Retail Media

Why AI commoditizes publisher content; credit cards are incorporating brand deals at the expense of exclusivity; and McDonald’s launches a media network.

Walmart-owned Sam’s Club has a new AI-powered pitch for brands: Target the next purchase, not the last one.

While Eric Seufert’s “everything is an ad network” mantra keeps being proven correct, a new truism is also taking shape: “Wherever an advertising business emerges, the measurement challenge follows.”

Buy-side experts said it’s another example of a Big Tech platform taking advantage of the lack of transparency built into programmatic ad auctions. And they’re not optimistic change is coming.

The second wave of retail media platforms are all about winning incremental new dollars. Plus: A peek into Validity’s “State of CRM Data Report 2026.”

Simon Property Group, the largest shopping mall operator in the world, is taking its biggest step yet into the world of data-driven advertising. On Thursday, the company launched Simon Media Network, its version of a retail media network.

TTD is introducing agentic AI workflow improvements and automated audience building, which are quickly becoming table stakes for programmatic platforms.

What’s with the myriad of retail media networks?; YouTube offers creators millions to refuse deals with Netflix; and political advertisers get a free pass.

Amazon’s million-dollar sellers are revolting against changes that undercut their margins and change where their ads run. From inside a meeting of these discontented sellers, AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher shares how they are fighting back – and why Amazon made these changes.

Paramount+, unlike Netflix, announces a subscription-free option; Havas announces plans to go AI-first; and Faire’s Promoted Listings platform targets wholesalers, rather than individual customers.

Advertising in AI-native destinations and experiences is already starting to look less like a series of experiments and more like an emerging market.

Every retail media network claims its data is different. PayPal Ads actually has a structural reason to back that up. AdExchanger Editorial Director Sarah Sluis sat down with Mark Grether, SVP and GM of PayPal Ads, to talk about what it means to sit horizontally across 25 billion transactions, 400 million accounts, and 30 million […]

Criteo has two potential buyers; publishers consider blocking Google’s joint AI-scraping/search-indexing bot; and Microsoft’s billion-player gaming goal might make sense for mobile.

Retail media and CTV have been on a collision course for years. Walmart Connect and Magnite are making that convergence real. AdExchanger Editorial Director Sara Sluis sits down with Mike Laband, Group SVP of Revenue at Magnite, and Khurrum Malik, VP, Business and Product Marketing at Walmart Connect, to talk about what it looks like […]

The 2024 Olympics proved premium live sports could be transacted programmatically. The 2026 World Cup tests something harder: whether programmatic spend holds up amid viable alternatives.

Retail media ramps up CTV partnerships to extend ecommerce audiences off-site; LaLiga’s piracy crackdown hits legit sites in Spain; and OpenAI mulls third-party ad measurement.

Smart TVs, refrigerators and other home appliances may pester you with marketing, but at least the hardware is cheap. Another startup taking a different approach to the same theory is Tovala, which was founded in 2015 and combines a standalone countertop oven with a weekly meal kit subscription.

Cleo Davis-Urman, CEO and co-founder of wearable vitamin brand Barrière, talks word-of-mouth, measurement, retail media and what it takes to build a new category around patches instead of pills.

The Trade Desk expanded its relationships with a host of travel, hospitality and mobility-focused commerce media partners, including Uber Advertising, Booking.com, United Airline’s Kinective Media and MARRIOTT MEDIA.

Some DOJ staffers wanted to challenge the Paramount/WBD merger on antitrust grounds; ad tech M&A is poised to pick up; and social media marketers want to normalize controversial clipping.

By partnering with GrowthLoop, GoPuff has beefed up its retail media offering with more specific audience targeting.

Meta wants to own online communities; Ecommerce brands face old-school advertising scrutiny; Omnicom wants fewer ad tech middlemen.

AI can’t handle complex media plans; Retail media lands under the CMO; Airbnb flirts with ads, cautiously.

Criteo shares dropped by 20% Wednesday morning after the company reported shaky Q1 earnings and revised its guidance downward for the rest of the year.

The Trade Desk announced that it will begin allowing mutual clients to use its DSP within the Pacvue or Skai platforms.

If you thought programmatic didn’t have room for yet another advertising ID graph, then you’d be wrong. On Monday, PayPal launched the PayPal Ads ID, a new identity product tied to PayPal and Venmo’s customer base.

With RFPs in flux, diverse-owned media companies are finding ways to use their data to improve reach. Plus: Why we’re in retail media’s “potty-training” phase.

The IAB’s Connected Commerce event in New York City this week felt to me like the retail media industry’s first sit-down explanation to a child who is now a “big kid” and must act accordingly.

In-store audio ads grow, but attribution and headphones raise doubts; Hidden fees persist as drip pricing draws scrutiny; World Cup ad costs surge.

Medvi caught in AI deepfake scandal; Delta SkyMiles members get 24-hour free NYT access. Source Golf launches a YouTube network.