Shows / Retail Media Breakfast Club
Retail Media Breakfast Club
10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
Episodes
Retail Media Breakfast ClubIf DoorDash Buys Instacart, Who Wins in Retail Media?
In 2020, I co-authored the book Instacart for CMOs because I believed Instacart was one of the most under-recognized marketing channels available to consumer…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhy AI Agents Will Be Monetized With Ads (AdGentic Crossover)
What happens when your personal AI agent starts selling you things? I’ve spent the last decade analyzing the retail media ecosystem, but I’m increasingly…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubIs MTA Past Its Expiration Date? (Part 3)
Is multi-touch attribution (MTA) past its expiration date? In this third part of my MTA series, I’m exploring why retailers like Albertsons Media Collective…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubGopuff's Head of Ads: "I'm a realist"
What does it take for a retail media network to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape? Sometimes, the answer isn't building more ad tech: it's knowing…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAn Ad Told Me the Only Thing I Already Knew About Bolts
What happens when an ad finds you at exactly the right moment, but still gets the job wrong? I found myself standing in the bolts aisle at Bunnings, using…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhose Side Is Your Shopping Agent On?
AI shopping agents are starting to change how people discover products, compare prices, and actually make purchases. But as these agents take on more of the…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubPOV: Your Mum Always Buys the Same Brand
Today I’m looking at what happens to brand loyalty when AI starts doing more of the shopping. We’ve all seen how shoppers stick with the brands they know, even…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThe Return To Onsite
Retail media has spent the last few years chasing growth through connected TV, influencer partnerships, social commerce, and in-store screens. But new research…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAre Audiences The Golden Ticket For RMNs?
Are bigger retail media networks automatically better? And what really makes a network worth investing in? In this episode, I'm picking up the debate sparked…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhy retailers are reviving MTA (Part 2)
Why are retail media networks bringing back multi-touch attribution (MTA) when many marketers consider it outdated? In part 2 of my MTA series, I explore why…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubDoes Size Matter in Retail Media? It Depends Who’s Buying
Are there really only 10 or 20 successful retail media networks, or are we overlooking the value of the other 180? A recent LinkedIn post from Brian Spencer at…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubFollow the Wallet
Consumer AI is growing at an incredible pace, but here's the thing: even though millions of people are using AI, very few are actually paying for it. So how…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubDoes the World Need More Retail Media Networks? It Depends.
The retail media landscape is getting more crowded by the week. McDonald’s, Simon Property Group, Delta, and a growing list of other companies are launching…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubBulldust Metrics In Retail Media
There’s a lot of talk in retail media about better measurement, incrementality, and finding the one metric that finally tells us what’s really working. But…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubBest Buy Ads Showcase Recap
I recently took a closer look at what Best Buy Ads is building, and what it tells us about where retail media is heading. Best Buy was one of the early…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRMNs Are Launching MTA. Do Brands Want It? [Part 1]
A couple of years ago, two neighborhood cats started visiting our house. We fed them, they kept coming back, and then one day they turned up wearing collars…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThe Retail Media Doom Loop: 2026 Edition
I’m revisiting one of my most popular episodes from last year: the retail media doom loop. The basic idea is pretty simple — a retailer sees the ad revenue…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubTrust in AI Shopping: Two New Studies
AI is becoming part of how we shop, but how much do consumers actually trust what an AI assistant recommends? In this episode, I’m digging into two new…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRetail Media Is a Creative Wasteland. So What.
Retail media is a creative wasteland. That’s the catchy line coming out of Ipsos’ new Creativity Over Clicks research. And honestly, my first reaction was to…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubTrip Report: Retail & Commerce Media Activations in Poland
I recently spent a week in Poland on a family trip, and while I didn't have nearly as much time for retail media recon as I would have liked, I came away with…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAre RMNs Finally Getting The Hang of This Collaboration Thing?
