Breaking Barriers: Women Leading the Future of Marketing Procurement.
The Women in Marketing Procurement Forum, hosted by RAUS Global and AlixPartners on March 11, 2025, marked International Women’s Day with a powerful agenda aimed at inspiring action and building community. Hosted by Christine Moore, Managing Partner of RAUS Global and Libra Balian, Director of AlixPartners, and held both in-person in New York City and virtually, the event welcomed participants from diverse industries. Participants from fitness, finance, fashion, cosmetics, beverages, pharma, and government, from across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America attended. The event emphasized building a supportive global network and promoting collaborative learning among marketing procurement professionals at all career levels.
The event had been long awaited. The initial plan was hatched at another national conference, hosted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in Orlando back in April 2024. Christine and Libra were discussing the industry and both felt that they wanted to be part of driving sustained change for women in our industry. Both has a large network and find that it is invaluable to connect with peers to stay abreast with the constantly moving industry.
D-Day
Christine Moore opened the forum by highlighting the significance of women securing strategic roles in marketing procurement, emphasizing, “Today, we sit at the table with the ability to drive real impact — for brands, agencies, and the broader media ecosystem.” Christine encouraged procurement leaders to leverage their roles wisely, emphasizing transparency and strategic impact beyond mere cost control. Libra Balian complemented these sentiments, stressing the industry’s evolution from cost savings to “value creation, strategic influence, and innovation,” urging women to embrace their leadership roles proactively.
The interactive “Influence Dilemma” brain teaser challenged participants to find a balanced solution between competing interests of CFOs, CMOs, and agency leads. This exercise underscored the need for clear ROI benchmarks, contractual reporting, and transparent communication. One participant emphasized the importance of executive sign-offs and transparency, saying, “There must be some sort of ROI or test case that drive decision making. All stakeholders understand and agree with the analysis. It can’t just be completely blind.”
A seat at the media table
In the “A Seat at the Media Table” session, panelists Christine Moore, from RAUS Global, Fiona Foy, from Media Marketing Compliance and Victoria Potter, from ECI Management moderated by Libra Balian, from ALIX Partners discussed how procurement professionals can evolve beyond traditional cost control to become strategic marketing partners. Fiona noted, “Media is typically the largest spend category, making it a prime area for procurement to demonstrate value.” Christine emphasized building credibility through proactive involvement in contract management and agency relations, ensuring strategic alignment and mutual accountability between procurement and marketing teams.
One of the senior participants shared “The session delivered insightful, in-depth content on media procurement, empowering procurement professionals with essential tools and practical tips to strengthen their influence. It highlighted the importance of soft skills, industry expertise, external resources, and key success factors. Additionally, the event created a supportive environment for openly discussing challenges and effective strategies, ensuring attendees left with clear, actionable insights for achieving greater success.”
For more insight into this session — Pulling up a chair — how marketing procurement can own its seat at the Media table.
Ai in the agency world
The panel on “AI & Agency Compensation” delved into how AI is reshaping procurement, featuring insights from Maria Overthrow, from RightSpend, Erika Auger, from ReedSmith and Aaron Edwards, from The Charles Group. Maria highlighted a lack of agency transparency about AI usage, urging procurement to proactively engage agencies to uncover potential efficiencies. Aaron discussed the practical implications of AI for creative processes, stressing the importance of clear and tiered compensation models. Erika addressed legal concerns, stating, “It’s essential to establish clear contractual terms around AI use to protect brand integrity and intellectual property.”
The retail media explosion
Retail media networks (RMNs) have rapidly emerged as a transformative force in advertising, currently representing 10% of global ad budgets. Their trajectory is on pace to surpass traditional TV spending by 2028, driven primarily by the accelerated growth of online shopping, increased reliance on first-party data, and the ability to track consumer behavior through to purchase. While this shift creates substantial opportunities, it also brings unique challenges, especially for marketing procurement teams tasked with ensuring transparency, efficiency, and measurable ROI.
