After the launch of many different retail media networks over the past few years, all these new divisions of various consumer-facing companies are now fighting for ad dollars. That brought many of them to New York City last week.
Advertising events company Ascendant Network on Wednesday held Showcase, a retail and commerce media upfront for commerce media networks, ad agencies and brand marketers. It featured 15 presentations from the advertising businesses of retailers, financial companies and e-commerce platforms, from The Home Depot to Albertsons and even PayPal.
Modern Retail attended the majority of the presentations, gathering how each ad business worked to differentiate itself from the crowd. Aside from those listed below, the other attendees included grocer Ahold Delhaize USA’s AD Retail Media, Dollar General Media Network, student loan lender Sallie Mae’s Backpack Media and Ace Hardware’s RedVest Media.
Leaders at legacy retailers and banks touted their decades of internal data, while e-commerce and fintech leaders spoke about their wide reach across merchants. Specialty retailers stressed why their specific audience demographics resonate for all sorts of brands, not just those in their stores.
Arun Ramaswamy, vp of tech and product at The Home Depot, told Modern Retail he saw consistent themes throughout his and other companies’ presentations, including a focus on measurement, driving specific outcomes, interoperability through different consumer channels and advertising platforms. “If you look at where the industry is going, [incrementality] is a key ask: Prove that the investment truly works,” he said.
Peter Giordano, GM of ads platform and growth services for DoorDash, said he noticed all the different retail media networks are focused on aggregating different signals about the consumer to anticipate their behavior. “That’s what we’re doubling down on: truly understanding people’s life moments and different occasions and different purchase behaviors for how all our brands, and retail and merchant partners, can interact with them at different points in that customer journey,” Giordano said.
DoorDash’s Katie Daleo, GM of CPG ads, added that another common theme was how retail media networks have realized they can do more upper-funnel campaigns. Some of the presentations included new kinds of video campaigns or in-store screens. “You can influence [consumers] from the early days and then get more targeted, surgical on what you serve as they go through their path to purchase,” she said.
Orange Apron Media (The Home Depot)
Executives at The Home Depot and its Orange Apron Media business shared their ability to see across the entire customer journey, from when customers are browsing to when they are watching videos and asking questions to its chatbot.
They also stressed the company’s long-standing relationships with both pros and consumers. Kailey Emery, director of ad sales marketing for Orange Apron Media, said brands that show up next to The Home Depot’s brand see a 30% jump in brand trust, 70% increase in recall and 40% boost in purchase intent.
“Think about what a trip to The Home Depot can represent: a new home, a major renovation, a backyard built for entertainment, an empty nester downsizing their space, a business that’s starting to grow,” Emery said. “Those moments can tell us something powerful, not just what a customer needs today, but what they may need next.”
Albertsons Media Collective (Albertsons)
Albertsons retail media svp Brian Monahan spoke about how the grocery chain is partnering with brands to create relevant content to support the shopping experience, such as the company’s Rico’s Tacos campaign, which brought a ‘micro sitcom’ to shoppers while they shopped online or on screens in stores.
“We’re evolving from just being item-and-price advertising to being a platform for content distribution that blends storytelling and shopper relevance in commerce,” Monahan said.
Monahan said ad placements displayed next to the Rico’s Tacos videos online have outperformed benchmarks by 200%. He also said a recent America 250 campaign that included in-person events and digital campaigns drove a 24% increase in units sold for participating brands.
DoorDash CMO Tim Castree emphasized the company’s shift from delivering dinner to delivering everyday needs on demand, and how advertisers can tap into its now-billions-of-orders-per-year platform. He said the company can deliver data on common shopping pairings or on which days of the week people tend to place orders.
For example, people order 30% more health foods on Tuesdays than Fridays, and toothbrush orders jump almost 30% on the weekends
“Individually, these are super interesting correlations and fun facts, but together, they reveal patterns in how needs change across days, categories, occasions and within hours inside the day,” Castree said. “And at our scale, that becomes something that marketers can actually act on.”
Mark Grether, svp and GM of PayPal Ads — who had previously overseen ad businesses at Uber and Amazon — spoke about the company’s wide view across shopping, from browsing and spending to sending money to friends, including via subsidiary Venmo. The company’s ad business reaches across ads on its own mobile and web platforms as well as partner CTV platforms and programmatic ads. The company also recently launched off-site ads that include a PayPal checkout button for instant transactions.
