Last week, I had the honor of moderating a session at the IAB Connected Commerce Summit called “How to Supercharge Your Creative Strategy with AI.” Joining me on stage were Mike Brunick, SVP, Head of Commerce Media at Yahoo; Devrie DeMarco, Managing Director at MediaLink/UTA; and Wendi Dunlap, EVP, Business Intelligence and Audience Science at Mediahub Worldwide.

Together, we dove into how AI is reshaping creative strategies and, most importantly, how it’s knitting together the online and offline worlds to build seamless customer experiences.

One of the most compelling moments came from DeMarco, who reminded us that it’s not just about optimizing workflows, it’s about crafting journeys that resonate across every touchpoint. She said it powerfully: “If AI can free people from manual tasks, imagine the potential of a better in-store experience.”That struck a chord. We’re not just using AI for efficiency’s sake; we’re using it to enrich the entire shopping experience, connecting the digital and physical realms.

Brunick emphasized that personalization needs to go beyond immediate transactions. It’s about fostering long-term relationships. Picture a customer’s journey as a continuous thread weaving through both online and in-store experiences. AI helps us analyze behaviors, build meaningful touchpoints, and drive engagement that resonates across channels. But it’s most effective when it amplifies our ability to connect on a human level. We can’t let data and automation drown out the personal touch.

Dunlap added another layer, urging us not to overlook the ethical implications of AI in creative strategies. While AI can enhance creativity, without vigilance, we risk introducing bias into the strategies we create to connect with diverse audiences. “Bias” and “inclusivity” must be at the forefront of any AI-driven approach, Dunlap explained. The technology is only as good as the data it’s fed. Without human insight, we can easily miss the mark in reflecting our diverse audiences and their varied consumer experiences.  This isn’t just about algorithms; it’s about responsibility.

AI Strategy in Three Key Points

Our panel boiled down AI strategy to three essential takeaways:

1. Bridge the Online and In-Store Experience: It’s not about separate channels; it’s about guiding customers through a unified journey.
2. Enhance Creativity, Don’t Replace It: AI should augment the human touch, but always keep a sharp eye on data-driven biases.
3. Start Small: Test a few use cases, learn, and then scale up thoughtfully. Don’t try to boil the ocean.

The Power of Experience

After my panel, I attended several discussions that expanded on these ideas. But the last session of the day — “Unlock the Power of Innovation through Creativity in Commerce” — truly drove everything home for me. Featuring Michael Olaye, EVP, Managing Director at Hero Digital, and Lauren Chesley, Head of Industry, Retail + Restaurants at SiriusXM Media, and moderated by Pam Zucker, Chief Strategy Officer at IAB<, this session wrapped up many of the themes we’d explored throughout the day.

They picked up right where our panel left off and closed the loop on what Walter T. Geer III touched upon earlier in the day during his fireside chat: We need to be creating experiences. It’s not just about selling products; it’s about crafting a journey that resonates on multiple sensory levels and stays with the consumer long after.

Olaye framed it perfectly: “Creativity stays the same, but the canvas changes.” We’ve moved from TV and print to automation and digital platforms, and it’s about using technology to drive human thinking. His words encapsulated what we’d been circling all day — AI isn’t here to replace creativity; it’s here to enhance it, giving us new canvases to paint on.

Chesley illustrated this idea deeper, painting a vivid picture of a European hotel where every detail was designed to engage the senses. The scent in the lobby, the jazz music playing softly, the warm towel handed to guests, and the champagne toast at check-in. “The more senses you activate, the more connected you are to someone,” she explained. It clicked. The same principles apply to retail. She argued that audio is a powerful yet often underused channel, creating emotional connections in a world saturated with visuals. When was the last time you thought about a brand’s sonic identity?

Olaye also introduced the idea of Zero UI — a world that moves beyond screens and traditional interfaces. Imagine stores where sensors, AI, and connected devices know your preferences without you having to input anything. Zero UI is about blending the physical and digital worlds in seamless ways. This dovetailed perfectly with what we discussed during the session I moderated: AI is a tool to build customer journeys that speak to how people want to interact with brands, online or offline.

Key Takeaways from the IAB Connected Commerce Summit

1. Phygital Experiences Are Key: Rose Ferraro of Rockbot emphasized that consistency between online and in-store environments is crucial. Unified media across audio, signage, and other touchpoints strengthens the brand narrative and keeps consumers engaged.
2. In-Store Digitization as a Business Enabler: Nick Ashley of Tesco Media nailed it when he said that digitization isn’t just about media revenue; it’s about enhancing the overall business. Elevating the look and feel of stores fosters long-term customer loyalty.
3. Retail Data Drives Better Impact: Elizabeth Cotogno of Kroger Precision Marketing noted that incorporating retail data earlier in media planning can boost business impact by 50%. But the real challenge? Moving beyond outdated metrics like CPMs and focusing on real-world outcomes.
4. Creativity and Technology Must Work Hand-in-Hand: Walter T. Geer III reminded us that while AI and automation provide incredible tools, it’s the human element — our stories, ethics, and passion — that ultimately drives compelling campaigns.
5. Personalization, but Not at the Expense of Privacy: The summit repeatedly highlighted that AI should personalize and enhance consumer experiences while keeping privacy and ethics at the forefront of every interaction.

