At its Connected Commerce Summit, the IAB’s CEO urges the industry to slow down, set firm foundations and confront fragmentation as AI, new platforms and rising pressures reshape the future of retail media.
David Cohen, CEO of the IAB
David Cohen opened his talk at the IAB Connected Commerce Summit in New York with a quote from architect William McDonough: “We should honor commerce as the engine of change.” For Cohen, there could hardly be a more fitting phrase to describe the upheaval facing retail and commerce media.
That upheaval, stressed the IAB CEO, is accelerating. The last five years have been marked by pandemic-fuelled growth, rising economic pressures and an explosion of new media networks. But with momentum has come fragility. “Coming out of the pandemic, we were shot out of a rocket ship. E-commerce and retail went through a tremendous change in five years. But we grew past our britches and we didn’t get the foundational stuff right. Now we have to step back and make sure we have a foundation to build on,” he said, speaking to The Drum after his opening address.
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For Cohen, the first priority is fixing the basics. “There are folks in this space spending money who are disillusioned with performance. That’s not a long-term proposition. Measurement standards, attribution standards – everyone should be selling things in IAB standard sizes. The industry grew up very fast, but now we need to slow down and do this properly.”
The second is bridging silos between historically separate disciplines. Shopper marketing and brand marketing used to operate in parallel worlds. “For a while, it was a forced marriage – if you wanted an end-aisle display, you had to spend media dollars with us. Now we need to figure out how to work together. It’s not about one dominating the other, but about collaboration.”
And the third is sorting out measurement once and for all. “Good God, measurement. If you ask three CPGs what incrementality means, you get three different answers. We’re trying to put standards in place, but it takes time. Everyone comes at this with an agenda and the hardest thing is to put company goals aside and work for the betterment of the industry.”
The industry’s other challenge, Cohen warned, is that it never lets go. “We never slough anything off. We just keep adding: the creator economy, commerce, AI, streaming. We never check the box and say that’s done. The question is how to make an impact in the areas that matter, because everything overlaps.”
That overlap is compounded by the arrival of disruptive platforms. “CTV, social commerce, AI – just when you’ve figured something out, another thing comes along that throws everything up in the air.”
Asked whether today’s 235-odd commerce media networks might double in number, Cohen was cautious: “The question people ask is, is it going to be 400 a year from now, or 100 a year from now? I don’t want to be defeatist, but my gut tells me this is going to be a contracting market, as opposed to a growing market. Outside of retail media, banks, hotels, travel and lodging aren’t going to outweigh the general contraction I think we’ll see.”
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And the biggest reason behind that contraction? AI. Cohen believes the rise of “agentic commerce” could redraw the entire map. “The day that my agent goes out and does my bidding – find me the best XYZ and bring it back – that’s not science fiction. That’s happening. And it will invariably change the dynamics of the ad-supported models we’ve built for 30 years. What does that mean for viewability? For attribution? For saleable impressions? The whole thing changes.”
He stressed the shift won’t be instant. “If you’re sitting in Montana, it’s going to be a while before you have your agent doing your bidding. We’re talking three-to-five-year horizons. But the direction of travel is clear.”
His closing message was practical: “Let’s get back to basics. Let’s make sure the foundation is set before we build upon it. And let’s get in the game – there are over 200 networks, but only a fraction are engaged in IAB activities. We need the middle tier to step up and get involved.”
The only constant is change. But as Cohen made clear in New York, the real test for commerce media isn’t whether it keeps growing, but whether it can grow up.
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