Retail Media Breakfast Club

Last Thursday, Ace Hardware took over Wrigley Field in Chicago for the first upfront from Redvest Media, its roughly year-old retail media network. I wasn’t there myself, so I called my friend Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, who was on the ground. I wanted to know what was happening beyond the press releases: who Ace put on stage, what the retailer was really trying to communicate, and what advertisers were saying afterwards.
We dig into what Ace’s executive lineup reveals about the growing integration of retail media with the broader business, why audience innovation and weather targeting matter to Ace’s advertisers, and how partnerships like DoorDash are helping the retailer reach new customers. We also talk about why retail media networks may need to think differently about upfronts, vendor days and industry events — and why creating an experience that makes advertisers want to believe in the retailer could be a powerful part of the pitch.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[01:29] - How Ace is integrating retail media with merchandising and the broader business
[03:21] - Why Redvest’s new brand and custom audience capabilities could enable better test-and-learn
[04:31] - The message behind Ace’s executive presence and its growth investment
[07:00] - Why advertiser trust is becoming critical for a newer retail media network
[09:21] - Why weather targeting suddenly matters to Ace’s advertisers
[12:00] - How DoorDash is helping Ace reach new customers, particularly Gen Z
[14:30] - Why Wrigley Field may be a smarter retail media pitch than another industry conference

Links & Resources
Check out The Middlemen's interview with Ace Hardware's Molly Hjelm: When Campaign Results Aren't Enough — Molly Hjelm, RedVest Media
Subscribe to The Middlemen
Follow Tom Limongello, host of The Middlemen Podcast, on LinkedIn
Follow Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President and Head of Retail Media at Ace Hardware, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Ace Hardware's RedVest Media: Notes From My Interview With Molly Hjelm
Is Retail Media Kidding Itself?
Bring the "Retail" back to Retail Media

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
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Are retail media networks trying too hard to become media companies? In this episode, I’m sharing a thought-provoking piece from Mike Shields of Next in Media that asks whether the industry’s push toward off-site, full-funnel media is actually the right strategy for most retailers. Plus the tension between putting the “retail” back into retail media and chasing bigger brand budgets through CTV, DSPs and the open web.
I also share some of my own thoughts on where retail media is heading, including the very different economics of on-site versus off-site advertising, why brands are demanding more measurement than the industry may be able to provide, and whether closed-loop attribution is sometimes creating more problems than it solves. If you’re thinking about the future of retail media networks, this is a debate worth paying attention to.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:43] - Why retail media’s off-platform push is really about accessing bigger brand budgets
[02:00] - The debate over whether retail media networks should become full-fledged media companies
[03:15] - Why “putting the retail back in retail media” is such a provocative idea
[04:20] - The case for making specialist retailer data actionable beyond the retailer’s own ecosystem
[06:24] - My thoughts on the different economics of on-site and off-site retail media
[08:06] - Why the industry’s obsession with measurement may be creating a prison of its own making
[09:18] - The attribution problem: when retail media sales add up to more than the brand’s actual P&L

Links & Resources
Check out Mike Shields' original piece here
Subscribe to Next in Media by Mike Shields, a newsletter and podcast covering the media and advertising business.
Follow Mike Shields, founder of Next in Media, on LinkedIn
The Trade Desk: The retail media guide for off-site growth
Listen to Molly Hjelm, corporate Vice President and General Manager of RedVest Media at Ace Hardware, on this week’s episode of Next in Media. 
Read my related articles:Whoever Owns the Budget Determines What Retail Media Is Allowed to Be
How Can RMNs Tap Upper-Funnel Brand Budgets
Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
Retail Media Buyers Say They Want Transparency, Then Ask for ROAS
'Not 100% altruistic': ad measurement veteran on what retail media is really optimizing for

I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
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Amazon already captures roughly 40% of every dollar spent online in the US, yet it continues to grow at an impressive pace. So I wanted to look at a question we don't hear nearly enough: where does Amazon spend its own advertising money? Because while Amazon gives brands advertising recommendations every day, I think its own media plan may be the more interesting lesson.
In this recap of my recent article for The Drum, I dug into three years of Sensor Tower data to see where Amazon is putting its advertising dollars, which channels are getting the biggest investment, and how its mix is changing. I also look at the shift from desktop display to video, why Amazon is willing to pay more for potentially fewer impressions, and what advertisers can learn from the company's approach to emerging channels.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[02:09] - Breaking down Amazon's $2.7 billion US advertising spend in 2025
[03:54] - Why Amazon's media plan looks surprisingly conventional
[07:23] - How Amazon can measure Meta impressions against actual Amazon purchases
[08:00] - What Amazon is actually advertising, from AWS and Prime to devices and the retail store
[09:10] - The striking gap between Amazon's rising ad spend and relatively flat impression growth
[10:20] - Why Amazon is shifting dramatically from desktop display into video
[12:15] - The three habits I see in Amazon's media buying strategy