Creating the Connected Experience

If there’s one major lesson I walked away from the IAB Connected Commerce Summit with, it’s this: AI is an enabler, not the end goal. Whether we’re streamlining creative processes or building phygital retail environments, the focus should always be on crafting meaningful, holistic experiences.

AI can free us from mundane tasks, drive deeper insights, and open up new possibilities. But at its core, it’s the human touch that keeps the heartbeat of creative strategy alive. It’s about understanding what truly resonates with people and using technology to amplify those connections.

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While there is a ton of opportunity in the retail media world, there are still challenges. Those opportunities and challenges were top of mind at the 2023 IAB Connected Commerce Summit: Reimagining Retail Media event, where industry experts expressed their views on prioritizing consumers’ needs and the importance of privacy as a trend and strategic imperative.

Driven by technological advancements, changing consumer behaviors, and the need for effective audience engagement, brands are embracing that the future of retail is omnichannel. Likewise, publishers — as partners of retail media networks, providing offsite access to an extended audience — are walking the customer-centric walk. 

Prioritizing a Consumer-Centric Approach

During the “Building Consumer Trust in Retail Media” session, all panelists agreed that putting consumers first does wonders for your business. Yes, your relationship with your partners and intermediaries is essential, but the most important relationship a brand or publisher can have is the relationship with their audience. 

“Consumers need to be at the center of everything, as your relationship with consumers is more important than the advertising,” explained Peter Barry, Vice President of Addressability at PubMatic. “What you do with data, what sort of partners you work with, you have to look through that consumer lens.”

The value exchange you demonstrate with your consumers is a win-win because retailers benefit from profitable business lines that allow them to reduce sales fees, which is a plus for the consumer. 

Danielle Brown, Senior Vice President, Data Enablement and Category Strategy at Disney Advertising Sales, made it clear that at Disney, the customer experience always comes first, from their theme parks to their streaming platforms. 

“We have spent years building a proprietary audience graph, allowing us to target consumers with highly relevant ads,” Brown said. “The goal is to provide consumers with content and advertising that resonates with their true needs and preferences.”

Transparency and building consumer trust are primary aspects of the retail media business. Since retailers have a surplus of consumer data, responsible data handling is paramount. With this data, retailers can provide valuable consumer insights and media consumption behaviors, closing the attribution loop. That is why starting with a healthy commitment to transparency is the key to success.

Privacy Management: Transparency’s Three Dimensions

When communicating your value exchange, it is necessary to consider consumer privacy as a strategic choice. Why are we collecting their data, and how does it improve the consumer’s experience? Communicating why you are collecting their data and how it improves their experience can go a long way to building and maintaining trust. Transparency is key.

Agencies also play a crucial role in ensuring a better consumer advertising experience, so they must hold themselves accountable for respecting consumer data.

Transparency has three dimensions, according to Amie Owen, US Head of Commerce at UM Worldwide. “First, building trust with your consumers is important by clearly demonstrating the value exchange. Second, it’s best to be transparent with clients, ensuring that all activities are shared and the learning is mutual,” she stated. “Third is nothing other than simplification. Simplify the processes for retailers, consumers, and your internal teams.”

Shifting from Retail Media 1.0 to Retail Media 2.0 

There is a shift happening in retail media from Retail Media 1.0 to today’s Retail Media 2.0. In the early days, Retail Media 1.0 consisted of retailers realizing the power of media revenue and using their platforms to display ads and monetize their audience. Sounds like easy money, right? We’d say so, but things are changing now as consumer expectations changed.

Retail media 2.0 looks at consumer behaviors to focus on their wants and needs, creating the need for a more sophisticated approach. This new version of Retail Media is about establishing a more integrated and collaborative approach between retail and media, focusing on standardization and better measurement practices. It also addresses the challenges of major players like Amazon and emerging Chinese platforms like TikTok, Shein, and Temu. 

During the “Retail Media 2.0: Balancing Personalization and Monetization” session, panelists stressed the importance of embracing a 360-degree approach. Seamlessly integrating physical and digital retail experiences can lead to substantial growth and better monetization.

