In 2020, I co-authored the book Instacart for CMOs because I believed Instacart was one of the most under-recognized marketing channels available to consumer brands. Fast-forward six years, and Instacart's advertising business has become a major revenue driver. And now, DoorDash is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire the company for around $17 billion. While the headlines will focus on delivery and competition with Amazon and Walmart, I think the real story is what this deal could mean for retail media.

In this episode, I break down three reasons why a combined DoorDash and Instacart could be good for the retail media ecosystem, even if the implications for advertisers are less clear. From creating a stronger challenger to Amazon and Walmart, to bringing on-site and off-site retail media technology together under one roof, there are some compelling opportunities here. But what happens to advertiser leverage, competition, and costs when two major platforms become one? I'd love to hear where you land on this one.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

[00:00] Why Instacart's advertising business is at the center of the potential DoorDash acquisition.
[02:08] Why combining DoorDash and Instacart could create a stronger challenger to Amazon and Walmart in retail media.
[05:45] How Instacart's Carrot Ads and DoorDash's Symbiosis technology could give regional grocers a more complete retail media solution.[07:36] Why retail media standardization and consolidation could be essential for regional grocers.
[08:35] What the potential deal could mean for advertisers, especially smaller and challenger brands.
[09:36] Why established CPG brands may still need both platforms, and how a merger could reduce their negotiating leverage.
[10:15] My overall take on the acquisition and why I'm inviting the industry to weigh in.

Links & Resources

• In 2020, I co-authored a book called Instacart for CMOs. It was the follow-up to Amazon for CMOs.
• Check out Andrew Lipsman's comments about Instacart on LinkedIn
• Check out my LinkedIn poll about the Instacart acquisition
• Read my related articles:
  • ‘I’m a realist’: Gopuff’s head of ads on why it handed its onsite adtech to Instacart (The Drum)
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series talking shop: latest episode
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

What happens when your personal AI agent starts selling you things? I’ve spent the last decade analyzing the retail media ecosystem, but I’m increasingly fascinated by what happens when advertising meets AI. In this episode, I’m sharing the inaugural episode of my new show, AdGentic, where I make a prediction that might be a little controversial: personal AI agents will ultimately be monetized through advertising, not subscriptions or transaction fees.

We’ve seen this story play out before with Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Amazon. Platforms start by delivering a great consumer experience, and eventually, the business model kicks in. But AI agents introduce a new twist: they know an extraordinary amount about us, what we want, and what we’re trying to accomplish. Could that intelligence lead to more relevant, genuinely useful advertising? Or will paid placements and hidden commercial incentives undermine the trust we place in our AI assistants?

I break down the economics behind AI agent monetization, explore the ad formats that could emerge from retail media and other digital advertising models, and share what I’d like to see from the next generation of AI advertising. Because I believe ads are coming to personal AI agents. The real question is whether we can make them work for consumers.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

01:20 – Why I believe ads are coming to personal AI agents, and why advertising will win over subscriptions and fees.
03:03 – What Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Amazon reveal about the evolution of platform monetization.
05:15 – The rise of ensh*ttification: how platforms gradually shift value from users toward advertisers and themselves.
06:30 – The three consumer app business models: subscriptions, transaction fees, and advertising.
08:23 – Why subscriptions and transaction fees create problems with incentives, and why retail media offers a useful lens.
11:30 – Emerging AI ad formats, from sponsored prompts and sponsored agents to rewarded ads and off-site advertising.
14:20 – The risk of hidden paid rankings and biased AI recommendations, and why transparency matters.

Links & Resources

• AdGentic is live! Subscribe to the show:
  • Newsletter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
• Read my related articles:
  • Maybe Ads in AI Don't Have To Suck?
  • I Really, Really Hoped That Ads in AI Wouldn't Suck. Now We Find Out.
  • Are AI Ads the Next Big Ad Surface? How Retail Media Can Thrive
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn

Is multi-touch attribution (MTA) past its expiration date? In this third part of my MTA series, I’m exploring why retailers like Albertsons Media Collective, Best Buy Ads, and Amazon are bringing it back, and whether new approaches can overcome the data quality issues that gave MTA a bad reputation.

Better data doesn’t necessarily mean better decisions. From banner ads getting credit for impressions that don’t influence shoppers to media buyers lacking the time or flexibility to act on insights, I’m looking at MTA’s real-world limitations and whether it can deliver value despite incomplete, retailer-specific measurement.

This episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop

Timeline

00:41 — Is multi-touch attribution past its expiration date? I introduce the central question of this third installment in my MTA series.
01:24 — Why MTA got a bad name, and how Albertsons Media Collective and Best Buy Ads are reintroducing attribution capabilities under new approaches and terminology.
02:30 — The data quality problems behind traditional MTA, including the risks of combining individual-level exposure logs with cohort and panel data.
04:20 — Why better data doesn't automatically solve viewability problems or stop ads from receiving credit simply for appearing on a page.
05:10 — What media buyers really need to make better decisions, and why perfect attribution data may still be impractical to act on.
08:55 — How Amazon approaches multi-touch attribution, including holdout experiments designed to test whether ads actually drive incremental behavior.
11:20 — Why marketers are still investing in MTA, and why the reality of committed media budgets may matter more than the promise of a perfect attribution model.

Links & Resources

• This is part 3 of my series on MTA, catch up on the other instalments:
  • Part 1 - Do brands really want MTA?
  • Part 2 - Why retailers are reviving MTA
• Part one of this series drew a lot of impassioned comments on LinkedIn about whether MTA is still relevant.
• Amazon announced its MTA in October 2024.
• Siloed or incomplete data was the top reason marketers gave for doubting their measurement (49.5%) in a July 2025 survey of 196 US marketers by EMARKETER and TransUnion.
• Read my related articles:
  • This Agency Abandoned MTA, Here's Why
  • Retail Media's Measurement Problem: It's Not Just the Retailers
  • 'Not 100% altruistic': ad measurement veteran on what retail media is really optimizing for
  • The Other Side of the Story: Why Retailers Struggle with Media Measurement & Standardization
• Check out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.
• I'm sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn