WTF are JBPs and why do we use them in retail media, with Exverus Media’s Hillary Kupferberg
By Kimeko McCoy • April 29, 2025 •
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In the age of the retail media network boom, retailers have been all too happy to strike a deal with marketers, selling off ad space on their own platforms and audience data for ads on third-party platforms. The question is, in a vertical that’s growing at breakneck pace, how are these deals being struck? The answer is found in the joint business plans and partnerships (JBP) planning commitments.
For this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Hillary Kupferberg, vp of performance marketing at Exverus Media, joins co-host and senior marketing reporter Kimeko McCoy to breakdown what exactly a JBP is, how it’s negotiated and how JPB negotiations come to life in retail media dealmaking.
Also in this episode, McCoy and Tim Peterson, executive editor, video and audio, talk through Google’s third-party cookie U-turn now that the dust has (mostly) settled. There are still moving parts, including Google’s anti-trust case, where it may be forced to sell off Chrome, which may leave more questions than answers.
Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity.
What is JBP? Just another industry acronym?
You can think of it as any strategic agreement between two parties. In terms of how this comes to life for retail media networks, and why it’s important, and why you may want your media agency in the room for these conversations, it really is about making sure that there is alignment, accountability and a strategic vision for a partnership.
Now, it’s evolving. Your media investment, with these partners, is all part of those negotiations, and should be part of those negotiations, because there are so many benefits from connecting the dots internally within organizations with your media agencies, and for the retailers themselves in terms of evolving and maximizing the partnerships that they’re engaging in.
So what can be negotiated?
I would say everything’s on the table, especially in this world where retail media is constantly evolving and changing. Of course, there’s the dollars and cents and baseline — call it table stakes, if you will. But the benefits, and call it insider ideas of what can be added, is preferred access. What’s new, what’s exciting, what’s coming down the pipeline? Whether that’s a [ad] format, a data [point], anything.
It’s not just access to it, but do we have first look? Are we guaranteed anything? Does this unlock added value in terms of dollar amount? Does it unlock added value in terms of measurement? There’s so many different types of ways that these deals, and really it is so nuanced.
They’re annual and don’t change throughout the year, but they’re structured and written in ways that are not 100% prescriptive.
As with any contract, there’s termination clauses, there’s confidentiality clauses, there’s terms of agreements. From a media perspective, it’s subject to IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) standards. There’s a ton of caveats in there that my legal team could definitely, and all the legal teams involved in these documents, make sure are sufficient and protective of all parties. But for the most part, it’s a mutually agreeable document. So the assumption is that both parties are going to carry out what they commit to and what they or even if it’s an endeavor.
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