Looking Forward to the Future of Retail Media 

In the future, AI will play a critical role in retail media, just as it is in every other aspect of digital media and ad tech. For now, AI is being used to redefine data segments and provide personalization for users. However, the long-term implications include machine learning systems taking over the more tedious tasks for shoppers. 

There are several challenges and opportunities in retail media. These include standardizing measurement metrics, closing the gap with industry giants like Amazon, fostering a healthier retail media ecosystem, and building a more diverse talent pool. The future is bright, and while challenges exist, improving the consumer experience is crucial to navigating the challenges.

The post Customer Centricity: The Key To Retail Media’s Successful Future appeared first on AdMonsters.

With the ongoing explosive growth in online shopping— sales topped $1 trillion in 2022— advertisers are in the market for new avenues to capture consumers’ attention and spend. But many nontraditional publishers struggle with knowing how or where to begin.

Who Are Nontraditional Publishers?

Consider your media property. Do you have a consistent following and consumers who return for your unique content? Are these consumers spending a significant amount of time on your site? If so, you can likely consider yourself a publisher, albeit a nontraditional one.

 Beyond the content you create, consider your site’s purpose. For example, deal-centric or “shopping resource” sites like ours are an emergent type of nontraditional publisher with significant traction over the years. We attract a specialized audience of deal-seekers who are already in a buying mindset. 

Continued inflation brings an increased focus on comparative shopping, which has boosted traffic. Coupon sites and other similar shopping resources have helped shoppers save money, and helped brands survive during volatile times such as COVID and past recessions. 

With a growing audience ready to buy, coupon or deal sites can be a precious asset to advertisers. However, nontraditional publishers often face off against early stumbling blocks as they develop a monetization strategy. 

Challenges Faced by Nontraditional Publishers 

For nontraditional publishers, recognizing their unique audience and value is only the starting line. Implementing new advertising solutions can be complex.  Maintaining your site’s identity is important, as it is what your consumers expect. 

However, for publishers that did not build their site with monetization in mind, finding ways to incorporate advertising, subscriptions, or eCommerce naturally can serve as a challenge.

Our ad network partner, SourceKnowledge’s co-founder. and CRO, Hector Pantazopoulos, says:  “Nontraditional publishers have more avenues than ever to monetize their content — while maintaining the natural flow of their sites. When it comes to monetization, these publishers should keep their options and minds open, as the most widely utilized and recognized walled garden solutions may not be the best fit for your goals.”

 CouponFollow has a highly engaged audience of consumers who are often ready to purchase, but initially we were not being properly rewarded for all of our traffic. Our main challenge was to fully optimize this traffic in a way that did not disrupt the natural flow consumers had come to appreciate. 

Since partnering and optimizing with the SourceKnowledge Network, CouponFollow has exceeded our goals to fill more inventory and increase the returns on under-monetized merchants. 

SourceKnowledge was recently acquired by mrge, the world’s leading commerce advertising platform, connecting more than 5,500+ publishers, 55,000+ advertisers, and 100+ networks – in over 160 countries. CouponFollow has worked with both mrge and SourceKnowledge for years. This acquisition gives CouponFollow a seamless end-to-end commerce advertising product suite with access to all mrge companies.

Nontraditional Publisher Opportunities

Nontraditional publishers help decision-making by helping consumers determine how and when to monetize. The unique purpose of their site can drive greater conversions. For example, deal-centric sites are specifically designed to attract consumers who are ready to make a purchase. 

Your site has an edge in attracting marketing partners if they serve a specialized purpose, be it deal-seeking or information-gathering. For example, through our partnership with SourceKnowledge, CouponFollow saw an increase of 227% in available merchants.

“Deal-centric sites like CouponFollow offer a unique value proposition for consumers and a ‘ready to buy’ audience for marketers. They deserve to be rewarded for their ability to drive conversions!” said Pantazopoulos.

Also, nontraditional publishers have a wealth of solutions to pull from to determine the monetization strategy that will work best for them. Nontraditional publishers should take stock of all their options when considering their tactics and overall strategy. If your inventory is valuable and your audience is primed for conversions, you should drive competition amongst advertisers.

CouponFollow has seen a 184% YoY increase in monetized traffic directly attributed to the SourceKnowledge Network and an overall growth of 20% in revenue. Our partnership has driven an 85.5% increase in incremental monetized traffic since November 2021.

You work hard to curate your media property, and it’s past time to be properly rewarded for those efforts. Know your audience and keep your mind and options open. You’ll be able to build a powerful, personalized marketing mix and establish yourself as an in-demand partner for marketers.

Though nontraditional publishers face a steeper uphill battle in establishing advertising solutions, their unique positioning in determining how and when to monetize for consumers can give them an edge in the online marketplace.

By examining the holistic array of solutions available, these publishers can effectively drive competition and optimize their media property for their unique audiences. 

