Media foresight: retail media, Gen Z and the next budget

Media foresight is the habit of planning budgets around where audiences and channels are heading, not where they were last quarter. Two shifts matter most for 2027 plans: retail media networks turning commerce data into ad inventory, and Gen Z audiences who do not fit old demographic segments. Planning ahead means reading audience signal continuously.

Most media plans are built backwards. Last year's results set this year's split, adjusted a few points either way. That worked when channels changed slowly. This Marketing Mondays signal looks at why it no longer does, and what a more forward-looking plan looks like.

Why do media plans lack foresight?

Listening across the marketing community shows the same frustrations recurring: no reliable way to measure audiences across platforms, difficulty personalising ads for new audiences with little data, and underestimating niche communities until a competitor finds them first. Underneath sits a planning culture that rewards defending last year's numbers rather than spotting next year's shifts.

There is also a confidence problem. Moving budget to a new channel feels risky when you will be blamed if it fails. Staying put feels safe, even when it is not.

What do retail media networks change?

Retail media networks let retailers and platforms sell advertising using their own shopper data, close to the point of purchase. For brands, they promise targeting based on real buying behaviour and measurement tied to sales.

The planning questions are harder than they look.

• How much of the "result" would have happened anyway on the retailer's own shelf?
• Is the budget coming from brand building, and what does that cost later?
• Can you compare results across networks that each mark their own homework?

Retail media can be excellent. It can also be the newest home for vanity metrics, a theme we explored in our vanity metrics episode.

Why does Gen Z break old segmentation?

Age and income were always rough proxies. For Gen Z they are particularly weak. Identity is expressed through communities, fandoms and values that cut across demographics. A young professional in Singapore might share more with a fan community in Manila than with someone the same age two MRT stops away.

Niche fandoms are a good example. Listening often shows passionate, under-served communities, such as fans of women's football, that most media plans treat as too small to matter. They are frequently cheaper to reach and more loyal once reached.

Our sister consultancy Mindfuse works on Gen Z personas and cultural codes in Singapore and Southeast Asia, and is a good partner for this kind of segmentation.

How do you build foresight into a plan?

Read signal monthly, not yearly

Track which audience tensions and communities are growing. SOMIN, the AI audience-research platform that powers Marketing Mondays, maps these from real conversations, and its strategy tools are designed for exactly this continuous view.

Ring-fence a test budget

Set aside a fixed share of spend for channels and audiences you are not yet sure about. Judge it on learning, not just immediate return.

Plan by tension, not demographic

Group audiences by the problem they share. Then ask which channels those people actually use.

Agree cross-platform measures in advance

Decide how you will compare results before you buy, not after.

Checklist: foresight questions for your 2027 plan

• Which audience tension grew most in your category over the past six months?
• Which community are competitors ignoring?
• What share of budget is reserved for learning?
• How will you measure retail media incrementality?
• Who in your team owns reading signal every month?

What does good look like?

Public case studies point the way without needing invented numbers. The Senoko Energy case study shows how audience understanding shaped planning in a category many would assume is purely functional, and the comparison of strategy tools sets out how audience-led planning differs from traditional approaches.

What should you do this Monday?

Open your current media plan and mark every line that is there mainly because it was there last year. Then pick one audience tension that has grown in your category recently and ask whether any line in the plan speaks to it. If none does, you have found your foresight gap. Move a small, ring-fenced amount towards testing that audience in the channels where they actually talk, and decide in advance what you want to learn. Share the result with peers, because foresight sharpens when it is compared across categories. A planner in banking and a planner in beauty will spot different early signals in the same Gen Z conversation, and both will plan better for having heard the other.

Finally, write down the assumptions behind your plan: which audiences you expect to grow, which channels you expect to decline, and why. Revisit them every quarter. Foresight is less about predicting correctly and more about noticing early when you were wrong, and adjusting before the budget is gone. Teams that write their assumptions down notice far sooner than teams that keep them in their heads.

Definitions

• Media foresight: planning based on where audiences and channels are heading.
• Retail media network: advertising sold by retailers or commerce platforms using their shopper data.
• Cold-start personalisation: tailoring ads to audiences you have little first-party data on.
• Fandom: a community organised around shared passion, often cutting across demographics.

Foresight is easier with peers who are seeing different parts of the market. That is one reason the Marketing Mondays community runs in-person sessions in Singapore alongside the weekly show. Request an invite at ask@mondays.marketing.

Frequently asked questions

What is media foresight?

Planning media budgets based on where audiences and channels are heading, using continuous audience signal, rather than adjusting last year's split.

Are retail media networks worth the budget?

They can be, because they connect ads to real buying data. Check incrementality, compare networks on agreed measures, and watch whether brand-building budget is being cannibalised.

How should brands segment Gen Z?

By shared tensions, values and communities rather than age and income alone. Fandoms and niche communities often reveal more than demographics.