Retail (or commerce) media has been one of the most promising growth areas in digital advertising over the last few years. But you can’t have gold without a rush—and in this case, its a rush of retailers trying to become ad networks, and a rush of vendors with all the tools to help them power up.

If there’s one adtech company that’s long been associated with retail, it’s Criteo. It got its start as a retargeting firm, and benefited from the retail media boom. But lately a bunch of upstarts have emerged, claiming to offer better tech at cheaper prices. Criteo has also suffered attrition, as clients like Uber Eats and Target’s Roundel have rolled back their relationship with the public company. 

But Criteo has held steady so far despite these headwinds. In this episode of Adspeak, retail and commerce editor Kathryn Lundstrom looks at how Criteo has managed to hold up amidst a sea of upstart competition—for now.

With many RFPs still undecided, September will be a major moment for the company. And of course, Criteo continues to fight a two-front war. Besides a handful of new companies nipping at its heels, it still has to contend with Amazon, the ecommerce giant that’s also releasing new products that seem to take aim at one of Criteo’s core value props: helping companies build their own retail media networks.

Fanatics is launching a new ad division, and they’re bringing on a notable exec to get them in the game.

Today, Fanatics introduced Fanatics Advertising, a new division that looks to capitalize on the sports company’s “entire Fanatics ecosystem,” and former Netflix ads leader Jeremi Gorman is joining as chief revenue officer to lead the business.

Gorman, who has been at Fanatics as an advisor since November 2024, will look to position brand partners across the company’s touchpoints from commerce to content as Fanatics looks to capitalize on its reach of more than 100 million sports fans worldwide. The team will oversee advertising and brand partnerships strategy across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, Fanatics Betting & Gaming, Fanatics Collect, and Fanatics Events.

The company said it has been building the ad team’s infrastructure over the past several months and will soon launch the Fanatics Advertising Network (FAN) and Sports Video Network (SVN). These networks will kick off alongside the NFL season and help brands gain reach through sports programming on digital and connected TV.

“Sports have a unique power to bring people together,” Gorman said in a statement. “Fanatics sits at the center of that passion, with a connected ecosystem that spans commerce, content, and culture. This gives us the ability to deliver for our partners in ways few companies can, authentically engaging fans at scale, at every moment that matters.” 

Gorman, who has more than 25 years in the industry, was Netflix’s first ads president, joining in 2022 to launch the ad tier and strategy at the company before exiting in late 2023. The exec has also served as chief business officer at Snap and spent seven years leading global advertising teams at Amazon. She will split time between Los Angeles and New York City, reporting to Tucker Kain, Fanatics chief strategy and growth officer.

“A unified advertising division unlocks cross-collaboration and creates incredible value for brands who are looking to get the most out of the Fanatics platform—a combination of assets that includes more than 100 million global fans, innovative businesses that reach across the full sports ecosystem, deep relationships with the world’s top sports properties, and a brand that has become synonymous with fandom,” Kain said, noting that Gorman is the right leader to launch the “new advertising model and offer unique ways for brands to engage deeper with fandom.”

ChapStick has appointed two agencies to revamp its iconic brand for a new generation.

Croud and Born Social will manage ChapStick’s U.S. social media business after a competitive review, with a remit spanning creative, influencer, and media planning.

The pitch began in April and moved quickly, with ChapStick selecting the agencies “within a couple of weeks,” according to Croud chief business officer Kris Tait. Their work together formally kicked off last week.

Multiple agencies were involved in the review, which was not run by a consultancy.

“That it was integrated from a media, influencer, and creative perspective, but underpinned by measurement, was the hook that won it,” Tait told ADWEEK. “They really bought into our strategy with how we work with creators.”

Born Social managing director Sarah Rainford added that ChapStick was drawn to the agency’s approach to influencer work. “A big focus for us is not giving our clients a black book of pre-chosen creators. It’s really finding the right people for the brand and for the brief,” she said.

According to COMvergence, ChapStick spent less than $15 million on U.S. media in 2024.

An Iconic Brand for a New Generation

ChapStick, owned by Suave Brands Co. and backed by private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners, is investing in social as it seeks to reintroduce itself to a new generation amid heightened competition in the skin and health care spaces.

Rainford said the brand’s new agencies will do that through a “full-service social” brief that will rely heavily on influencers. “They need to approach their younger market in a completely new, creative way,” she said.

Tait pointed back to ChapStick’s athletic, outdoorsy ads from the ’90s featuring celebrity athletes like Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee and highlighting ChapStick’s protective benefits for active lifestyles. “It’ll be interesting to see what we can do from that influencer and social space and get it back into that sort of realm,” he said.

The agencies highlighted how they use AI in influencer campaigns, such as with Croud’s proprietary InfluencerGPT, which benchmarks fair pricing for creators. “It can’t just be cool influencer work. It has to deliver,” Tait said.

Their first work together is expected to launch in Q4.

A PE-backed Offering

For Croud and Born Social, the former of which acquired the latter in 2022, the win is a proof point that their integrated offering is resonating. Where Born Social brings expertise in social media marketing, Croud offers media planning and buying know-how, Tait said.

“The really key intersection of skills is on the media planning side,” he said.

While Born Social still retains its brand, the two agencies pitch and service accounts together and share office space. The combined agencies are backed by private equity firm ECI Partners.

Croud’s client roster includes brands like Nespresso, Chime, and Timberland, while Born Social works with Guinness, Ford, Smirnoff, and Barclays.

London-based marketing agency Gravity Global has acquired performance media agency Marketing Doctor, it shared with ADWEEK. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Marketing Doctor’s 35-person team will join Gravity Global, bringing its global headcount to the mid-400s. There will be no redundancies as a result of the acquisition.

Janet Casey, founder and CEO of Marketing Doctor, will manage Gravity Edge, one of Gravity’s business units, while president Michaela Schwartz, vice president Kate Popp and AVP of media Colleen Longley will take on soon-to-be-announced leadership roles.

Marketing Doctor is Gravity Global’s second acquisition this year as the firm accelerates U.S. expansion, following its April purchase of Minnesota-based healthcare branding firm LEE Branding.

According to Jose Lozano, president and North America CEO of Gravity Global, the deal checked every box in the agency’s M&A strategy: “There’s really three reasons why we move forward with an agency, and that is to shore up depth within a practice, to add a capability, or to add a sector,” Lozano told ADWEEK. “They check every single one of the boxes.”

Marketing Doctor strengthens Gravity’s media practice and expands its public sector roster with clients such as the State of New Jersey, while deepening expertise in complex industries like aviation, semiconductors and franchised retail.

Defying Gravity

The marketing Doctor acquisition comes on the heels of a busy few months for Gravity Global.

In June, it was named creative AOR for pizza chain Hungry Howie’s. The same month it launched Gravity One, a millennial- and Gen Z-focused division led by five former Madwell executives including Charlie Smith and Devin Kharpertian.

Marketing Doctor is the second women-owned agency Gravity Global has acquired this year. Lozano said that Gravity Global makes acquisitions based on the work an agency does and their organizational fit, but added “there is a continued commitment to diversity in our organization.”

“Any opportunity we have to add an organization and leaders that add diversity of thought and diversity to our organization, we will absolutely jump two feet in,” he continued.

Backed by U.K.-based private equity firm Elysian Capital, Gravity Global has been on a deal-making streak. Lozano said the firm’s support has been pivotal: “They’re able to and willing to be creative in different manners, to pull something off that’s beneficial to the agency owner, and also good for our business.”

When asked about future deals, he said, “We are always open to acquisitions. We are almost always in dialog with other agencies.”

Wurl, the streaming company owned by mobile adtech giant AppLovin, is getting a new leader. 

CEO Ron Gutman is set to retire Thursday and will be succeeded by Dave Bernath, effective immediately, the company said. 

Bernath previously served as general manager for the Americas at Wurl, where he has focused on partnerships and revenue growth. He joined Wurl in early 2021. 

As CEO, Bernath’s priority will be driving more investment into connected television, or CTV, and to Wurl specifically. With his oversight, the company aims to deepen its technology investments and expand partnerships. 

“At the core, it’s about helping to accelerate the shift of ad dollars from legacy TV to streaming,” he told ADWEEK. “There are a lot of eyeballs on streaming TV, and the ad dollars have yet to follow in a way that’s commensurate with that viewership. That’s my central focus.”

Bernath praised the company’s culture, saying: “It’s a flat structure. We’re a small team. We’re nimble. Ideas come from anywhere. There’s no hierarchy, no bureaucracy. It’s very fast-moving.” As Wurl CEO, he’ll report to AppLovin chief executive Adam Foroughi.

“It has been a privilege leading Wurl through such a transformative chapter in streaming TV,” Gutman said in a statement shared with ADWEEK. He steps down after two and a half years as CEO and a total of eight years at Wurl.

“We’ve built a generative culture rooted in innovation and building great tech,” Gutman said. “Wurl is entering its next phase of growth, and I’m proud to pass the torch to someone who will continue to push our industry forward.”

He added that Bernath “has a deep understanding of both the creative and commercial sides of this business, and knows what it takes to scale and grow the business while putting customers first.”

Prior to joining Wurl, Bernath held a variety of leadership positions in the media and entertainment space, including at Comedy Central, BBC America, and E! News. 

AppLovin acquired Wurl in 2022, and since then it has become a keystone in AppLovin’s broader push beyond mobile advertising and into other fast-growing media areas like CTV and e-commerce. With a footprint across thousands of streaming channels, Wurl streamlines the process of getting content onto streaming services and smart TVs and helps advertisers connect with relevant audiences and content through a programmatic marketplace with access to 95 billion impressions monthly. The platform’s integration with AppLovin’s AI-powered performance marketing product AXON is billed as a way to ensure brands can serve highly relevant, targeted, and measurable ads. 

“We sit in a really special place in the ecosystem,” Bernath said. “We’re a connector between all the parties. We’re really trying to help the content companies maximize the opportunity in streaming, and of course, that means helping the advertisers, the brands, and the agencies grow their businesses in streaming. It’s great to have a view into all those areas and to be a part of trying to make things better.”

AppLovin’s stock is up more than 5% since the company reported strong Q2 financials—which included a 77% year-over-year lift in revenue—earlier this month. It’s been a standout in a field of publicly traded adtech companies that have otherwise seen a decrease in value amid mounting economic anxieties and an AI-driven shakeup in adland.

Mastercard has selected WPP Media to lead global media strategy, planning, and buying across more than 70 international markets, ending its 10-year relationship with incumbent Carat after a competitive review.

The appointment also expands WPP’s remit with the financial services brand, as Ogilvy takes over global community management duties. McCann remains Mastercard’s creative agency of record.

R3 ran the review. Mastercard declined to share further details on the pitch process or timeline.

The win marks a key coup for WPP Media after a turbulent year that included the loss of Coca-Cola and Mars accounts, CEO Mark Read stepping down, and the appointment of Cindy Rose as his successor.

It also comes just months after GroupM’s rebrand to WPP Media, a restructuring aimed to more closely integrate its media agencies and centralize their access to tech and data.

According to Mastercard, the move is meant to help Mastercard adapt for the AI era by “expanding the role of our media partnerships to take on a new shape and support more integrated business needs.”

“WPP’s powerful global reach and advanced AI and data capabilities—along with their connected approach across paid media, social engagement, and business enablement—will help us drive greater impact across our entire marketing ecosystem,” a spokesperson said.

It is understood that the Mastercard win follows WPP Media’s decision in April to resign PayPal’s account, freeing the agency to pursue and ultimately secure the Mastercard business, according to sources.

“Mastercard is one of the world’s most respected and trusted brands, at the heart of global commerce. To be selected as their partner is an honor and testament to the AI-based data solutions we are building at WPP to fuel intelligent growth,” Cindy Rose, incoming WPP CEO, said in a statement shared with ADWEEK.

Mastercard spent an estimated $180 million globally on media in 2024, according to COMvergence. The company’s total advertising and marketing expenses amounted to $815 million that year, down 1% from the prior year, according to its latest annual report. Mastercard’s net revenue, meanwhile, climbed 12% to $28.2 billion during the same period.

The move to WPP ends Mastercard’s decade-long relationship with Dentsu-owned Carat. The brand thanked Mastercard for its “trust and collaboration” and wished the team “much success in their continued efforts and future initiatives.”

As WPP Media prepares to take on Mastercard, challenges remain for its parent. The company recently lowered its revenue outlook and announced a strategic review of its business.

CORRECTION: This story was updated on Monday 8/18/2025 at 10am ET to reflect that Ogilvy will take over community management duties globally for Mastercard versus social media duties.

For years, publishers helped shape affiliate marketing into a durable revenue stream. By pairing product recommendations with SEO expertise, they turned commerce content into conversion engines. That model still drives meaningful revenue, but it is now facing severe structural headwinds, according to interviews with eight affiliate marketing experts.

The rise of AI-powered answer engines threatens publishers’ visibility in search results—long the lifeblood of their affiliate programs—and marketers are testing new affiliate channels alongside them. 

As publishers grapple with changes in how audiences discover products, creators are capturing a growing share of incremental budget, according to Jamie Hamerly, marketplace director at Levanta. 

“Spend is not being pulled from publishers,” she said, “but new budget is going to creators.”

Publishers face platform and pricing pressure

Publishers’ affiliate businesses have long relied on search visibility, according to Alison Rinaldi, affiliate group director at Assembly Global. 

But as platforms like Google experiment with AI summaries and zero-click results, the pipeline of traffic to commerce articles is beginning to erode.

“The threat is that AI will summarize information directly and link out to purchase, bypassing the publisher entirely,” Rinaldi said.

Commission rates have also fallen. Amazon, still the largest player in the space, now offers most publishers just 2–3% commission, down from double-digit rates in earlier years, according to Rinaldi.

Amazon’s rate changes go beyond rate cuts, according to Nilla Ali, cofounder of the agency GAAN Creative. 

For one, Amazon has shifted toward “seller-funded” affiliate models, where brands, rather than the platform, pay additional commissions. Amazon is also paying a higher baseline rate to creators than publishers. Creators get 10% to 15% baseline rates compared to publishers’ 2% to 3%, Ali said. Tools like Amazon’s Creator Connections program make it easier for brands to bonus influencers directly, accelerating creator adoption.

The publisher affiliate space is also crowded with “best of” lists and redundant recommendations, Rinaldi said, creating diminishing returns for marketers. Many publishers now expect flat fees or minimum spends, which don’t always align with the pay-for-performance standard of affiliate.

Some data suggests publisher revenue hasn’t yet collapsed, according to Bryce Widelitz, vice president of agency and strategic partnerships at Impact.com, which connects brands to affiliate partners. Between May and July 2025, clicks from Impact’s more than 500 media publishers declined slightly year over year, while revenue grew 22%. But that growth could stem from a variety of factors, including improved conversion rates, new brand partners, or the increased cost of goods, Widelitz said.

Some publishers are adapting by leaning into newsletters, Hamerly, the Levanta marketplace director, said, citing Vox Media and TheSkimm, and by leveraging social reach through recognizable editors acting as influencers for their brands.

Creators are becoming performance marketers

While publishers navigate platform headwinds, creators have matured into viable performance partners. 

“Creators are the modern publishers,” said David A. Yovanno, CEO of Impact.com. “They’ve become performance marketers, just with different distribution channels.”

Creators are less dependent on SEO. Their audiences arrive by choice, not by search, putting them closer to purchase decisions. This has made them valuable to brands, especially as tracking tools improve.

Historically, influencer marketing was top-of-funnel, according to Tiffany Lopinsky, founder of ShopMy. 

