Why Academy Sports Took its Time Before Diving into Retail Media

Rather than rushing into unproven adtech trends, Academy Sports and Outdoors grounded its retail media launch in clean first-party POS data to capture a loyal sporting audience where 67% never shop at direct competitors.From unlocking an almost 8x conversion jump through on-site display to integrating early with Google’s agentic checkout protocols, this discussion maps the operational playbook for connecting digital ad spend directly to physical store sales.Key Highlights🛒 Most retail media conversions still happen at the physical register, with 72% of shoppers buying in stores after seeing an ad.⏱️ Being late to the game lets you skip years of legacy tech debt and launch in three months using turnkey partners.🎯 An ad network's real leverage is unique reach, built around loyal buyers who never step foot in a competitor's store.📈 Pairing display banners with sponsored search drives 2.4 times more sales than running search placements on their own.💳 Owning the register data lets you tie ads directly to real purchases instead of relying on modeled guesswork.👥 Off-site ads on Meta and YouTube are serious customer finders, driving over half of campaign sales from buyers new to the brand.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Chad Fox on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction00:18 Academy’s footprint and the decision to enter retail media3:20 Strategic partnerships and Academy’s distinctive customer base7:04 Loyalty, identity resolution, and predictive audience insights10:19 Epsilon’s view on AI-ready, customer-centered marketing11:30 Omni-channel measurement and the early response from brands14:21 Full-funnel advertising and campaign results16:58 Academy’s media capabilities and plans to expand18:23 Preparing for AI-enabled shopping21:10 What Fox sees as the essentials of a strong retail media network

Creator marketing has graduated from leftover flowchart dollars to boardroom strategy, marked by Accenture Song’s headline acquisition of creator agency Whalar.Whalar co-CEO Jo Cronk unpacks why treating creators like interchangeable inventory fails, how advanced media-mix modeling satisfies CFOs, and what the escalating battle between YouTube and Meta means for brand budgets.Key Highlights🤝 You can't buy creator partnerships like standard programmatic ad space—it’s about collaborating on stories with real people, not buying passive inventory.🏎️ Organic reach is basically dead; great creator content is like a sports car, and paid boosting is the fuel you need to get it out of the garage.👥 Use the "Spice Girls strategy": partnering with five distinct voices plugs you into five passionate communities far better than blowing the whole budget on one mega-celebrity.📊 Creator campaigns can't keep grading their own homework in a vacuum; they have to be measured side-by-side with TV and paid media in your actual media mix.🛑 If you don't cap ad frequency when boosting creator content, you aren't building awareness—you're just making people sick of seeing that creator's face.📖 A random one-off endorsement won't move product; real sales come from long-term partnerships where the creator tells an ongoing story across multiple chapters.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Jo Cronk on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction1:45 Whalar’s identity and the structure of the former Whalar Group3:32 Why Accenture Song acquired Whalar6:11 Why creator marketing cannot be treated like ordinary media inventory7:24 Organic reach, paid boosting, and the “sports car fuel” analogy8:30 Automation, the “Spice Girls strategy,” and AI plus human intelligence10:33 Measurement, media-mix modeling, and accountability for creator ROI12:32 Brands’ organizational challenge in a social-first environment14:27 Boosting as standard practice—and why frequency capping matters16:26 YouTube, Meta, and the emerging “creator wars”19:25 Creator-led media companies and long-term brand relationships21:48 Authenticity, exclusivity, usage rights, and micro-dramas24:49 Consolidation, trust, and the changing agency landscape27:05 Discovering micro- and nano-creators through technology and community knowledge

