Media, Ads + Commerce

Can’t wait for #ShopTalk2024 and look forward to seeing many of you there next week! I’ll be moderating a session @ 8:30am PT on Tuesday, March 19 on “The Future of Retail Media” with Carrie Sweeney from Pinterest, Eric Tarnowski from Kenvue, and Emily Bibeault from Campari Group. Can’t wait to get their POV on the biggest innovations they’re seeing in retail media and what they expect from #retailmedianetworks with on-site, off-site, and in-store media in the coming years. I’m also excited to host a Commerce Media VIP Dinner alongside Keith Bryan (Colosseum Strategy & Former President of Best Buy Ads) and Nikhil Raj (Moloco, Former Walmart Connect) on Monday, March 18 at Scarpetto. Seating is limited but if you’re interested in attending, please fill out the form at the link included in the comments.

🥕 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘁 🥕 I just published my latest article for Media, Ads + Commerce, a deep dive (~2,500 words, 7 charts & graphics) on Instacart’s strategy. This article is paywalled -- LINK to the article in the comments. This is the first in a series of company deep dives that I plan to do over time. I’m hopeful I can write 4-6 of these articles a year. If you have any suggestions of interesting #retailmedianetworks or other companies in the Media, Ads + Commerce space, I’d love to hear them in the comments. I will definitely take suggestions under advisement for future articles! Special thanks to Pathmatics (By Sensor Tower), Profitero, Grocery TV and Global Wireless Solutions, Inc. for their exceptional data that I used to inform my analysis.   Here is an article preview with the introduction, and key sections outlined below:   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘾𝙀𝙊 𝙁𝙞𝙙𝙟𝙞 𝙎𝙞𝙢𝙤’𝙨 𝙐𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝘿𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙙- 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙏𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙮   In December 2021, freshly minted Instacart CEO Fidji Simo joined the Shopify board of directors. It was an interesting early move from the CEO perch that suggested designs on something bigger. Knowing that Instacart's future hinged on its ad business—after all, one assumes this was a primary reason behind hiring the former Facebook exec—my first thought was about the potential retail media implications. Could cozying up to Shopify be part of a gambit to partner with the ecommerce platform to build a digital advertising powerhouse? As two key platforms that underpin about 15% of US ecommerce—and are nearly perfect complements given their category strengths in grocery vs. lifestyle—I imagined a joint offering that could rival Amazon and Walmart in retail media. While this remains a possibility (albeit remote), by September 2022, one key reason behind Simo's joining the Shopify board began to crystallize. On the eve of her Groceryshop mainstage interview, she lifted the veil on an ambitious product initiative at Instacart: Connected Stores. Or as I would come to call it: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘁.   𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 📈 Instacart’s Winding Path to IPO + Lessons from Facebook’s IPO ♻️ Instacart’s RMN Flywheel 🆙 Instacart’s Move Up the Funnel into Off-Site Ads 🛒 Connected Stores: The Big Bet on the Future 🔮 What Instacart Should Do Next

𝗖𝗡𝗡: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗼 My comments included in Nathaniel Meyersohn's latest piece on why Walmart is acquiring Vizio for $2.3 billion (link in comments). "'This accelerates Walmart’s advertising as it moves into streaming TV opportunities,' said Andrew Lipsman, an independent media analyst. The acquisition could make Walmart a bigger presence in the TV streaming wars, especially if Walmart acquires a streaming service, Lipsman said." This is a power move by Walmart as it continues building its retail media flywheel of Media, Ads + Commerce. It's akin to Amazon rolling out Fire TV Omnis, in essence subsidizing adoption of smart TVs with an Amazon OS and that integrate with Amazon's media assets like Prime Video, Freevee, and Alexa (a key to shoppable TV). Walmart is moving along a similar path. We've just seen the company experiment with shoppable TV programming. The next key piece IMO would be to add O&O media content, ideally via acquisition of a streaming content provider. Here's what I wrote about Walmart in my Media, Ads + Commerce launch article: ------------------- 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗔𝗱𝘀 + 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗙𝗹𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Walmart is now a strong No. 2 in the US retail media market despite taking a while to find its footing. But the Walmart Connect business has recently accelerated under the direction of Chief Revenue Officer Seth Dallaire, a key architect of Amazon Ads and Instacart Ads. The foundation of Walmart’s new flywheel began to take shape with the mid-pandemic launch of Walmart+. The omnichannel retail giant’s answer to Amazon Prime helped it gain share of wallet while converting more transactions into first-party customer data. Walmart’s new flywheel began to flourish following its 2021 tie-up with The Trade Desk as brands could buy programmatic display, video, and CTV ads using Walmart’s first-party data. A more visible inflection point came the following year when Walmart Connect improved its core ad offering, instituting a second-price auction and refining its search algorithm to level the playing field for marketplace sellers. Almost instantly, cost-per-click went down, ROAS went up, brands felt more confident in the platform, and the ads business took off. This has helped drive more commerce—Walmart.com has consistently outpaced the competition in ecommerce in recent years—and made Walmart a more attractive partner for media companies. It has recently added NBC Universal, Roku, and TikTok to its growing stable of premium content partners, thereby solidifying its third key pillar of the flywheel. Perhaps seeking to leapfrog Amazon, Walmart recently piloted an ambitious shoppable TV project with “Add to Heart,” a holiday-themed rom-com available on TikTok, Roku, and YouTube, that features more than 300 shoppable items available at Walmart.

