Next in Media spoke with Sammy Rubin, Vice President of Integrated Media at Wpromote, about the blurring lines between retail media and everything else brands care about - and how big brands are still in the middle of a messy process to integrate budgets and teams.

💡Takeaways:

• 📈 Retail Media is Evolving: The lines are blurring! Retail media isn't just shopper marketing anymore; it now includes diverse channels like CTV, podcasts, and influencer marketing.
• 🤝 Integration is Key: Silos are breaking down. Brands are increasingly looking for integrated strategies where all marketing investments work together cohesively to drive goals.
• ❓ Ownership Challenges: With retail media expanding into areas like CTV and social, a key challenge is figuring out who owns these channels within an organization. Are search experts planning influencer campaigns? 
• 📱 Social is the New Search: Consumers, especially younger demographics, increasingly discover brands and products passively through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, rather than active searching.
• 📊 Measurement Renaissance (MMM is Back!): Media Mix Modeling (MMM) is experiencing a comeback, driven by cookie deprecation and advancements in AI.
• 🤖 AI's Role in Media: While AI is making analysis more powerful and efficient (especially with MMM), human strategists are still crucial. AI can extract insights, but lacks the historical context, understanding of consumer behavior nuances, and creativity that humans bring to media planning.
• 📺 CTV Performance is Here: Connected TV (CTV) isn't just for brand awareness anymore. Performance-focused, digitally native agencies have been buying CTV programmatically for years, using advanced measurement to prove its impact on conversions, sales, and store traffic.
• 🤔 Flexibility & Scenario Planning: Uncertainty (like potential tariffs or platform changes like TikTok) requires brands to build flexibility into their plans.

🎙 Guests: Sammy Rubin
🎤 Host: Mike Shields
📺 Sponsor: ElementalTV
🎬 Producer: FEL Creative