As AI, retail media and commerce converge, marketers are facing a familiar but newly urgent question: does it actually work? According to Chris Riedy, chief revenue officer at Ibotta, the industry’s shift into an “outcomes era” is built on proof rather than just promise and pure ambition.
“[This] era is a really nice encapsulation of what brands have cared about for a long time,” he says. “They want to be able to show their board and their CFO and their customers that they are running a profitable business.”
That pressure is intensifying as media choices fragment across social, connected TV, retail, marketplaces and emerging commerce channels. For Riedy, the platforms that will win are not those that promise reach, but those that can deliver and demonstrate impact at scale.
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Measurement, Riedy argues, can no longer be delayed, modeled or abstract. And it’s that logic that drew him to Ibotta, and to the promotions and commerce layer of the media ecosystem.
“A promotion at its core is just another element that’s trying to compel a consumer to do something,” he says. Ibotta’s model means that action is paid for only when it happens.
As brands grow more focused on incrementality, accountability and return, that model is becoming more attractive, and more demanding of the industry as a whole, with brands increasingly wanting to invest more when they have proof of impact.
And that proof increasingly needs validation beyond the platform itself. “It’s really important to work with third-party ecosystem providers,” he adds, “so a brand can validate the incremental impact of their campaigns.”
Looking ahead, Riedy is clear on where marketers will place their bets in the year ahead and beyond. “Brands will concentrate dollars around platforms that can prove the outcomes that are desired are happening,” he says, and platforms that don’t have that will struggle.”
Watch The Drum’s chat with Riedy for more on the clearest signal yet of how commerce media is evolving from promise to proof.