Melissa Gallo — Vice President, Solutions and Delivery, Vantage
Published:
Strong relationships can compensate for weak technology and reporting—especially when a retailer is a ‘must buy’ for the supplier or brand. The budget may shrink, but it is unlikely to disappear. The more vulnerable spend is the test-and-learn budget: optional investments that are easier for a CMO to cut.
What does Melissa Gallo say?
Melissa Gallo, Vice President, Solutions and Delivery, Vantage, says: Melissa Gallo, Vice President, Solutions and Delivery at Vantage, argues that marketers should classify individual dollars rather than channels when evaluating retail media, separating trade-like spend from media spend and holding each to appropriate standards. She warns that cuts typically fall to test-and-learn budgets (undermining future learning), recommends operational checks for network quality, sees in-store as a 2027 test that may scale by 2029, and urges retiring ROAS metrics that lack incrementality.
Cite as: Melissa Gallo. (2026). Retrieved from https://research.agilebrandguide.com/insights/melissa-gallo-strong-relationships-can-compensate-for-weak-technology-and