𝗜𝘀 𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗦 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝗱 𝗖𝗧𝗥? I just published my latest article for Media, Ads + Commerce: “Is ROAS Digital Advertising’s New Display Ad CTR? Optimizing to the Wrong Metrics is the Industry’s Original Sin." I’ve been in the digital ad measurement game for a long time, and it never ceases to amaze me that a $300 billion industry has largely been built around optimizing to sub-par metrics. I’m not a measurement purist who believes there is a singular perfect metric that will accurately depict performance. I believe there is sound--if imperfect--measurement that is useful within the practical constraints of measurement. There’s the old saying: you can have it fast, cheap, or good – pick 2 out of 3. The measurement purists want it to be good (i.e. high accuracy) but that usually comes at the expense of being fast and cheap. The rest of the industry gravitates to the fast and cheap option, which is unfortunately lacking in the “good” dimension. The problem arises when everyone optimizes to the same “fast and cheap” metrics that aren’t just suboptimal, but actually optimize the advertiser in the exact wrong direction. I’ve seen this happen too many times to count. And it may now be infecting #retailmedia. Fantastic research by Incremental shows why ROAS (the fast and cheap metric) and iROAS (the quality metric) don’t even correlate with each other in retail media campaigns. Most brands are optimizing to ROAS with little regard for whether it’s actually delivering incremental sales performance. Includes commentary from Skye Frontier and Elizabeth Marsten, and a nod to Kiri Masters. This article is for paid subscribers to Media, Ads + Commerce. Link to the full article in the comments. LMK what you think!

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗔𝗱𝘀 + 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗨𝗽𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀 I’ve been working on my next few articles for Media, Ads + Commerce and I’m ready to hit publish on 3 new articles over the next week. The next one comes out Monday. 𝗜𝘀 ���𝗢𝗔𝗦 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴’𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝗱 𝗖𝗧𝗥? – this one examines discrepancies between ROAS and iROAS in retail media ad campaigns and wonders why digital advertisers so often optimize to the wrong metrics.   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 – I’m not sharing the full title for this one because it’ll give it away, but I propose a new ads playbook that can be executed by certain interesting Commerce Media Networks out there today—especially those in the travel + transportation.   𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄—𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲—𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻 – this one also isn’t the full title, but it’s a big picture piece I can’t wait to publish about the new era of media, ads, and commerce that we’re now embarking on. The thesis ties together lots of emerging dynamics like retail media, creators, and AI, offering a clear view of what comes next and why. I’ll publish 1 (maybe 2) of the 3 outside the paywall but haven’t decided which one(s) yet. Feel free to submit your vote in the comments!   𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 Amazon announced earnings yesterday to predictably strong results. “Predictably” because it was clear from competitors’ earnings that the cloud and digital ad markets were improving, giving Amazon a layup to convert on its two big profit generators. And the commerce business had a low hurdle to clear, and it did so easily. What should we be looking for next from Amazon? I spoke with Sebastian Herrera from The Wall Street Journal, with my comments included in his latest article: “As many opportunities as there are for Amazon, there are also more threats than ever from many directions,” Andrew Lipsman, an e-commerce analyst and consultant, said before Amazon reported its earnings. “They have to make sure they’re watching their blind spots while looking into the future.” The threats include growing ecommerce competition from Walmart, Shopify, Temu, and TikTok. On the ads business, Amazon is contending with the rise of second tier RMNs, many of which can lean into their physical stores as a competitive advantage. And Microsoft and Google are both formidable competitors in the cloud space. But Amazon is also better positioned for the future than they’ve been in a while. The consumer economy is improving, and Amazon’s ecommerce business is moving in the right direction. Bringing ads to Prime Video should meaningfully accelerate the ads business. And enterprise spending on cloud services is flowing again, with AI ready to be a major growth driver. What do you think: Is Amazon primed for a strong 2024, or will it struggle against mounting competition?  

𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗔𝗱𝘀 + 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 // 𝟯 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 Lots happening this week for Media, Ads + Commerce. Catch the latest happenings in the world of #retailmedia below. 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞 for all three included below in the comments. 📝 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 // 𝟱 𝗨𝗽-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗠𝗡𝘀 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝟮.𝟬: I share my thoughts on which RMNs that weren’t major participants in the ecommerce search era have the right pieces in place to make much bigger waves in 2.0. 📰 𝗪𝗦𝗝 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲: I'm quoted in Patrick Coffee’s terrific article “Amazon Hopes to Dominate the World of Streaming Ads. It Faces Some Challenges Along the Way.” I have to admit it was a thrill seeing the name Media, Ads + Commerce appear in the The Wall Street Journal for the first time. CC Jared Belsky 🎧𝗕𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗖𝗘 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁: I recently joined Rachel Tipograph and Sarah Hofstetter on one of my most-frequented podcasts, to talk all things #retailmedia for the year ahead. Lots of sub-topics covered, including off-site ads, streaming ads, and product sampling.

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗳 _______ 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 // + 𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗠𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 I just published my second article for 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗔𝗱𝘀 + 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲, looking at the biggest theme(s) in #retailmedia for the year ahead. This one is 800 words and includes 4 graphics. If you want a hint at the answer in the blank, you can find it in the graphic below. This article is behind the paywall, so you'll need to subscribe to get access. Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/gVg6eZqE I will be publishing occasional free articles, but expect ~3 out of every 4 articles to be paywalled. 𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗠𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 If you're wondering whether or not to subscribe, feel free to 𝗔𝗦𝗞 𝗠𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 below in the comments about what topics I'll be covering -- or anything else you want to know about my content -- and I'll be happy to respond.