retail media
Magnite’s Sean Buckley: What Supply Side Consolidation Means to the Buy Side
MIAMI — Supply-side platform partnerships have dramatically consolidated as buyers recognize the inefficiency of managing dozens of technology relationships, shifting toward deeper integrations with two to five strategic partners rather than broad vendor distributions. “If you go back six or seven years, it was not uncommon for buyers to work with 50, 60 downstream supply […]
Universal Ads’ Adam Royle: Koddi Partnership Brings CTV to Commerce Buyers ‘Where They are Working Today’
Connected TV buying, planning, and measurement integration into commerce platforms eliminates traditional barriers that prevented retail media advertisers from accessing television inventory through familiar workflows. “This week, Universal Ads and ad tech company Koddi announced a strategic partnership that brings CTV buying, planning, and measurement into the Koddi platform,” Adam Royle, head of Strategic Partnerships […]
Roundel’s Jenny Holleran: Efficiency or Growth? Retail Media Network’s Precision Plus AI Tool Promises Both
Most discussions of artificial intelligence in advertising and media circles still largely revolve around how to use the technology to generate actual growth, as opposed to achieving some level of efficiency. Target’s Roundel believes it can do both with its Precision Plus program. Billed as Roundel’s AI-based performance engine, Roundel uses it to optimize audience […]
Grocery TV’s Marlow Nickell: Non-Endemic Brands Find In-Store Media ‘A Lot Easier’ Than CPG
NEW YORK — Financial services, telecom, and insurance companies are outpacing traditional consumer packaged goods advertisers in adopting in-store media because they face fewer structural budget and agency relationship challenges when funding new advertising formats. “The irony of it is that it’s been a lot easier for non-endemic brands to lean into the space than […]
GSTV’s Kristina Lutz: Gen Z is Looking for Discovery Beyond Social in the Real World
NEW YORK — Physical shopping experiences are far from dead for younger consumers, despite the view that Gen Z lives are primarily lived within the confines of TikTok. That realization is reshaping how brands think about the consumer journey. But there’s a sticking point: how can brands tap into authentic discovery moments that balance digital […]
Walmart Connect’s Khurrum Malik: CTV Plus Linear TV Delivers 55% Reach Increase
LAS VEGAS — Walmart Connect’s evolution from retail media network to comprehensive digital platform enables storytelling from “couch to cart to sales,” with research showing CTV advertising combined with linear TV delivers 55% reach increases. “About a year ago, we launched Vizio, and we now have the ability to tell a story from a brand […]
Omnicom’s Duncan Painter: Five Years of Consumer Purchase History Provides ‘Granularity’ Beyond Transactions
LAS VEGAS — In order for a retail media network advertiser to accurately find consumers at the right moment, sometimes you have to travel back in time. About five years in the past, to be exact. “We can look back at the consumer level for five years of their engagement and purchase with that product […]
WPP Media’s Luis Martinez: Retail Media Reaches ‘Tipping Point’ Beyond Transactions to Brand Building
LONDON — Retail media is evolving from a transaction-focused performance channel toward brand building as companies leverage data and signals to shape customer connections across multiple touchpoints. “Companies can actually use the data in two ways. One is obviously the transaction that will always be there, will remain strong, but also brand building,” Luis Martinez, […]
Best Buy’s Jen Jensen: Why Consumer Electronics Shoppers Represent ‘Unique Customer Landscape’
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF. — Best Buy can tie almost all its transactions back to individual customers, an ability the company considers market leading that’s based on precise measurement and attribution across the complex consumer electronics purchase path. “We have a 93% revenue identification rate. So what that means is 93% of our transactions we […]
Stratacache’s Russell Young: In-Store Retail Media Shifts From ‘Pilot Purgatory’ to Enterprise Scale
In-store retail media is maturing beyond pilot programs toward enterprise-wide networks as national brands commit repeat investments and standardized measurement becomes urgent rather than aspirational. “We’re seeing that national brands are shifting real media dollars [from online] to in-store with repeat investments. That demand for standardized KPIs has really become urgent, and that’s causing a […]
