For years, specialist shopper and retail marketing agency expertise was a discipline in its own right.
Network specialist agencies like Arc, Saatchi X, G2, OgilvyAction, and Geometry were built around one thing: understanding how shoppers make in-store decisions. Not just advertising to them, but influencing them along the entire path to purchase.
Leading Geometry Global in the Middle East for seven years, I saw the value of that specialism first-hand. We had dedicated teams spanning path-to-purchase strategy, shopper insight, creative, production, and implementation. Entire departments built around helping brands win aisle by aisle, category by category, retailer by retailer.
At the time, that level of retail expertise was considered essential.
Over time, agency models evolved. Many specialist retail agencies within large networks were integrated into broader communications structures as clients demanded more connected solutions across brand, commerce, media, and production.
The expertise didn’t disappear, but it became more fragmented.
The irony is that this shift happened just as retail became more commercially important than ever.
Across the Middle East, retail has become the frontline of brand growth. Retail media is exploding. Quick commerce is reshaping shopper behaviour. Investment into shopper marketing and in-store activation continues to rise.
But while brands are investing more heavily in retail, genuinely specialist retail agency capability has become increasingly rare, particularly in the GCC.
Too often, retail work is still treated as an adaptation after the core campaign is approved, a bolt-on to brand thinking, or a delivery exercise rather than a strategic discipline.
You can see the impact walking through stores across the region: campaigns that look strong in presentations but lose clarity at the shelf. Retail media drives impressions but not always conversions. In-store environments are full of activity but lacking distinction or consistency.
This isn’t a criticism of agencies. It’s a reflection of how complex retail has become.
Because retail today sits at the intersection of brand, commerce, media, and experience. Connecting those disciplines properly requires specialist thinking, especially in a region as fragmented and competitive as the GCC.
Multiple markets. Multiple retail formats. Multiple shopper behaviours. Hypermarkets sit alongside quick commerce. Global brands are competing against increasingly sophisticated private-label offers.
In that environment, agencies need to add more value than simply producing assets or adapting campaigns.
Brands need partners who understand how shoppers move through retail environments, how decisions are influenced at shelf, how retail media connects to physical retail, and how to build connected systems across the full path to purchase.
The brands winning today are not necessarily the ones spending the most. They’re the ones building for retail from the start with clearer value cues, simpler shopper journeys, stronger retail consistency, and creative systems designed around conversion, not just visibility.
That’s the difference specialist retail thinking makes. It understands not just what brands want to say, but what shoppers need to feel to choose.
At Migrate, we recently mapped the full agency landscape across the Middle East to identify capability white spaces. What became clear very quickly was the lack of specialist retail agency capability relative to the scale of the retail opportunity across the region.
The strongest retail expertise has largely shifted into independents and specialist boutiques. But in the GCC, those specialists are still few and far between.
It’s one of the reasons Initials recently launched its Retail Playbook, focused on winning at the moment of choice. The Playbook outlines six principles for modern retail growth, from creating value beyond price to connecting the full path to purchase into one coherent system.
Initials is one of the few agencies in the region built specifically around retail and shopper behaviour rather than adapting to it over time. The team brings more than 20 years of experience with local and international brands, spanning virtually every major FMCG category and retail environment in the region.
The best agencies today can’t just create campaigns. They need to create a commercial advantage.
Retail expertise hasn’t disappeared.
It’s simply become specialised again, and in the GCC, it is increasingly rare.
(Nick Walsh is Founder, Migrate and Regional Partner, Initials Middle East)