Grether said the company’s wide view of shoppers’ buying habits across different merchants and platforms sets it apart from retailer-based retail media networks that may have a more limited view of just a single retailer. He said marketers can build loyalty with people shopping across different merchants, including places customers don’t yet shop. “We wouldn’t pretend to know more than our favorite advertisers and marketers, but they have a limited view,” he said. “The availability of data that we have … allows us to understand a lot more.”
Macy’s Media Network (Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bluemercury)
Michael Krans, vp of Macy’s Media Network, spoke about how the company has long-standing trust with customers through its history with big shopping moments such as weddings, graduations, moving and the holidays. He said because shoppers go to Macy’s to discover new products and brands, it can help advertisers be seen earlier in the shopping journey.
“Most retail media strategies focus heavily on demand capture,” or attracting customers already interested in a specific product, Krans said. “At Macy’s, we think the opportunity is larger. We help brands create demand, shape choice and capture demand.”
Chase Media Solutions (JPMorgan Chase)
Lauren Griewski, chief growth officer for Chase Media Solutions, explained how the company personalizes ad targeting based on its massive collection of transaction data. The company reported more than $1.9 trillion in debit and credit sales in 2025.
“This isn’t just a matter of scale,” Griewski said. “It’s actually a window into how consumers live, spend and make decisions, and it helps us understand not only what people buy, but how their behavior changes over time, what they prioritize and where loyalty exists.”
Dick’s Media (Dick’s Sporting Goods)
David Young, vp of media for Dick’s Sporting Goods, highlighted the company’s large presence in youth sports. He said that while pro sports and college sports can be a competitive advertising market, the company can provide opportunities to tap into youth sports through its stores, e-commerce platform and youth sports streaming network GameChanger, which the company acquired in 2016.
The company and eMarketer found in a survey this year that 63% of U.S. parents have children in youth sports and that 84% of them said youth sports influence their purchase decisions. Young said this may be compelling to quick-service restaurants, CPG brands and automakers in addition to the brands it has on its shelves.
“Sports, as we know, is probably one of the last bastions of the monoculture,” Young said. “It is something that drives conversation, it is something that drives emotion out of many of us, … but I think it also drives identity.”
Instacart
Ali Miller, GM of advertising at Instacart, highlighted how the company can connect consumers between websites, apps, connected TV and in-store screens through its ecosystem of both its own marketplace and the e-commerce platforms it powers for third-party grocers. Instacart also powers retail media platforms for grocers through its Carrot Ads tech platform and argued that not all grocers are able to build their own.
“Instead of more fragmented retail media networks, the answer is actually a shared ecosystem that can benefit retailers, brands and consumers,” Miller said. “We will never be a retailer, we’re a retail technology company, and retail media is increasingly table stakes when it comes to competitive retail technology.”
Frank Mulcahy, head of Chewy Ads, spoke about his team’s experience in the advertising business — he previously worked in digital advertising roles at Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Wayfair — and its penetration with pet owners.
“Pets have become integrated into American families,” Mulcahy said. “They change their vacations, they change their household.”
He noted that 84% of all sales at Chewy are automatic subscriptions. “That is incredibly valuable for marketers,” Mulcahy said. “You get them, and they stay, and then you build another cohort.”
Walgreens Advertising Group (Walgreens)
John Storms, vp of digital and retail media at Walgreens, said the company has been rethinking its retail media business since joining the company in March. “We want to be that reliable media group in the moments that matter for our brands and our agencies and our partners,” Storms said. “There is greater connectivity than ever, and greater collaboration.”
He previously led Lowe’s Media Network. He said agencies and brands would tell Walgreens that the media group had different priorities. “There was a disconnect that came through in our media campaign objectives, that came through in our audience recommendations.” He said that making more connections between internal teams, unifying merchandising, media, marketing and digital, has created more ROI for its advertising clients.
On stage, the company also announced a network of digital screens across 1,200 stores, with a rollout beginning in October, in partnership with in-store retail media firm Looma.
H-E-B Retail Media (H-E-B)
Texas regional grocer H-E-B showcased its broad reach in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, serving 8 million households weekly across almost 500 stores. Stacy Torstrick, GM of retail media at H-E-B, said the company is investing in improving its planning and forecasting tools so it is easier to work with and to get detailed information on its consumer base.
“We’re competing in the most important growth markets in the country,” Torstrick said. “We own this state, and it’ll help you understand these moments that competitors can’t touch.”
