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On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss how to get folks to buy something they can鈥檛 go and see in a store, how D2Cs should be thinking about generative AI, and how one DTC is negotiating the tariff minefield. Listen to the conversation with our Senior Analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts Principal Analyst Sky Canaves and CEO and president of Eyebuydirect Sunny Jiang.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The news: Cannes Lions 2025 is highlighting how retail media is moving beyond performance marketing into broader applications across brand storytelling, in-store influence, and customer experience. Executives like Victoria Usher and Jim Kane are calling attention to how brands now activate retail data for segmentation, planning, and innovation across media touchpoints including CTV and search. Our take: This shift reflects growing demand for privacy-safe, first-party data solutions amid signal loss and rising complexity. Cannes will underscore retail media鈥檚 potential to support creativity and full-funnel integration. The future isn鈥檛 just attribution鈥攊t鈥檚 about making retail platforms vital to brand equity and long-term engagement.

Tariffs threaten to reduce US digital ad spending growth this year. This series explains the effects tariffs will have on ad spending in search, social, CTV, and retail media鈥攁nd which parts of each might fare best and worst.

The news: Google Pay added Klarna to its in-app BNPL roster of Affirm, Zip, and Afterpay. Our take: Klarna鈥檚 late adoption of a physical card like Affirm鈥檚 Affirm Card in the US set the BNPL provider back in terms of capturing a wider user base and payment volume. Integrations like Google Pay and Apple Pay can help overcome that gap鈥攖hough Affirm also has partnerships with both Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Nonalcoholic beer set to overtake ale as world鈥檚 second-largest beer category: Younger consumers drive the growth as they consume less alcohol.

This is the Q1 2025 installment of our quarterly 鈥淎d Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

Beyond content consolidation, the new platform will include digital-only perks like live stats, betting tools, fantasy integrations, and ecommerce features. Disney CEO Bob Iger emphasized the unified user experience across all Disney-owned platforms, saying the services will be 鈥渇ully integrated鈥� for a seamless feel. Sign of the times: ESPN isn鈥檛 the only legacy player recalibrating.

The news: FICO will release credit scores that incorporate buy now, pay later (BNPL) reporting this autumn, per a press release. Our take: Reporting BNPL data to the credit bureaus would be a solid step toward combatting BNPL鈥檚 鈥減hantom debt鈥� criticism.

The news: Shopify partnered with Coinbase and Stripe so customers can pay with the USDC stablecoin at checkout. Our take: Coinbase is the biggest winner in this partnership. Cryptocurrency needs to gain traction with a wide merchant network to accelerate its use, and Shopify represents a huge score for Base.

Retailers want richer experiences that still respect guest trust. Katy Hershey, senior director, partner solutions group at Roundel shares how Target鈥檚 165 million guest profiles and 15 years of retail media insight fuels its brand-safe omnichannel campaigns鈥攁nd outlines what鈥檚 next: goal-based buying, AI-driven personalization, and broader reach via off-platform partnerships.

The news: Amazon plans to bring same- and next-day delivery to more than 4,000 smaller cities and rural communities by year鈥檚 end. Our take: Amazon鈥檚 growing focus on rural delivery is squarely aimed at deepening Prime鈥檚 value, driving higher engagement, and unlocking long-term loyalty in a market that still holds plenty of untapped potential.

As retail media networks expand, one of the biggest challenges facing marketers is measurement. In fact, 42% of US retail media buyers believe that more effective and accurate campaign measurement is the most important issue in retail media advertising today, according to March 2025 data from Koddi. To help advertisers better assess the effectiveness of their campaigns, Sam鈥檚 Club Member Access Platform (MAP) has introduced Omni-Impact鈥攁 new AI-powered measurement solution.

Retail and commerce media were huge topics at last year鈥檚 Cannes Lions festival, and this year, the festival is doubling down on the channel by introducing a new retail media sub-category in the Media Lions and Creative Commerce Lions awards. However, 鈥渢he tone is definitely shifting鈥� as the industry matures鈥攁nd faces the threat of tariff-related impacts, according to our analyst, Sarah Marzano.