With this context as a backdrop, we invited the panel, consisting of Helene Trad, Director, Retail Media at AlixPartners, Fiona Foy, Parnter, Americas of Media Marketing Compliance, Victoria Potter, Director at ECI Media Management, and Libra Balian, Director at AlixPartners to share their views on how Marketing Procurement can be a leader in this emerging space. Christine Moore of RAUS Global moderated the panel.
Libra started by saying“a key challenge is the tension arising from brands simultaneously acting as buyers and sellers within the retail media ecosystem”. Often, these activities are managed by distinct internal teams, leading to fragmented strategies and budget inefficiencies. Sales teams, traditionally less connected with marketing procurement, frequently manage RMN budgets, sometimes resulting in overspending due to pressure from retail partners like Amazon and Walmart. Retailers leverage their robust first-party data to compel brands into greater expenditures, reinforcing a cycle that may not always align with internal ROI objectives.
Libra emphasized “procurement has to embrace the pivotal role in bridging these internal divides”. Procurement professionals are strategically positioned to foster communication across teams, ensuring alignment on spending priorities, contractual transparency, and accountability through clearly defined KPIs. Standardization of measurement across retail media networks is also critical, enabling effective comparison and optimization across platforms. Fiona stated that “brands are very much encouraged to proactively implement rigorous incremental testing and demand standardized metrics from retail partners to validate spend effectiveness”.
Agency relationships in retail media remain a topic of debate, with brands contemplating whether to manage RMN engagement directly or through agencies. Direct engagement can offer greater transparency and potential cost efficiencies but necessitates substantial internal capabilities. “When you work with an agency, they provide strategic oversight and sophisticated optimization abilities, which are essential for navigating complex retail media ecosystems” says Victoria. A hybrid approach — combining direct retail relationships with selective agency collaboration — is emerging as an optimal model.
Ultimately, procurement’s active engagement with retail media is essential. By drawing on lessons from previous industry transformations like social media and programmatic advertising, procurement can significantly influence the development of RMNs. As retail media grows, procurement teams can play a transformative role, ensuring strategic, data-driven decisions that optimize media spend, reduce waste, and drive meaningful business outcomes.
“I show you mine if you show me yours”
During the “Secret Sauce” roundtable, participants shared strategies that foster successful vendor relationships and enhance procurement’s credibility. Michelle Cleary spoke candidly about networking and the relational approach, sharing her recent experience navigating a challenging job market through strong personal connections. Sharlene, representing marketing operations at a major US brand, highlighted “the value of networking beyond traditional circles, advocating for curiosity and openness as critical skills for procurement professionals”.
Let’s meet again. Soon.
The forum wrapped up with practical workshops addressing real-world procurement challenges brought forward by attendees. Christine and Libra concluded the event with key takeaways, reiterating the importance of transparency, strategic influence, and active mentorship. They encouraged continued collaboration, expressing the intent to foster a sustainable community of empowered women leaders in marketing procurement.
One participant shared “I appreciated the openness of attendees from diverse functions discussing their roles in the process. The depth of experience among participants was impressive, and their insights proved incredibly valuable. Special recognition goes to the gentleman — not only for being the sole male attendee but also for representing the agency perspective with refreshing candor”.
The Women in Marketing Procurement Forum succeeded not only in addressing timely industry challenges but also in fostering a vibrant community committed to driving lasting change. Christine Moore aptly summarized the event’s core message: “When we accelerate action, we’re reshaping the industry, driving business impact, and paving the way for the next generation of women leaders.”
The best feedback you can get
“Given the vast array of topics and amount of content covered, it would be great to expand this into a 2-day conference to allow for more of a deep dive on actionable strategies and takeaways for each area”.
When surveyed after the event, participants rated the event a clear 4.8/5, across all areas such as content, facilities, food, beverages, agenda struture and other factors.
“It was so motivational to be in an intimate setting with other women in my field. A lot of wonderful knowledge sharing”.
We will be back Soon.
