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Academy's new ad network proves that closed-loop attribution from digital ads to in-store sales is now a competitive requirement for retail partnerships.
259 stores
across 18 states
$60 billion
in 2025
under $2,000
in co-op spend and a weekend of setup
Academy Sports + Outdoors launched Academy Retail Media in early 2025, a proprietary advertising network that connects brand campaigns directly to measurable sales outcomes both online and in its 259 stores across 18 states, according to Sahm. The network gives consumer packaged goods brands selling through Academy a way to buy ads and track whether those ads moved product off physical shelves, closing a loop that has eluded most retail media efforts outside Amazon and Walmart.
Academy Retail Media offers sponsored product placements, display ads, and search ads across Academy's e-commerce site and app, with incrementality measurement that links ad exposure to purchase behavior in brick-and-mortar locations. The company routes attribution through its loyalty program and transaction data, allowing brands to see lift in specific stores after a campaign runs. Academy is working with Pacvue, a retail media management platform, to handle campaign execution and reporting, per Stock Titan.
This works because Academy controls three pieces most brands lack: first-party purchase data from millions of loyalty members, a closed ecosystem where the ad impression and the sale happen under one roof, and enough store footprint to generate statistically significant lift signals. Retail media networks have exploded as a category — eMarketer projects U.S. retail media ad spend will surpass $60 billion in 2025 — but the majority of that spend flows to pure-play e-commerce or grocery chains with limited sporting goods assortment. Academy now competes directly with Dick's Sporting Goods, which launched its own retail media network in 2023, and captures ad dollars that previously went to Meta or Google with no downstream sales proof.
The mechanism physical product brands should study here is closed-loop attribution as a margin and discovery engine. Academy is not inventing a new ad format. It is repackaging access to its own customers and using purchase data to prove return on ad spend in a way that Facebook and Instagram cannot. Brands that sell through Academy — cooler manufacturers, apparel lines, outdoor gear suppliers — can now shift budget from blind awareness plays into a channel that reports exact unit lift and knows which SKU moved in which ZIP code.
A small brand selling physical product through any retail partner can steal this play without owning a media network. Start by negotiating co-op marketing funds or markdown allowances into a retailer partnership, then use those dollars to buy in-store endcap placement, shelf talkers, or point-of-sale signage that includes a QR code tied to a unique landing page. Track scans by location and compare weekly sales velocity in stores with the activation versus control stores without it. Most regional chains will share weekly sell-through data if you ask and frame it as a test. Run the placement for four weeks, pull the SKU-level sales report, calculate cost per incremental unit, and use that number in your next buyer meeting. You now have the same proof Academy is selling to CPG brands, built for under $2,000 in co-op spend and a weekend of setup.
The broader pattern is that retail media is becoming table stakes for any chain with a loyalty program and enough transaction volume to model lift. Brands that treat retail media buys as pure awareness are leaving attribution on the table. Brands that demand store-level sales data and build test-and-control into every retail campaign will capture budget from competitors still measuring clicks.
Negotiate co-op funds with your retail partner and use them to run QR-linked endcap tests with weekly sales tracking by store location.
For the operator
Shift 20% of awareness budget into retail media networks that report SKU-level lift and negotiate store-level data access in every partnership contract.
For the house
Require incrementality measurement and store-level attribution from any retail media vendor before committing budget above one test flight.
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