Church & Dwight’s Marissa Godlewski, who is vice-president of The Drum Awards for Commerce Media jury, explains why commerce media is maturing fast – and why accountability, incrementality and transparent measurement now matter more than innovation.
Marissa Godlewski
Commerce media is no longer a shiny experiment. It’s a discipline – and one that increasingly refuses to grade its own homework.
That, at least, is the view from Marissa Godlewski, director of digital commerce capabilities at Church & Dwight and newly appointed vice-president of The Drum’s inaugural Commerce Media Awards.
Godlewski sits firmly on the brand side of the equation. She runs Church & Dwight’s digital commerce center of excellence, overseeing retail media, digital shelf strategy, syndication and e-commerce analytics. And in a world where more than a third of the company’s digital media budget now flows through retail media, her job is less about experimentation and more about proof.
“Commerce media isn’t an experiment any more,” she says. “It’s a core competency and a backbone of your marketing and digital strategy.”
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Five to seven years ago, retail media budgets were tentative – small pilots, isolated tests, fingers crossed. That phase is over.
“What’s changed,” Godlewski explains, “is the need to show measurable, incremental growth. This is now a full-on capability that has to be embedded into the organization.”
That shift – from curiosity to accountability – is what keeps her awake at night.
“Measurement and incrementality. How do we prove it out? How do we keep improving returns? That’s where my focus is going into 2026.”
It’s also why the launch of The Drum’s Awards for Commerce Media matters. For Godlewski, the category is entering a more serious phase – one where creativity alone no longer cuts it.
“Creativity is table stakes. What separates good work from great work now is measurable business impact.”
If accountability is the pressure point, acceleration is the backdrop.
Godlewski points to a rapidly converging ecosystem where TikTok, OpenAI and retail platforms are collapsing discovery, recommendation and transaction into a single moment.
“TikTok is industrialising creative-driven commerce,” she says. “OpenAI is industrialising AI-driven commerce. And those two things are converging fast.”
Sponsored prompts, agentic AI and automated purchasing aren’t theoretical any more. They’re reshaping how brands need to think about content, data and presence.
“Every platform that has eyeballs or AI is becoming a commerce player,” she says. “What counts as ‘commerce’ is expanding every single day.”
The implication for brands is brutal in its simplicity: if your content isn’t structured to answer real consumer questions, you’re invisible.
“It’s not just media,” she says. “It’s content. You need to answer the who, what, where, when, why and how – in consumer language – because that’s how people are talking to these systems.”
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With more than 100 retail media networks now in play, scale alone isn’t the answer. In fact, Godlewski argues the opposite.
“Not every retail media network deserves the same role in a brand’s plans. The strongest brands are being very selective and principled.”
At Church & Dwight, that means scorecards – hard ones. “We evaluate networks on measurement, reach, unique members, tactics and how they stack up against others. We want incrementality, new-to-brand growth and ROI. Not vanity metrics.”
Her frustration is clear when it comes to transparency. “I don’t want a retail media network grading its own homework. I want objective measurement across networks so I can see where I’m actually getting the best returns.”
The networks that win, she argues, will be those willing to open the books. “We need better reporting, better benchmarks, more transparency. They want us to spend more and more, but we need more information for the money we’re investing.”
Part of the challenge isn’t technical – it’s organizational. Retail media sits awkwardly between marketing, sales, e-commerce and trade budgets. And the incentives aren’t always aligned.
“That muddies everything,” Godlewski says. “Is this a media investment? A trade investment? A shopper investment? Every company funds it differently.”
The result is pressure – particularly from omnichannel retailers – to spend for reasons that have little to do with performance.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t make business sense,” she says. “But the pressure is still there.”
This lack of structural clarity, she believes, is one of the industry’s biggest unresolved issues. “I don’t know two companies with the same commerce structure. As the dollars get bigger, best practices around organization design are going to matter a lot more.”
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One of the most persistent mistakes brands still make, Godlewski argues, is treating retail media as purely lower-funnel.
“If you’re not looking at retail media as a full-funnel capability, you’re missing a huge opportunity.”
The real power lies in connecting first-party retail data across awareness, consideration and conversion – not just chasing the last click. “That’s where the beauty of commerce data lives.”
As vice-president of The Drum Awards for Commerce Media, Godlewski is clear about what she wants to see. “I’m looking for work that connects insights, execution and commercial outcomes. Effectiveness matters just as much as innovation now.
“These awards are launching at exactly the right time. Commerce media is no longer niche. It’s a global platform.”
Commerce media is moving fast. The Drum Awards for Commerce Media are here to recognize the work keeping pace – and setting the standard. Join us in Miami in April as part of The Drum’s year-round Commerce Media program. Learn more and enter.
Church & Dwight