Hair Care Brands Styled Different Retail Media Strategies

Summary

The 1H 2026 Hair Care retail media market defies easy consolidation. Category leader Moroccanoil captured only 12% of impressions, with 248 brands from 155 parent companies vying for share. Parent-level SOV is similarly diffuse, with L'Oréal at 16% and Unilever at 13%. This fragmentation demands that ad ops teams craft retailer-specific strategies rather than assuming a single platform or message will work everywhere.

Retailer partnerships show clear segmentation: premium houses like Moroccanoil, Redken, and Kérastase concentrate on beauty retailers (Sephora, Ulta); mass brands like Pantene and SheaMoisture favor Walmart and Target; and specialized names (Bio Ionic, Pattern, iRESTORE) run nearly exclusively on Amazon. Moroccanoil's 3x impression advantage came from a multichannel Sephora campaign that adapted one creative across OTT, social, and video—an example of cohesive full-funnel execution.

Channel behavior diverges sharply. Amazon's 1.9B impressions are conversion-obsessed, centered on OnSite Display, while Sephora (745M) and Ulta (408M) use a mix of social, video, and OTT to build brands. Walmart is the emerging hybrid: strong OnSite paired with TikTok influencer content, as seen in SheaMoisture's 'Silk Press in a Bottle' push.

Momentum is clearly building at Walmart. Impressions have grown steadily since 2024, making it the second-fastest-growing RMN behind Sephora. SheaMoisture, Pantene, and Dove led, but Walmart also runs multi-brand initiatives like 'Try Viral Hair Care' and seasonal OTT back-to-college campaigns—signals that the retailer is investing beyond individual brands.

Actionable takeaways: Allocate budget to match the retailer's core behavior—Amazon for bottom-funnel, beauty retailers for premium brand building, Walmart for expanding reach. Use consistent creative across channels to multiply impact, as Moroccanoil did. Watch Walmart's upward trajectory and test its display/OTT hybrids. Given the fragmented landscape, agile, retailer-specific buying is the path to share-of-voice growth.

Analyst Note

What's notable here is how quickly retail media has moved beyond the standard 'beauty retailer' assumption. The Hair Care category shows no single dominant player, but that's less about weakness and more about the growing sophistication of retailer partnerships. Brands like Moroccanoil and Redken are tailoring media to specific retail environments — Sephora and Ulta allow for richer social/video mixes, while Amazon remains a conversion engine.

The key implication for UA and monetization teams is that retail media is no longer a one-size-fits-all buy; each retailer functions as a distinct channel with its own creative and measurement context. Worth watching is Walmart's acceleration in Hair Care, trailing only Sephora in growth. This signals that mass-market retail media is extending beyond its traditional strongholds, with multi-brand campaigns like 'Try Viral Hair Care' indicating a more curated, content-driven approach — not merely sponsored product placements.

As the landscape fragments across 248 brands, the operational takeaway is that success depends on understanding each retailer's audience and channel mix. This aligns with broader industry shifts toward first-party data and closed-loop measurement, where category-specific nuances become central to campaign strategy.