The programmatic advertising landscape is facing a massive shakeup as boutique agencies leverage natural-language AI to manage hundreds of millions in media spend without traditional holding-company bloat.StackAdapt’s Giuseppe La Rocca, why winning enterprise ad tech no longer requires matching legacy DSP feature matrices, but rather unifying direct mail, vertical-specific identity graphs, and custom agency intelligence platforms into a frictionless growth engine.Key Highlights⚡ Ten-person agencies can now run $300 million in ad spend, completely blowing up the old headcount-to-billings model.🎯 Enterprise brands don't care about a DSP's 50-page feature checklist—they care whether you can untangle vertical-specific data messes where they're forced to pick between reach and precision.🗣️ Media buyers are ditching manual platform dials for chat prompts, running audience forecasts, RFPs, and live campaign activations straight from a text box.📬 Marketing stacks are finally bridging physical and digital buys, letting programmatic traders launch direct mail campaigns right alongside connected TV.🤝 AI agents can take over the day-to-day platform grunt work, but human relationships and trust are still what close enterprise deals.🧩 You don't need a massive wall of logged-in user profiles to win post-cookie ad tech if you build identity graphs tailored to messy B2B categories like tech, telecom, and finance.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Giuseppe La Rocca LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction2:31 Building programmatic tools for SMB and mid-market advertisers3:59 Taking SMB lessons into enterprise advertising5:20 A vertical-specific enterprise strategy instead of generic DSP competition6:30 Competing during the changing DSP market8:30 CreatorTV advertisement: creator-led television ads9:37 Why StackAdapt emphasizes owned technology and simplicity11:47 Expanding from DSP capabilities to an integrated marketing platform13:03 Ivy Studio and practical AI workflows16:11 - Agentic AI will automate tasks, but people remain essential17:49 - Identity, deterministic data, and StackAdapt’s B2B identity graph19:38 Industry consolidation, expansion, and priority verticals21:38 Measuring the full customer journey, including direct mail

Connected TV is leaving behind its reputation as an awareness-only vehicle as media buyers pair deterministic LinkedIn professional data with Amazon DSP supply to convert high-intent viewers directly on the glass.Monks' North American digital investment lead Tom Burchill breaks down the media planning behind Quicken’s 80% cost reduction and details how Amazon Marketing Cloud unlocks real-time audience portability.Key Highlights📺 You don't have to sell physical goods on Amazon to benefit from Amazon DSP—B2B and software brands can tap its streaming inventory and purchase data to reach premium viewers on and off the platform.🎯 Stacking LinkedIn job roles on top of Amazon buying habits gives you verified, deterministic user profiles instead of relying on fuzzy modeled guesswork.⚖️ When you're chasing niche job titles on streaming TV, open up your inventory controls to as many premium publishers as possible or your campaign will starve for reach.📉 Taking an audience profile you've already vetted elsewhere and dropping it into clean first-party streaming environments pays off fast—Quicken slashed its cost per visit by 80% out of the gate.🔗 IP matching has largely replaced the old TV attribution guessing game by directly tying living-room screen exposure to concrete web actions and conversions.🧪 Treat your initial run like a controlled lab experiment to establish clean benchmarks before handing the reins over to automated machine-learning optimization.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Tom Burchill on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Intro1:41 Amazon DSP opportunities for non-endemic advertisers3:18 TV targeting technology is advancing, but scale remains essential5:51 Quicken combines LinkedIn and Amazon data in CTV7:58 Deterministic identity signals strengthen audience activation9:52 Identity resolution supports customer understanding and prospecting10:29 Balancing in-market targets with lookalike models11:34 Controlled testing now, automated optimization next12:58 Streaming TV evolves from awareness medium to performance channel14:25 Amazon Marketing Cloud enables portable, actionable audience insights

When Epson launched its high-end LightStudio home-cinema projector to consumers who only knew them for desktop printers, relying on lower-funnel search ads was a dead end.Live from Amazon Unbox, Amerge's Laura Abadias and Amazon's Charlotte Maines, discuss how connecting Fire TV, Prime Video, and Amazon Marketing Cloud drove 25 million viewers and an 80% new-to-brand purchase rate.Key Highlights🎯 If you only run search ads, you're stuck fighting over existing demand; streaming TV is how you actually create demand before someone ever touches a search bar.📺 Catching someone on the couch with a full-screen Fire TV ad plants the seed while they're unwinding, teeing them up to convert later on Prime Video or retail search.☁️ Instead of guessing with broken third-party tracking, Amazon Marketing Cloud uses real first-party signals to show exactly which touchpoint sparked the sale.🤖 Let AI like Performance+ handle the daily bid grinding and micro-adjustments, but keep humans in the driver's seat for campaign strategy and structure.🔄 Amazon ad spend doesn't have to stay locked inside Amazon—link-out campaigns can send connected TV viewers directly to your own D2C storefront.📊 Judging top-of-funnel video purely on immediate ROAS is how teams accidentally kill the exact campaigns feeding their sales pipeline; track brand lift and search volume instead.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Laura Abadías on LinkedIn🔗 Charlotte Maines LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Intro2:01 Epson’s challenge: moving from printer recognition to home-cinema awareness4:02 Amazon’s full-funnel model across Fire TV, Prime Video, DSP, and sponsored ads6:28 Identity, privacy, and AI-ready customer data7:36 AMC connects funnel metrics and explains the path to conversion11:33 Campaign results: 25 million viewers and more than 80% new-to-brand purchases12:49 Video as a demand-creation tool rather than an isolated awareness tactic14:45 Performance+ combines AI optimization with human campaign control17:22 Link-out campaigns, D2C outcomes, and Alexa+ as future connective infrastructure

As corporate titans like Unilever commit half their marketing budgets to creators, brand leaders face an aggressive operational reset across media, infrastructure, and measurement.Former YouTube executive Tara Walpert Levy breaks down why the creator economy must be treated as an enterprise capability—demanding automated ad-tech plumbing, CFO-level financial accountability, and real-time content agility.Key Highlights🏢 Stop boxing creators into a single media line item; treat them as a core company capability that injects speed and cultural relevance straight into your product and brand strategy.⚙️ Pouring half your ad budget into creators won't work on manual spreadsheets—brands need automated, third-party ad tech to handle creator matchmaking, logistics, and tracking at real scale.📊 The free pass from finance is over, and creator campaigns now have to prove their worth the old-fashioned way: hard sales, clean marketing metrics, and bottom-line profit.🎬 Legacy networks will burn cash if they treat creators like expensive movie studios instead of running high-volume, low-cost rosters that adapt to audiences on the fly.🤖 AI pays off when creators use it behind the scenes for workflow heavy lifting like ideation, editing, and auto-dubbing—not when platforms flood feeds with cheap, fully synthetic junk.📺 TV and creator video aren't in a winner-take-all fight; the ad dollars are stacking across both, so smart marketers have to pull cash from social, linear, and streaming pots at the same time.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Tara Walpert Levy on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Intro00:55 Unilever’s creator-budget commitment and the challenge of scale2:17 Creators as a capability rather than a single budget line3:01 Building cross-platform creator infrastructure4:07 AI’s promise and unresolved boundaries in creator content5:09 Measuring creator marketing against sales and profit6:25 Social video, television, and streaming compete for creator budgets7:19 Advice for traditional media: more creators, lower cost, faster optimization8:06 Brand experimentation, organizational change, and CEO-level relevance

Nestlé Global Head Daniele Tundo and CreativeX CEO Anastasia Leng unpack how Fortune 500 brands build the operational infrastructure needed to professionalize creator partnerships and measure real business impact.From integrating creative observability tools to applying core advertising hygiene standards on paid boosts, this masterclass reveals what it takes to scale creator investments beyond vanity metrics.Key Highlights🏗️ Stop splitting creator campaigns across PR and media teams—run it as its own unified practice with a single budget and clear rules.🧼 The moment you put paid ad dollars behind an organic creator video, it has to follow basic advertising rules to actually build your brand. 🔍 Audit creator videos against your proven ad effectiveness data before throwing real ad spend behind them.📊 Cap your creator spend around 10% to 20% of your total media budget, as performance tends to drop off past the 30% mark.🌐 Platform-native tools are fine for trends, but major advertisers need one central platform to run creators across all channels.🛡️ Prevent brand safety disasters by using knowledgeable ground teams for pre-launch checks rather than burying creators in endless approval chains.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Anastasia Leng on LinkedIn🔗 Daniele Tundo on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Intro2:20 Nestlé’s three waves of creator marketing4:22 CreativeX’s role as a creative observability layer6:08 Nestlé’s infrastructure audit and global operating model7:34 Centralizing creator activation, approval, and technology8:12 Applying Nestlé advertising learnings to creator ads9:45 Integrating CreatorIQ and CreativeX before paid amplification10:20 Authenticity for organic posts, advertising standards for paid work11:11 Using creator learnings to improve traditional branded advertising13:10 Balancing creator authenticity with long-term advertising impact15:05 Creator-spending growth and apparent budget limits17:21 Platform partnerships versus cross-platform control18:51 Brand safety, governance, and the limits of creator-specific blame21:17 Organic creator value and the role of paid boosting23:19 Selecting creator content for paid media rather than standardizing everything24:12 Creator content, LLMs, and consistent brand messages

