Best Buy Ads made a series of announcements at The Drop spanning CTV, TikTok Shop, creators, in-store media and measurement. Shaun explores what the public announcements reveal about commerce media moving beyond sponsored products—and what happens when audiences, content, shopping experiences and measurement start connecting.

McDonald’s is building a media network, Citi is turning transaction insights into a commerce media platform, and DoorDash and Instacart are bringing shelf-level intelligence into the equation. Together, they show how commerce media is expanding beyond traditional retailers—and why valuable commerce signals may be the foundation of the next generation of media networks.

Albertsons is pushing retail media measurement toward incrementality, Sam’s Club Connect is using AI to predict what shoppers might need next, and Pinterest is turning visual search into an advertising opportunity. Together, they point toward a commerce media ecosystem increasingly focused on prediction — and proving what actually works.

Amazon Ads comes to ChatGPT, Kroger reports 24% growth in retail media profit, and Circana adds Google Meridian to its measurement offering. Three stories pointing to bigger opportunities — and bigger expectations — for commerce media.

Commerce media has built the networks, data, measurement and technology. Now comes the harder question: how do we make the experiences running on top of that infrastructure more creative, useful and valuable?

This week, I’m looking at three stories that made me think about how quickly the definition of commerce media continues to expand. Simon Property Group is turning its network of shopping destinations into a media platform. E.l.f. Beauty is using TikTok Live as part of its product-launch strategy. And Dentsu is reorganizing its commerce and […]

Walmart’s advertising growth, new CTV research from Roku and Amazon, and Best Buy entering Fortnite all point toward the same shift: the boundaries between retail, media, entertainment and commerce are getting harder to see.

What makes a retail media network stand out when seemingly every retailer is building one? And as advertising becomes more connected, how should marketers think about measurement, verification and creators? In Episode 005 of Commerce Media Minute, Shaun Ayala looks at three stories that raised bigger questions about where commerce media is heading. Academy Sports + […]

What happens when a retail media network moves deeper into streaming TV? What exactly is incremental return on ad spend? And where does social media end when creator content starts showing up inside premium streaming? In this episode of Commerce Media Minute, I’m following three very different rabbit holes that caught my attention this week—and sharing […]

Who gets to become a media company? What happens when AI changes the way we search for products? And if advertising moves into AI-powered experiences, how will marketers know if it actually works? In this episode of Commerce Media Minute, I’m sharing three stories that caught my attention this week and the questions they raised as […]