I just got back from Adobe Summit, and as always, it was energizing—meeting smart people, seeing cutting-edge innovations, and thinking about what’s next for the industry. But one concept hit me harder than anything else I heard: Content Supply Chain.
It was a real light bulb moment.
Spending years in the Walmart ecosystem, I’ve always viewed supply chains in terms of physical goods—how products move, scale, and get delivered efficiently. But what if we applied that same structured, scalable approach to content?
The content supply chain is the end-to-end process of planning, creating, managing, distributing, and optimizing content across channels and platforms. It mirrors a traditional supply chain but applies to content as the product.
Key Stages:
- Strategy & Planning: Identify content needs aligned to business and campaign goals.
- Creation: Produce content (copy, design, video, etc.) based on briefs and brand guidelines.
- Management: Organize, store, and version content using tools like DAMs (Digital Asset Management systems).
- Distribution: Deliver content to the right channels (social, retail media, email, site, etc.).
- Measurement & Optimization: Track performance, gather insights, and iterate content for better results.
Why It Matters:
- Ensures content is efficiently produced, brand-consistent, and quick to market
- Supports personalization at scale
- Reduces duplication and improves ROI
When you think about applying the traditional supply chain to content, it makes so much sense.
With Retail Media growing more complex by the day, with so many campaigns, so many specs, and so many guidelines, the pressure is ever-increasing to deliver the right content in the right format to the right place—and to do it fast at scale. That requires more than just great creative. It takes a connected, flexible, and well-managed content engine that delivers for the unique demands of Retail Media.
To me, the Content Supply Chain isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a helpful model and thought process that is really needed to deliver creative assets at scale for Retail Media Networks.
Brandon Viveiros is chief commerce officer for AdFury.ai and has more than 15 years experience in digital and shopper marketing. He is a champion of innovative learning and empathetic leadership. A version of this commentary originated on LinkedIn.