Links & Resources
Read my full article on The Drum: The best advertising advice Amazon gives isn't in a slide deck
Check out Sensor Tower, who measure the full digital consumer journey, from mobile apps to web, ads, gaming, and beyond.
Follow Ross Walker, Head of Retail Media @ Acadia, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Have Retailers Lost Discovery to AI for Good?
Some Retailers Want to Power Other Retailers' Ad Businesses. Will It work?
Amazon Q2 Earnings: What Industry Experts Say About Power Buying, Ad Overload, and AI Threats

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop: latest episode
I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Advertising has always been the glamorous side of ecommerce, while product catalog maintenance, reviews, inventory, and other operational work have often been underfunded. But with Amazon’s Sponsored Prompts, that relationship is changing dramatically. This is Part 2 of my Sponsored Prompts series (check out Park 1 here), I’m digging into why your advertising account is now downstream of everything happening in your operations, and why content is no longer just an input to your ads; it is the ad. 
I’m also taking a closer look at product reviews, reporting limitations, bidding, and what Sponsored Prompts could ultimately mean for retail media teams. There are some legitimate concerns here, particularly around review manipulation and transparency, but I also see a fascinating upside: Sponsored Prompts could become a surprisingly powerful form of consumer research, as they could reveal the questions, objections, and selling points that actually convert.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[01:37] - Why your advertising account is now downstream of operations, including inventory, reviews, commercial terms, and product content. 
[03:18] - How Sponsored Prompts turns product content and backend inputs into the ad itself. 
[05:13] - Why fake and manipulated product reviews could become an even bigger problem when reviews are effectively being used as paid ad copy. 
[09:26] - Amazon advertising: bidding still works the same way, but advertisers now have less leverage at the auction level. 
[10:15] - Why Sponsored Prompts reporting is still surprisingly basic, and what Amazon’s slow rollout might tell us about the ad format. 
[12:49] - The unexpected upside: how Sponsored Prompts could uncover consumer questions and selling points that brands didn't realize they were underselling.

Links & Resources
Check out Part 1 of my Amazon Sponsored Prompts series: Billed for the Ad Before the Ad Exists: Amazon Sponsored Prompts
Ladi Fagbola, an ecommerce account director at the agency Monks, articulated a cool follow-up from my post this week
Follow Ladi Fagbola on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Billed for the Ad Before the Ad Exists: Amazon Sponsored Prompts
What it means for retail media when AI chat has only 2 ad slots
Amazon Unboxed 2025: Key Announcements & Takeaways for Brand Advertisers
Retailer AI Assistants: Are Shoppers Actually Using Them?
Walmart's Sparky AI Assistant: A Late Mover with Early Promise

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

There’s a particular kind of vertigo that comes from watching a podcast you started get better without you. I launched the Ecommerce Braintrust podcast back in 2017, and while I’m no longer running it, I still listen because the team at Acadia is in the trenches every day doing the work.
A recent conversation between my old Acadia colleagues on measurement really got me thinking about a question I hear from brands all the time: if every advertising platform says it’s winning, why don’t the business results reflect that? When Meta, Google, Amazon and retail media networks all claim credit for conversions, the numbers can quickly become impossible to reconcile. In this episode, I share snippets from a recent Ecommerce Braintrust episode that dig into the idea of “engine inflation,” why multi-touch attribution is struggling in 2026, and what brands should be using instead to understand what is actually driving incremental growth.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] - The measurement problem every advertiser is wrestling with: when every platform claims to be winning, why don't the business results add up?
[01:45] - Introducing “engine inflation” and why platform-reported revenue can exceed actual business revenue.
[03:56] - Why multi-touch attribution isn't coming to save us and why Acadia has moved away from MTA.
[04:52] - The three-pillar measurement framework: media mix modeling, incrementality testing, and platform optimization.
[06:15] - Why the growth of retail media networks makes a holistic view of total media spend increasingly important.
[08:34] - Why measuring Amazon and Walmart simply by retail media network and ad type can produce the wrong conclusions.
[09:46] - How defensive branded search can look incredibly efficient while doing very little to drive incremental growth.

Links & Resources
Listen to the full Ecommerce Braintrust episode: The 2026 Measurement Crisis: Why Your Media Efficiency is Probably a Lie With Sally Kazin and Ross Walker - Episode 438
Subscribe to Ecommerce Braintrust on Apple Podcasts
Follow Sally Kazin, Head of Analytics @ Acadia, on LinkedIn
Follow Ross Walker, Head of Retail Media @ Acadia, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
'Not 100% altruistic': ad measurement veteran on what retail media is really optimizing for
As Retail Media Spending Soars, Brands Face A Measurement Crisis
The Other Side of the Story: Why Retailers Struggle with Media Measurement & Standardization

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn