Retail Media Breakfast Club

I’ve been ringing the bell about AI disrupting retail media for a while now. The pushback I keep hearing is, “Show me the traffic.” And yes, when you look at last-click data, less than 1% of retailer traffic is coming from ChatGPT. So… what’s the big deal?
I recently joined I joined Destaney Wishon on the Better Advertising Podcast to break down why that 1% number is deeply misleading, and why AI’s influence is already reshaping retail media in ways we simply aren’t measuring yet. In today's episode, a snippet from my conversation with Destaney, we unpack the 'dark search' phenomenon, contextual ad experiences inside LLMs, collaborative bidding models between brands and retailers, and why discovery — not checkout — is the real disruption. 
If you care about retail media data, audience targeting, and where ad dollars go next, this conversation is going to make you think differently!

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline
[00:00] – The 1% myth: Why AI traffic looks tiny and why we're looking at the wrong metric
[00:30] – “Dark Search” explained: How LLMs influence purchases without sending clicks
[01:30] – The optimistic view: What ads inside AI could look like (and why they don’t have to be disruptive)
[02:00] – Context is king: Why LLM relevance could outperform traditional retail media
[06:15] – Collaborative bidding between brands and retailers inside AI environments
[09:23] – The real disruption: AI shifting discovery away from retailer.com — and what that means for retail media data

Links & Resources
Watch my full conversation with Destaney Wishon on the Better Advertising podcast: Is Retail Media Ready for AI Ads?
Subscribe to Better Advertising on YouTube and Apple Podcasts
Follow Destaney Wishon on LinkedIn
Malte Landwehr, CPO and CMO of Peec AI, explains his 'Dark Search' thesis on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:AI Is Claiming Browsing Behavior. Commerce Media Must Compete On Its Data Advantage
7 Ways to Break the Retail Media Doom Loop

Join me and Jordan Witmer from Salt XC at 11am ET Friday Feb 27, for our next LinkedIn Live on When RMNs Come Calling for Your Brand Marketing Budget. We'll be answering questions LIVE -- join us!
Atlanta-based retail media professionals: Wednesday, Feb 25 is the next In-Person Atlanta Happy Hour! RSVP here.
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

A year ago, just 7% of website referrals to U.S. retailer sites came from ChatGPT. By October 2025, that number had more than doubled to 16%. And it’s not just ecommerce: nearly one in five shoppers used LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity while shopping in-store over Thanksgiving weekend last year. That’s not a trend. That’s a shift.
In this episode, an expansion on a recent piece I wrote for The Drum, I share a personal story about how AI completely reshaped my own purchase journey (yes, it involves a Shark hair tool and zero browsing on a retailer site!). Then I break down what this “cosmic reset” means for retail media networks. If AI is claiming the early shopping journey, how do commerce media players compete? I walk through four strategic moves retailers must make now to protect their data advantage, strengthen their media moat, and win in an AI-shaped shopping world.

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline
[00:00] – ChatGPT referrals to retailer sites double in a year, and 18% of shoppers use LLMs in-store.
[01:22] – My “hair rut” story: How AI replaced my browsing and narrowed my purchase to one SKU.
[02:51] – The real problem: Fewer signals, fewer surfaces, and less sponsored product exposure.
[04:23] – Strategy #1: Fueling the inspiration stage with offsite commerce media.
[07:15] – Strategy #2: Data collaboration and clean room partnerships across commerce networks.
[08:45] – Strategy #3 & #4: Product truth as a media lever, and why in-store is the most defensible arena.

Links & Resources
Check out my full article on The Drum: Kiri Masters: Retailers, here’s how your media network can still thrive in an AI-shopping era
Read my related articles:Why OpenAI's Ad Network Should Concern RMNs
Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
While We Debate What's 'Really' Agentic, Retail Media's Foundation Is Already Shifting
'The Biggest Change in My Lifetime' — Marketecture CSO on AI Shopping
7 Ways to Break the Retail Media Doom Loop

Join me and Jordan Witmer from Salt XC at 10am ET Thursday Feb 19, for our next LinkedIn Live on When RMNs Come Calling for Your Brand Marketing Budget. We'll be answering questions LIVE -- join us!
Atlanta-based retail media professionals: Wednesday, February 25 is the next In-Person Atlanta Happy Hour! RSVP here.
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Here’s a riddle for you: what’s ugly, chaotic, color-coded, constantly changing but absolutely essential? If you guessed the family calendar, you’re correct. But I’m also talking about how brands are managing retail media in 2026.
Today I unpack why the best-performing brands have stopped waiting for retailers to hand them a clean, unified dashboard, and are instead building their own operating systems on top of retail media networks. Drawing on fresh data from the fifth annual Stratably × Skai State of Retail Media report, I break down the widening gap between brands that are designing systems versus those still juggling platforms. I discuss measurement, incrementality, closed-loop attribution, retail media DSPs, and why only 12% of brands have truly integrated media and commerce data. 
If you’re still logging into eight dashboards and hoping your spreadsheet holds, this one’s for you!

