Kevel, Dollar General, and The Trade Desk tie up lays claim to first of its kind retail media solution

Kevel has partnered with Dollar General and The Trade Desk to deliver a retail media solution that unifies onsite and offsite activation with consistent measurement.

They say that retail media today is often fragmented, with separate systems for onsite and offsite activation and limited visibility into performance across channels. This collaboration, those involved claim, addresses those gaps by connecting inventory, activation, and measurement into a single, decisioned approach to commerce media.

The solution combines Dollar General’s onsite retail media inventory with offsite activation across the open internet through The Trade Desk, supported by Kevel’s retail media technology.

“We believe the future of retail media depends on flexibility and interoperability. Onsite and offsite have operated as separate worlds, and advertisers have had to piece together performance from disconnected systems." says James Avery, Founder and CEO at Kevel.

"This collaboration with Dollar General and The Trade Desk changes that and creates something fundamentally new. We've built the infrastructure that makes true full-funnel activation possible, where onsite and offsite inventory are decisioned and measured together in a single, coherent framework.”

“This is exactly the kind of interoperability that the industry has needed, and we're proud to be the technology layer that makes it real. When retailers own their data and their infrastructure, they can build partnerships like this one and that's what gives them a durable competitive advantage."

"This is a meaningful step forward for our brand partners and for DG Media Network. For the first time, advertisers working with DGMN can plan, activate, and optimise reach and frequency across both onsite and offsite inventory within The Trade Desk, giving them a more complete, efficient path to reaching Dollar General shoppers throughout their entire journey," says Austin Leonard, VP & GM at DG Media Network.

"That kind of connected optimisation simply wasn't possible before, and we believe that the performance implications for our advertisers will be significant. But this is also about where we're headed. This collaboration lays the foundation for expanding how brands can access DGMN inventory, including opening up onsite inventory to self-serve buying in the future. We want to give advertisers more ways to buy DGMN and this is part of how we will get there."

“This collaboration represents a meaningful step forward for advertisers, retailers, and the broader media ecosystem,” says Matthew Fantazier, VP of Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk “For years, the industry has talked about the disconnect between onsite and offsite activation as a barrier to true full-funnel execution. By bringing these together with unified measurement, this approach helps remove that barrier, giving advertisers a more complete view of performance and the ability to drive measurable, incremental outcomes across the entire path to purchase.”

Testing with managed service campaigns starts in June and the integration with Dollar General and The Trade Desk is expected to be available to mutual clients in the third quarter of 2026.

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Retail media will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.