Retail Media Breakfast Club

What makes one retail media network stand out when so many seem to promise the same thing? In this episode, I explore a fascinating psychology concept called the 'effort heuristic', and explain why it has huge implications for retail media. When buyers can't easily judge technical quality, they look for visible signs that a retailer is investing, innovating, and genuinely building something worthwhile.
I also share why transparency can become a competitive advantage, highlight Costco's retail media strategy as a standout example, and discuss where the line is between showcasing meaningful progress and creating announcement fatigue. If you're building, selling, or buying retail media, this episode offers a fresh perspective on what actually influences decision-making before performance data ever enters the conversation.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] The psychology study behind the effort heuristic, and why perceived effort influences perceived quality.
[01:47] How the effort heuristic applies to retail media buyers evaluating competing retail media networks.
[03:19] Why Costco's transparent approach to its retail media tech stack stood out, and what other retailers can learn from it.
[05:43] The danger of over-marketing: when every product update becomes an "industry-first" announcement.
[06:33] Why the largest retail media networks play by different rules than emerging RMNs competing for test budgets.
[07:21] My advice for retailers and technology partners: show your work, earn credibility, and build trust through transparency.

Links & Resources
The Effort Heuristic by Kruger, Wirtz, Van Boven and Altermatt.
Read my related articles:Costco Is The First US RMN To Reveal Its Entire Tech Stack
Why RMNs Keep Their Tech Stacks Secret
The ‘Costco Velocity’ Tech Stack Is Coming Together. Here's How the Pieces Fit.

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

I finally did something I'd been meaning to do for a while: I requested the full Amazon Ads Consumer File to see exactly what Amazon knows about me. While I expected a few surprises, what I uncovered wasn't just a look into my own shopping habits. It opened my eyes to how brands that don't even sell on Amazon are increasingly using Amazon's audience data to reach consumers.
In this episode, a recap of my recent article for The Drum, I unpack what I found inside my data export, why companies like airlines, banks, insurers and fast-food brands are targeting Amazon audiences, and what this tells us about the next evolution of retail media. If you've been wondering where retail media is headed beyond sponsored products and closed-loop attribution, this is a fascinating glimpse into what's coming next.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
[00:00] Why I downloaded my Amazon Ads Consumer File, and the surprising discovery that nearly 400 companies had placed me into advertising audiences.
[02:34] Why non-endemic brands are increasingly investing in retail media and what's driving this shift beyond traditional ecommerce advertising.
[04:06] Real-world examples from Home Depot, Dick's Sporting Goods and Kroger that show how retailers are monetizing valuable first-party audiences.
[05:15] Why only the most sophisticated retail media networks are positioned to successfully attract non-endemic advertising budgets.
[07:16] Three major reasons Amazon DSP has become dramatically more attractive to non-endemic advertisers, from stronger audience data to better measurement.
[09:15] My biggest takeaway after reviewing my own Amazon data, and why the future growth of retail media may come from brands that don't have products on retailers' shelves at all.

Links & Resources
Check out my original article on The Drum: Why brands with nothing to sell on Amazon are targeting me there
US offsite retail media ad spending will reach $17.05 billion in 2026, up 29.5% YoY, EMARKETER forecasts.
Last year, Kroger Precision Marketing ran Chevrolet's Equinox EV launch through Yahoo DSP on grocery-basket signals rather than automotive intent.
Ross Walker, Director of retail media at Acadia, argues "The 'Amazon DSP for non-endemic brands' story has existed for years," he wrote last month
Follow Ross Walker on LinkedIn
Check out Amazon Days, the newsletter of Dr Koen Pauwels, Professor at Northeastern University: Online Ad Effectiveness at EMAC 2025
Read my related articles:How retail media improves the shopper journey (yes, really)
The retail media lesson inside Dick’s World Cup push
Six ways through the commerce media squeeze

Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop. The latest episode dropped last week
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

I've been wrestling with a question that's becoming impossible to ignore: will agentic media buying fundamentally reshape retail media, or even eliminate parts of today's ecosystem? As AI-powered agents begin making more decisions across ad buying, optimization, and measurement, it's worth asking who wins, who loses, and whether the way advertising dollars flow today will look anything like it does a year or two from now.
In this episode, I share highlights from an insightful conversation on the Ad Tech Therapy podcast, where Scott Messer and Jana Meron responded to my question about the future of agentic media buying. They unpack whether AI will truly collapse the ad tech stack, why history suggests the industry is more likely to evolve than disappear, and what all of this could mean specifically for retail media. If you've been wondering how AI will impact agencies, retailers, brands, and ad tech platforms, this episode is for you.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
00:00 – The question I can't stop asking: Will agentic media buying disrupt retail media as we know it?
01:03 – Why I posed this question to Scott Messer and Jana Meron, and the challenge I gave them.
02:00 – Fear, disruption, and why concerns about AI replacing jobs are both rational and useful.
03:30 – Will AI eliminate layers of the ad tech ecosystem or simply make them more efficient?
06:30 – How retail media's technology stack differs from traditional programmatic advertising.
09:00 – My biggest takeaway: Retail media isn't losing layers, it's reorganizing them.