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline
[00:00] – The 'family calendar' riddle and why it perfectly describes retail media management today
[01:15] – Inside the State of Retail Media report: 166 marketers, 40 interviews, and a growing systems gap
[02:12] – The big numbers: 77% want better cross-network measurement, 68% want operational efficiency, and 52% are shifting budgets to retail media DSPs
[03:16] – The 12% stat that should make you uncomfortable: integrating media spend with commerce data
[04:00] – Why retail media measurement standards exist (but infrastructure fragmentation is still the real blocker)
[06:30] – Retailers’ scaling problem, long-tail advertisers, and why brands are building self-serve control layers
[08:00] – My spicy take: stop asking “Which retail media network should I add next?” and start asking “What system am I building?”

Links & Resources
Download the fifth annual Stratably × Skai State of Retail Media report from Skai’s website here.
Read my related articles:The Case for the ‘Long Tail’ of Retail Media Networks
Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
How Can RMNs Tap Upper-Funnel Brand Budgets

Join me and Jordan Witmer from Salt XC at 10am ET Thursday Feb 19, for our next LinkedIn Live on When RMNs Come Calling for Your Brand Marketing Budget. We'll be answering questions LIVE -- join us!
Atlanta-based retail media professionals: Wednesday, February 25 is the next In-Person Atlanta Happy Hour! RSVP here.
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

I really, really hoped that ads in AI wouldn’t suck. And now… we’re starting to find out.
In this episode, I break down what we’ve learned about how ads are actually showing up inside ChatGPT, following a recent interview with OpenAI’s advertising lead Asad Awan. I share instances where my earlier (admittedly optimistic) predictions were right, what genuinely surprised me, and my concerns, especially if you care about retail media, first-party data, and the future of shopper marketing.
Listen to learn about the architectural separation between ads and the model, contextual targeting vs. surveillance tracking, the “one good ad is enough” philosophy, and what happens when ad surfaces move upstream of the retailer. Most importantly: will AI ads avoid the retail media doom loop, or are we watching it form in real time?

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline
[00:00] – Why my City Hall wedding perfectly explains how ads creep into trusted environments.
[01:01] – The OpenAI interview that reveals how ads work inside ChatGPT and why it matters.
[02:30] – The hard wall between the model and the ad layer (and why it's better than I expected).
[05:00] – “One good ad is enough” vs. the saturation playbook of traditional retail media.
[06:00] – The rise of algorithmic, agentic advertising, and why my Spidey sense is tingling.
[08:35] – The real threat to retail media: AI as a high-intent ad surface upstream of the retailer.
[10:30] – AI agents facilitating purchases behind the scenes, and what that means for first-party data.
[11:45] – The year-three test: will revenue pressure break the wall between ads and the model?

Links & Resources
Watch the full interview with Asad Awan on The OpenAI Podcast
Subscribe to Debra Aho Williamson's The AI Ads Economy newsletter on Substack or on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Maybe Ads in AI Don't Have To Suck?
ChatGPT Ads Are Here. I'm Not Panicking.
Should Your Industry Advertise in AI Media in 2026?
Why OpenAI's Ad Network Should Concern RMNs

Join me and Jordan Witmer from Salt XC at 10am ET Thursday Feb 19, for our next LinkedIn Live on When RMNs Come Calling for Your Brand Marketing Budget. We'll be answering questions LIVE -- join us!
Atlanta-based retail media professionals: Wednesday, February 25 is the next In-Person Atlanta Happy Hour! RSVP here.
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

When in-store retail media is done right, it can deliver something digital ads simply can’t: a multisensory brand experience that drives immediate sales and long-term brand recall. In this episode, I’m sharing highlights from my recent LinkedIn Live  with Jordan Witmer from the agency SALT, where we dug into what’s really possible with experiential in-store activations, and why so few brands are fully taking advantage of them.
Jordan brings a rare, well-rounded perspective, having spent years on the brand side before moving onto agency side leadership. We talk candidly about why in-store activations in the U.S. often fall flat, how brands are leaving value on the table, and the real reason these high-impact experiences struggle to get funded. If you’re a brand or retail media leader trying to balance short-term ROI with long-term brand building, this conversation is for you.

This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads

Timeline
[00:00] Why in-store experiential activations deliver value that sponsored products and display ads can’t
[01:00] The gap between what’s possible in-store and what’s actually happening in the U.S.
[02:30] How experiential activations drive both immediate POS lift and long-term brand recall
[03:15] Data that proves experiential marketing deepens brand connection and drives purchase
[04:00] Inside the Topo Chico Target activation that drove 3X same-store sales growth
[06:30] The real challenge: measuring ROAS and funding experiential retail media across siloed budgets

Links & Resources
Listen to the full replay of my conversation with Jordan
Learn more about SALT
Follow Jordan Witmer on LinkedIn
Read my related articles:Sam's Club Cracked the Code on In-Store Retail Media—Here's How They Did It
Three Companies Monetizing Moments That Most Retailers Ignore
It’s Time To End Retail Media “Versus” Organic Search

Join me and Jordan Witmer from Salt XC at 10am ET Thursday Feb 19, for our next LinkedIn Live on When RMNs Come Calling for Your Brand Marketing Budget. We'll be answering questions LIVE -- join us!
Atlanta-based retail media professionals: Wednesday, February 25 is the next In-Person Atlanta Happy Hour! RSVP here.
Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn