Criteo’s new CEO has his work cut out for him.
When Michael Komasinski takes over for Megan Clarken on Feb. 15, the executive will be faced with a unique set of challenges.
When Clarken became CEO in 2019, retail media was a considerably smaller space with fewer players involved. While Clarken successfully moved part of Criteo’s business into retail media and away from retargeting, Criteo now has significantly more competition as retail media has become a booming sector with every retailer, agency, and adtech company wanting a piece of the market.
The industry is also facing slower growth, holding company shakeups, increased M&A action, and the reality that Criteo’s revenue still largely comes from cookie-dependent retargeting. Retail media represents 22% of Criteo’s revenue.
Criteo is the largest independent adtech player in retail media with a market cap of $2.1 billion at the time of publishing this article.
Multiple analysts and experts that ADWEEK spoke to raised a central question about Komasinski’s hire: What’s Criteo’s endgame? How Komasinski shepherds the firm through these challenges could help bring that into focus.
“There are massive growth opportunities in media today with new advancements in AI and a global rise in ecommerce, which are driving hyper-personalized consumer touchpoints across more content and devices than ever before,” Komasinski said in a statement announcing his appointment. “[Criteo] has built incredible assets in AI over the years to deliver compelling commerce solutions for our clients and drive shareholder value.”
Criteo did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Ad holding companies are drawing lines over retail media
Fresh off of five years at Dentsu, Komasinski brings an agency perspective to Criteo that could serve the firm well as M&A action shifts the dynamics between retail adtech firms and holding companies.
“Most in the [retail media network] space are looking to improve agency partnerships,” one agency executive told ADWEEK. “Criteo has been ahead there.”
Omnicom’s proposed takeover of IPG, announced in December, would cluster more retail media tech into the combined holding company thanks to a series of acquisitions including Flywheel, Acxiom, and Intelligence Node.