The post How CouponFollow Effectively Monetizes Traffic As a Nontraditional Publisher appeared first on AdMonsters.

Brands are being cautious with their ad spend right now. Amid a recession, they are worried about their revenue gain as inflation takes its course. On the other hand, consumers are still spending money. While they are allocating more funds to non-discretionary spending, discretionary spending is still rising. 

Inflation is not keeping consumers from spending money, and brands should take notes. 

“If consumer spending is still strong in their category, now is not a good time to cut ad spend,” said  Nick Mangiapane, CMO and Head of Partnerships at Commerce Signals, a TransUnion Company. 

TransUnion discusses this in their survey, Consumer Spending Remains Strong as Headwinds Build. Inflation may be at an all-time high, but Consumers are still spending and pushing the economy forward. How much longer the consumer can keep up their spending power is up for debate, but advertisers can play a role in assisting them. 

Non-discretionary V. Discretionary Spending 

Last year, consumer discretionary spending was slowing down. While the rate was not decreasing, economists were unsure how long the trend would last. In a shocking turn of events, the data shows that consumer discretionary purchases and spending have shown signs of growth in 2023. 

While some may infer that increased inflation meant less consumer spending, last year, the data showed that consumer card spending increased by 14.6% in July. Due to the strong job market and the high consumer saving rate during the pandemic, consumer spending has stayed above inflation. Although, as the market effects of COVID-19 waned away, consumer habits changed.  

For instance, inflation forced consumers to distribute much of their revenue to non-discretionary segments such as food, gas, rent, and utilities. While discretionary spending slowed, the spending is still strong. 

In January and February of this year, there was an uptick in discretionary spending, specifically in the travel industry. Consumer spending continues to remain strong in both non-discretionary and discretionary categories.  

“Discretionary spending through February is up 12.3% year over year, so while growth may slow, there is still a long way to go before it becomes negative,” said Mangiapane. 

The news is good for now, but economists had contrasting views on how much longer discretionary spending will grow: 

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said U.S. consumers have about six to nine months of spending power left. 
• Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan asserted that other than gasoline, consumer spending was higher than inflation, and he believes the trend will continue. 
  • “The spending is strong, and then customers have more money in their accounts than they did pre-pandemic by multiples,” Mr. Moynihan said. “They’ve got plenty of money to spend.”

Trading Down and the Flourishing Travel Industry

Last year, consumers implemented a trading down strategy to compensate for the high prices. This included continued spending on high-priority discretionary categories and cutting back on lower-priority discretionary categories. In the packaged goods industry, consumer purchases increased by 3.4%, while food prices were up by 10.4%. The caveat was that consumers purchase cheaper items like burgers instead of steak. 

                                                                                                                                  Source: Commerce Signals’ Spend Analytics Suite

In 2023, the high spending rate in the travel industry was vital for the uptick of discretionary spending. Travel spending saw the highest growth, with an increase of 34.5%. The number of consumer transactions also increased at a rate of 21.3%, highlighting that consumers are traveling more than they were a year ago. Evidence highlights that the increase is due to higher average ticket prices directly influenced by inflation, but purchases were still up. Is it because the pandemic trapped consumers inside their homes? 

With travel bans implemented worldwide during the pandemic, disaster struck the travel industry. Christine Maguire, VP Of Global Ad Revenue at TripAdvisor, said that while the trip planning company had a tough time, their business needed data and revenue to weather the storm. 

“In reaction to the pandemic’s impact on the economy, specifically our business, we had to go into action mode to weather the uncertain storm immediately,” said Maguire. “After being in hyper-growth mode to maximize the media business, I had to put my finance and operations hat on quickly to manage costs, reimagine a streamlined and consolidated global organization, while managing the changing dynamics in the marketplace due to the pandemic.”

Last year, the travel industry bounced back due to their tenacity, innovation, and the consumers’ eagerness to travel once federal governments started to lift travel bans. This year the travel industry is continuing that growth. The transportation category, which includes cruises, ride-sharing, taxis, and trains, had the highest increase in spending at 79.6%. Airline spending also started the year very strong, with a growth of 50.3%. 

Don’t Reduce Your Ad Spend

During inflation, advertisers might want to decrease their ad spend budget, but the data urges you to do the opposite. You must increase your ad spend budget to encourage consumers to keep spending. 

Economic uncertainty causes some to decrease their ad budget, but most industry experts will agree that it is a disastrous move for both brands and consumers. Brand exposure, brand prominence, and audience targeting will decrease. 

“As a marketing leader, I’m very familiar with leadership requesting marketing budget cuts,” said Mangiapane. “However, cutting budgets expecting lower revenue can be a self-fulfilling prophecy in times like this. Advertisers with reliable incremental sales studies will easily defend their budgets.”

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