Genuin’s Matt Wurst: ‘Commerce Is Media Now’
ORLANDO, FLA. — The combination of media and commerce promises to eliminate the linear consumer journey and enable marketers to achieve objectives from awareness to conversion within single video experiences. “The convergence of media and commerce is no longer evolving — they have converged to the point where they are one and the same. Commerce […]
Publicis Media’s Joe Kowan: Retail Data in CTV Enables AI to Optimize for ‘Actual Sale Event’
The combination of connected TV ads, retail media, and artificial intelligence offer marketers many compelling propositions. One possible value is the ability to know that an ad led to a completed purchase rather than having to rely on the “guesswork” of proxy metrics like ad clicks. In a larger sense, that could fundamentally change how […]
Digitas’ Chelsea Monaco: Retail Media Networks Face Programmatic-Style Consolidation
LAS VEGAS — The retail media network explosion mirrors the programmatic advertising boom 15 years ago in a lot of ways to Digitas North America’s’ Chelsea Monaco. As the convergence of shopping, advertising, and media becomes more solidified, the wide retail media could look a lot smaller in the near-future. “If you look at what […]
OpenX’s Rebecca Bonell: AI Use Must Go Beyond Finding ‘Cheap CPMs’
Marketers need to demand more of artificial intelligence than just seeing it as a tool to find the lowest-cost ad prices. “AI shouldn’t be just finding cheap CPMs. No one wins at that. It’s about connecting the sellers and the buyers,” Rebecca Bonell, senior director, Business Development at OpenX, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan. This […]
Epsilon’s Adam Skinner: Connected Identity Prevents Post-Purchase Ad Bombardment
LAS VEGAS — The “too-late target” is a perennial problem of the programmatic age. And it’s particularly cringeworthy when an ad tech professional experiences a targeted ad after they have already purchased the item they’re subsequently seeing on their digital screen. “If I go into an electronic store to buy a new laptop or a […]
IPG Mediabrands’ Amie Owen: How Retail Data Creates ‘3D Picture’
Retail data has evolved from custom audience building within a handful of networks to becoming a critical component that enhances first-party data sets, creating more dimensional customer understanding when integrated through clean room environments. “When you’re looking at Acxiom data plus retail data, it just makes a more three dimensional picture more so than if […]
Walgreens’ Kelly Torgeson: Stores Are Media Channels That Transform Shopping Into Brand Experiences
Retail stores represent untapped media channels that can deliver storytelling and emotional connection at the critical point of purchase decision, moving beyond traditional “buy now” messaging to create memorable brand experiences. “We see the opportunity of bringing storytelling into the retail environment as a huge opportunity,” Kelly Torgeson, director of Business Development at Walgreens Advertising […]
Circana’s Cara Pratt: ROI Clarity Trumps Speed and Precision as Company Integrates Two Major Acquisitions
NEW YORK, NY — Getting clarity on advertisers’ return on investment remains the main challenge in media measurement, even as speed and precision become increasingly important in an environment where global advertising spend approaches $1 trillion with 75% allocated to digital channels, noted Cara Pratt, president of Retail & Media at Circana. “If marketers aren’t […]
WPP Media’s Lauren Lavin: Retail Media Networks Face Consolidation as ‘Grading Your Own Homework’ Era Ends
AMENIA, NY — The retail media landscape is heading toward a decisive split between sustainable businesses and complementary revenue streams as brands demand accountability from an increasingly crowded marketplace. “Some retailers, as publishers, are driving sustainable businesses right now, some are complementary revenue, and that that’s something in the next 12 months or 18 months […]
Unilever’s Aaron Sobol: You Need ‘Exponentially More’ Creative Assets to Succeed Today
CANNES – The days of running a successful media campaign with just a few creative assets are over, according to Aaron Sobol, Unilever’s head of North American Media Investment and Data Governance. “It might’ve been the case a few years ago that you could have a decently performing media campaign with a few assets, but […]





