is hard to appreciate. It increased its revenue for those three months by A$18 billion year-on-year.
Australia’s biggest bank, CBA, will have total revenues of something like $7 billion in that time. So the search giant put on a couple of CBAs in three months, while maintaining its operating margin and freeing up enough cash to increase its planned capex spend by $15 billion to a total of $133 billion for the year.
It is building data centres and other AI infrastructure at a feverish pace.
When I watched the IO developer conference in May, it felt like Google had come back online having been caught flat-footed at the beginning of the AI revolution. These numbers back that feeling up with hard data.
The numbers, their magnitude, will also shape the future of many industries all over the world, including our little patch of media and marketing. When you see AI Overviews in action, for example, you realise that the things publishers thought were rules are not actually rules, and that Google can fundamentally change the model and prosper.
It’s doing that right now: transforming its core product, search, to give users a summary, a digest, or a reworking drawn from all the content in the world.
Google says query volume has gone up and there’s an opportunity to monetise even more effectively than before.
CEO Sundar Pichai in the earnings call: “We know how popular AI Overviews are because they are now driving over ten percent more queries globally for the types of queries that show them, and this growth continues to increase over time.”
Search referrals to publishers are tanking, naturally. So far Google has either denied or avoided the question. The billions come with their own imperative.
The big ask: Unified measurement
Unmade’s retail media conference curator Cat McGinn writes:
Retail media is leveling up globally and in Australia, rapidly outgrowing its banner ad origins, with marketers investing more across the full funnel, and demanding unified measurement across platforms.
HP launched its own retail media network
Adweek reported that the “HP Media Network” offers targeted ads on its laptops and desktops and was selling access to offsite inventory through partners such as Microsoft and Kargo. It also unveiled a free ad‑supported streaming service. This marked a significant shift, with HP the first hardware manufactorer to turn its user base and first‑party data into a new ad channel, and introducing device placements as an additional touchpoint.
Criteo and Mirakl partnered on self-service platfom
Criteo, a global retail media adtech company, and Mirakl, a marketplace technology provider, launched a partnership to allow smaller advertisers to run self‑service retail media campaigns across multiple marketplaces. The move broadens access to retail media tools typically reserved for large brands and potentially unlocking new ad spend from smaller sellers who typically invest heavily on Amazon.
Industry said it wants standardised metrics
IAB Australia’s Retail Media State of the Nation 2025 report revealed that 70% of advertisers and agencies had increased retail media spend over the past year and 77% now work with three or more retail media networks, up from 58% in 2024. The report claimed while retail media had become central to integrated media planning, with budgets typically shifting away from trade, traditional, social and display channels, the industry is demanding standardised metrics, better data access and unified reporting.
David Jones maxxing out, planning loyalty expansion
DJ’s CMO James Holloman claimed its retail media network Amplify is “turning brands away.” The retail media division reached 1,000 bespoke brand campaigns and achieved $35m annual revenue. The retailer announced plans for a major loyalty expansion, including a new rewards program in partnership with Qantas Frequent Flyer and a new mobile app launching in September.
Dollarama bought The Reject Shop
Canadian retailer Dollarama has completed its acquisition of The Reject Shop, marking Dollarama’s first direct entry into the Australian market. Dollarama’s established retail media campaciitites and standards are expected to rapidly modernise retail media in Australia’s discount sector. Industry observers reported ripple effects across the broader Australian retail media ecosystem with Dollarama’s intensified investment in measurement, transparency, and omnichannel.
All quiet on the Unmade Index
Southern Cross Austereo did the best, up 0.85%, on a mildly pleasant day for the Index. Small increases for Nine (+0.3%) and Domain (+0.23%) following the Foreign Investment Review Board’s thumbs up of the CoStar purchase of Domain.
News Corp suffered mildly (-0.59%) and Enero lost a couple of cents to close 2.04% down.
More from Mumbrella …
Time to leave you to your evening!
Hal Crawford
Editorial Director
Mumbrella