Links & Resources
Listen to the full AdTech Therapy episode: Where the Puck Are We Going?
Subscribe to AdTech Therapy on Apple Podcasts
Submit a question to AdTech Therapy via their Patient Portal
Follow Scott Messer, AdTech Therapy host, on LinkedIn
Follow Jana Meron, AdTech Therapy host, on LinkedIn
Why retail media supply-side platforms alone won’t save your ad business by Jon Flugstad on the Moloco blog
Read my related articles:How an RMN's tech stack impacts your advertising results
AI in retail: selecting solution providers that deliver real value, not just hype
AI in real life: how retailers and brands are leveraging AI (real numbers)

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

What if ordering lunch sounded like the way many brands buy retail media? That was the inspiration behind my latest comedy skit... but beneath the joke is a serious question about how retail media is changing the way marketers think about growth.
In this episode, I unpack a thoughtful LinkedIn post from Juliana Nodwell, and connect it with several of my past articles about why precision isn't the same as purpose. I explore where retail media truly excels, why brand marketing and retail media serve different jobs, and how confusing the two can actually weaken long-term growth. Along the way, I revisit insights from Jordan Witmer, Steve Gray, and Jason O'Toole that challenge some of the industry's biggest assumptions about full-funnel marketing.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
00:00 – My comedy skit that pokes fun at today's retail media buying habits.
00:52 – Juliana Nodwell's argument: Are marketers confusing precision with purpose?
02:25 – Why retail media and brand media have different jobs, and why that's okay.
04:09 – Jordan Witmer explains how budget ownership shapes retail media strategy.
06:44 – What How Brands Grow teaches us about the metrics that actually build brands.
07:46 – Why investing in brand media can make performance media more efficient over time.

Links & Resources
Here's the skit, which first appeared on the new Basket Case podcast from The Drum and QSIC.
Juliana Nodwell's post on LinkedIn
Follow Juliana Nodwell, Retail Media & Omnichannel Strategy at Kraft Heinz, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:"Whoever Owns the Budget Determines What Retail Media Is Allowed to Be"
The 'How Brands Grow' Dogma Wants To Have A Word With Retail Media
Brand Media Lowers the Tax You Pay on Growth

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

We've spent the last year watching retailers race to launch AI shopping assistants, but I think we're asking the wrong question. Instead of obsessing over who has the smartest chatbot, we should be asking: What job are shoppers actually hiring these AI assistants to do?

In this episode, I unpack insights from a fascinating recent conversation on Jason Del Rey's newsletter The Aisle with former Amazon and Walmart product leader Mukesh Jain, explore why "nobody wakes up wanting to chat with a retailer," and explain why the future of AI shopping may have far less to do with conversation than we think. Along the way, I revisit one of my own predictions about retailer AI, and explain why recent research has changed my perspective.
This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop
Timeline
00:00 – Why Clayton Christensen's "Jobs to Be Done" framework is still the best way to think about AI shopping assistants.
02:15 – The three distinct shopping jobs AI needs to solve, and why chatbots aren't the answer for every one of them.
03:32 – The quote that changed how I think about retailer AI: "Nobody wakes up wanting to chat with a retailer."
06:00 – Will ChatGPT and Gemini win shopping discovery, or can retailers build assistants shoppers actually return to?
08:28 – Why I changed my mind about Amazon Rufus, and what Kantar's latest research revealed about what consumers really value.
10:00 – My biggest takeaway: today's retail AI chatbots are just the beginning, not the finished product.

Links & Resources
Check out Jason Del Rey's interview with Mukesh Jain on The Aisle. 
Follow Mukesh Jain, Co-founder, SignalAI, on LinkedIn
Subscribe to The Aisle
Read Wave 1 of Kantar's AI-Enabled Commerce Pulse
Subscribe to Watson Weekly on Apple Podcasts
Follow Rick Watson, Founder, RMW Commerce, on LinkedIn
Follow Holden Bale, Global Chief Strategy Officer at Merkle, on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:What it means for retail media when AI chat has only 2 ad slots
The agentic media buying race has a problem: nobody's asked the buyers
AI-Enabled Shopping Hits 74% Adoption

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