Discord Global VP of Advertising Adam Bauer breaks down why marketers must stop treating gaming as a niche vertical and start targeting it as an active consumer behavior. Discover how Discord's new self-service Ads Manager, real-time PlayQuest+ rewards, and community-led brand servers are reshaping digital advertising for Gen Z.Key Highlights🎮 Treat gaming as an active habit people lean into, not just another passive channel on a spreadsheet.🚫 Gen Z blocks and skips forced ads, so reaching them requires optional perks with a clear give-and-take.⚙️ Self-serve ad tools make it easy for mainstream brands to launch, track, and scale rewarded video campaigns.⚡ Real-time SDK integrations drop rewards directly into a game the second a player hits their goal.🔄 Rewarded gameplay challenges give players who haven't logged in for a month or more a real reason to come back.🛠️ Building custom assets for one virtual world lets you reuse them across platforms like Roblox and Fortnite to save budget.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Adam Bauer on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Intro4:19 Identity resolution for cross-channel marketing4:52 Discord’s deliberate, opt-in advertising strategy8:36 Self-service buying and the expansion beyond gaming11:10 PlayQuest+ and real-time in-game rewards13:47 Why in-game advertising is gaining renewed momentum15:20 Gaming budgets, participation, and measurement18:25 Gaming as an essential consumer behavior, not a vertical19:55 e.l.f. Cosmetics as a nontraditional Discord community example21:35 Discord’s upcoming products and immersive Mission activations

Spy Ninjas President Shelly Soriano breaks down how the YouTube-native serialized franchise scaled to 47 million subscribers and expanded beyond digital video into live entertainment, licensing, and retail.She reveals why keeping production values intentionally accessible maintains viewer trust, how a $25 million investment fuels their expansion, and why traditional entertainment talent must adapt to platform-native storytelling.Key Highlights🤼 Borrowing WWE's formula—big characters mixed with unscripted improv; gives digital shows a proven blueprint for keeping fans hooked long-term.🪆 Fancy Hollywood cameras can actually hurt engagement on YouTube; keeping video production simple makes creators feel relatable and lets kids play along at home.🎪 Turning online fans into real-world visitors at physical venues like theme parks builds a profitable business that platform algorithms can't touch.📱 Simply copy-pasting the same video to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube doesn't work; each platform has its own audience and requires tailored content.📊 When platforms tweak how they count views, creators have to show advertisers the difference between passive scroll-by views and real, intentional watch time.🎯 Kids and parents respond much better to brands when products are built into the storyline or video challenge instead of sitting in standard ad breaks.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Shelly Soriano on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction1:56 Spy Ninjas’ franchise model, audience, and scale2:38 Soriano’s digital-business background and the company’s revenue mix6:14 Brand partnerships for children and family audiences8:18 Authenticity over expensive production10:42 YouTube’s rise, platform-specific strategy, and short-form opportunity13:01 Spy Ninjas HQ: the Las Vegas live entertainment business14:10 Algorithm stability and changing definitions of YouTube views16:27 The $25 million investment and plans for expansion17:40 The need for specialized creator-economy talent19:53 Improving advertising infrastructure for creator media21:11 The Creative Class: training the next generation of digital-entertainment workers

IQVIA Digital’s Justin Rosen reveals how addressable TV and CTV targeting are evolving beyond basic reach to demand high-fidelity data, rigorous privacy compliance, and proven closed-loop measurement.From identity resolution to the trap of the AI doom loop, discover how top media professionals connect upper-funnel audience quality directly to real-world business results.Key Highlights🎯 Basic CTV targeting is now standard; the real edge comes down to data precision, scale, and accuracy.🔒 Privacy can't be a post-campaign checklist—it has to start upfront with anonymized datasets and double-blind matching.⚠️ AI speeds up media buying operations, but if your underlying audience data is bad, automation just speeds up your failure.🤝 Addressable TV pays off quickest for brands sitting on strong first-party data who can directly link ad views to offline conversions.📊 Outcome measurement is taking over as the true test of ROI, even if traditional panel ratings stay around to settle the bills.🏛️ Clean rooms make cross-platform tracking possible across walled gardens by analyzing campaign performance without physically moving sensitive consumer data.Resources & Next Steps🔗 Justin Rosen on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction2:46 TV targeting becomes standard, while data quality becomes the differentiator5:28 Shared goals across advertisers: accurate targeting and real outcomes6:39 Pharmaceutical targeting: privacy compliance as the starting point8:43 Fierce Pharma discussion: meaningful signals and the link to outcomes10:56 AI can accelerate workflows, but cannot correct weak data13:27 Addressable-TV growth depends on first-party data, simplicity, and trust15:00 Nielsen’s continuing role and the rise of outcome-based measurement16:35 Holistic cross-platform measurement and publisher transparency18:06 Data clean rooms enable privacy-safe collaboration across walled gardens19:50 Identity resolution is a foundational element of marketing accuracy20:51 Measurement everywhere: flexibility across client identity systems