At the helm is Parbinder Dhariwal, vice president and general manager of CVS Media Exchange. He brings experience from over three years at Walmart Connect, where he led the beauty business, as well as stints at CBS and Spotify.
DoorDash
Executive: Toby Espinosa, vp of ads
Founded in 2013, DoorDash and its peers have transformed the food delivery landscape—creating a network of gig workers that restaurants of any size can plug into, and, hopefully, scoop up incremental sales.
In 2021, the company launched DoorDash Ads. The business expanded on existing capabilities, like promotions and homepage banner ads, to include sponsored listings. Those sponsored listing ads, however, don’t require advertisers to pay unless someone places an order after clicking—a model that aims to give small businesses a better, more effective way to advertise. As it has expanded into grocery and convenience delivery, it has also begun to draw more CPG advertisers.
DoorDash allows advertisers to target based on taste-based audience segments, using purchase history data from its 37 million monthly active users. This year, it’s beginning to offer offsite targeting to advertisers as well.
Toby Espinosa, who’s been at DoorDash for over nine years and is now vice president of ads, built the ad business from the ground up. DoorDash also opted to set up an in-house tech stack rather than partner with an adtech company.
Expedia
Executive: Rob Torres, svp of media solutions
Capitalizing on its traveling clientele, which creates a self-selecting pool of higher-income shoppers, Expedia launched its travel media network, Expedia Group Media Solutions, in May.
The network builds upon a 20-year-old ad business at Expedia, which had previously been selling onsite display ads and sponsored listing placements for years.