Are retail media networks finally getting the hang of collaboration? This week, two major announcements have me thinking about the transition from parallel…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubShoppers Think That AI's Answers Are For Sale
We’ve struck a pretty clear deal with advertisers: we tolerate ads in exchange for free or subsidized services. But what happens when those ads show up inside…
Retail Media Breakfast Club44% of US RMNs Are Led By Women
I've got some really good news to share on today's Retail Media Breakfast Club. Despite some of the things that can leave me feeling a little disheartened…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRocks, Pebbles, Sand: Retail Media Eras (Part 2 of 2)
Why do good retailers make bad ad tech decisions? In part two of my series on the different eras of retail media, I’m expanding on my recent article for The…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRetail Media's Four Eras (Part 1 of 2)
Retail media technology has already gone through several major reinventions. From retailers building their own ad tech stacks, to point solutions, cloud-based…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhat It Now Takes For a Shopper To Switch Brands, Using AI
Most shoppers are now using AI tools to shop, and they’re increasingly discovering new brands and products inside a chat window. That raises a practical…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAmazon Extends Its DSP Into ChatGPT Ads
Amazon is extending its DSP into ChatGPT, giving brands that already advertise through Amazon Ads a new way to reach consumers inside the ChatGPT app. But the…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhy Do Brand Marketers Love To Hate On Retail Media?
There’s a new beef in marketing, and this one hits close to home: can retail media actually build brands, or is it really just trade promotion with a fancy…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRetail Media Isn’t a Cart.
Today, I’m digging into a question that has been coming up more and more as retail media expands into a broader commerce media ecosystem: does commerce media…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubFTC v Amazon: Nothing Changes
By now, you’ve probably read plenty of coverage about the FTC’s case against Amazon’s ad auction (last week I shared an article on The Drum). But the question…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThe UK Takes A Run At Retail Media Aggregation
Retail media has a fragmentation problem. We have better dashboards, better reporting, and better measurement than we did a few years ago. But media buyers are…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubTrip Report: Retail & Commerce Media Activations in Australia
After living outside Australia for around 15 years, I’m experiencing retail and shopping here with fresh eyes. And one thing that has really caught my…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAce Hardware's RMN Upfront Home Run
Last Thursday, Ace Hardware took over Wrigley Field in Chicago for the first upfront from Redvest Media, its roughly year-old retail media network. I wasn’t…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubIs Retail Media Kidding Itself?
Are retail media networks trying too hard to become media companies? In this episode, I’m sharing a thought-provoking piece from Mike Shields of Next in Media…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubHere’s where Amazon is spending its own advertising budget
Amazon already captures roughly 40% of every dollar spent online in the US, yet it continues to grow at an impressive pace. So I wanted to look at a question…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThe Revenge Of The Catalog Team (Amazon Sponsored Prompts, Part 2)
Advertising has always been the glamorous side of ecommerce, while product catalog maintenance, reviews, inventory, and other operational work have often been…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThis Agency Abandoned MTA, Here's Why
There’s a particular kind of vertigo that comes from watching a podcast you started get better without you. I launched the Ecommerce Braintrust podcast back in…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubBilled For The Ad Before The Ad Exists: Amazon Sponsored Prompts
When Amazon unveiled Sponsored Prompts at Unboxed, I initially dismissed them as a clever but relatively minor addition to Alexa Shopping. But after digging…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThe 'Effort Heuristic' In Retail Media
What makes one retail media network stand out when so many seem to promise the same thing? In this episode, I explore a fascinating psychology concept called…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubI Downloaded The Data Amazon Has On Me. It’s Not Just Shopping.
I finally did something I'd been meaning to do for a while: I requested the full Amazon Ads Consumer File to see exactly what Amazon knows about me. While I…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWill Agentic Media Buying Be The End Of Us All?
I've been wrestling with a question that's becoming impossible to ignore: will agentic media buying fundamentally reshape retail media, or even eliminate parts…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhat If You Ordered Lunch Like You Bought Retail Media
What if ordering lunch sounded like the way many brands buy retail media? That was the inspiration behind my latest comedy skit... but beneath the joke is a…
Retail Media Breakfast Club'Nobody Wakes Up Wanting To Chat With A Retailer'
We've spent the last year watching retailers race to launch AI shopping assistants, but I think we're asking the wrong question. Instead of obsessing over who…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAI Agents in Retail Media: Why Media Buyers Aren’t Ready for the Agentic Revolution
AI agents are suddenly everywhere in retail media. Platforms, agencies, and retailers are all promising to automate media planning, buying, optimization, and…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubAI Slop Is Flooding Retail Media — Why Human Judgment Matters More Than Ever
When I launched my first podcast back in 2017, I worried I'd already missed the opportunity. Nine years later, I'm asking a different question altogether: does…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRetail Media Fact vs Fiction: AI, Marketplaces & the Biggest Growth Opportunities Ahead
Today I'm sharing highlights from a lively panel discussion I joined at Cannes, hosted by The CPG Guys and sponsored by Sensor Tower. Alongside fellow retail…
Retail Media Breakfast Club11% of Consumers Think They've Already Shopped with AI — Here's Why That Changes Everything
This week, I'm sharing snippets of a conversation from The Watson Weekly, one of my favorite podcasts, where host Rick Watson sat down with Holden Bale, Global…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubHow AI Will Reshape Retail Media (And Why Great Retailers Will Still Win)
I recently joined Wendy Liebmann on the Future Shop podcast for a conversation about one of the biggest questions facing retail today: what happens to retail…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhy Dick's Sporting Goods Is Rejecting the Retail Media Playbook | Dave Young's Bold Strategy
What if the biggest mistake a retail media network can make is trying to copy Amazon? In today's episode, a recap of my recent article for The Drum, I unpack a…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubI'm Completely Out Of The Loop (Lessons From My Summer Break)
After taking a few weeks completely offline, I'm back! And surprisingly, being out of the loop has been one of the best things I could have done. In this…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubMirakl Ads at Cannes: Commerce Media Skips Its Own Lion
Every year, Cannes Lions promises to bring the advertising world together. But if you work in retail media, you've probably noticed that our corner of the…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubSame Words, Different Forks: Recap of eMarketer & Sensor Tower Commerce Media Executive Briefing at Cannes Lions
Fresh from Cannes Lions, I'm unpacking one of the biggest themes that kept surfacing across analyst discussions: retail media's greatest obstacles aren't…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubWhen Sam's Club "Connects" With Walmart, What Actually Connects?
When I sat down with Harvey Ma at Cannes Lions this week, I wanted to understand what was really happening behind Walmart’s announcement that it was bringing…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubCannes Lions 2026 Dispatch: Agentic Media Buying, Retail Media Shakeups, and the Future of Creator Commerce
I’m coming to you once again from Cannes, this time from the PayPal Ads Café on the Croisette. It’s been a whirlwind few days here, not just in terms of…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubPayPal Ads’ Big Retail Media Bet: Why Shoppable Ads Could Finally Work (And The Future of Commerce in an AI World)
Reporting from Cannes Lions, I sat down with Dr. Mark Grether, SVP & General Manager at PayPal Ads, to explore a different perspective on retail media, one…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRetail Media at Cannes, 278 Episodes In & What’s Next for Retail Media Breakfast Club (Break Announcement + New Projects)
This week I’m at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity wrapping up the final week of this season of Retail Media Breakfast Club. I also…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubChewy Ads vs. Retail Media’s Data Hoarders: Why Transparency Wins in Retail Media
Retail media is splitting into two distinct camps: retailers that see media as an extension of their core business, and those that see themselves as media…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubThe Shortcut Demon: The AI Data Problem Nobody In Agentic Commerce Wants to Fix (Demons Series Part 3 of 3)
Everyone wants the upside of AI, agentic commerce, autonomous shopping agents, and LLM-powered product discovery. But there’s a problem: none of it works…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubCreator-Led Retail Media Explained: The Truth About Influencer Marketing, Retail Media Networks & Shopper Data
Creators and retail media are two of the hottest topics in commerce media right now, and everywhere I turn, I hear that they're converging into a massive…
Retail Media Breakfast ClubRetail Media Flywheel Explained: How Marketplaces Become Ad Revenue Engines (Lowe’s Case Study + Future of Commerce)
In this episode, I reflect on a panel I joined at Mirakl’s Annual Outpace Summit in New York, where a World Cup analogy sparked a bigger realization about what…