But improved tracking has made it measurable, attracting more budget and CMO attention. Affiliate is now table stakes for many creators, with platforms like ShopMy showing brands who is driving sales before committing to larger deals, according to Lopinsky.

Creators often command higher commission rates, according to Usaid Khan, vice president of strategy at Later. He said they earn, on average, 25% more than publishers, driven by stronger engagement and higher conversion rates.

Cost structures also factor in, Hamerly said. With a $50,000 budget, a brand might work with one publisher or 10 creators, each with different timelines and goals. For brands, creators offer diversification. 

“They’re accessing new eyes,” she said.

Incremental spend, not replacement—yet

Marketers say creator affiliate growth is mostly additive. 

“We’re not moving out of the traditional content space,” said Andrea Chong, senior director at 3Z Brands. Instead, the company is layering influencer affiliate on top of publisher partnerships, especially in categories where editorial coverage is scarce.

Still, the shift changes the competitive landscape. 

“Some people still think of influencers as actors and actresses,” Lopinsky said. “They should be thinking of them as a distributed sales force.”

Kasie Hunt has settled in nicely in the 4 p.m. ET slot on CNN. Since March, her show, The Arena, has covered major stories in real time, leading the broadcast to finish as one of CNN’s most-watched programs.

The show’s format has blended well with the network’s late afternoon and evening offerings. This cohesion has led it to become a significant player in the political space, with top politicians making appearances: “I like to think that that’s why people want to come on and talk to me, because I’m a reporter’s anchor,” Hunt recently told TVNewser.

Well aware that the TV landscape can change in a flash, Hunt is maximizing every opportunity she can get. Following up on TVNewser’s initial interview before the show launched in March, we recently caught up with Hunt to see how things were going for her, so far, inside The Arena.

TVNewser: Five months in, how’s it going in The Arena? 

Hunt: Honestly, I’m having a great time. I feel like the longer we’ve been doing it, the more the team has been finding its groove both behind the scenes and on air. We’ve made a lot of progress [and are] starting to feel like we have a groove going, and the viewers can come to the table knowing a little bit more of what to expect. The hardest thing for me was figuring out how to make sure that my energy was peaking at 4:00 in the afternoon instead of six in the morning. My caffeine schedule is considerably different now than it was when I first started. But overall, it’s great. 

What is so different about working in the morning versus working in the evening? 

The biggest difference is that there is so much news that is still breaking at four in the afternoon, and that’s a very different reality than 6 a.m., when the world is still waking up. There are definitely days when we do a show that we’ve planned and written and thought through, because there wasn’t some big breaking story that changed everything at the last minute. A significant portion of our show is still breaking news or reacting to breaking news, and one of the great things about the format is that it’s well equipped to handle that kind of thing in a flexible way, especially when we can combine it with CNN’s vast newsgathering resources. 

Yesterday (07/30/25), for example, we got a verdict in the protein shake poisoning trial right before we came on the air, and they read the verdict right at four. We were able to do that with people that we had pre-positioned, but it wasn’t the conversation we planned to have at the top of the show. But we pivoted quickly and did that. 

The other thing that happened was when Kamala Harris announced that she wasn’t going to run for governor of California. That’s the story that’s very much in my wheelhouse as a long-time presidential campaign reporter. When that happened, the conversation immediately was like, “Okay, let’s lead the show with this. What elements are we going to pull? What moments from the campaign should we remind our viewers happened and could inform how they should understand what this decision means?” etc. That ended up being our second conversation.

That’s a really good example of being able to use the kind of structure that we had already set up. The people we had planned to have these conversations with are also well-informed and flexible, able to turn on a dime. So, that’s the biggest change. 

What does it say about The Arena earning the most-watched title for the network a couple of times in the last few months?

I am always thrilled to hear that we’re doing well. I have nothing without my colleagues, without the network that supports the show and gives me a home and a place to do it. I’m really glad that our viewers are responding to what we’re doing, and I hope that says something positive about us. I don’t take it to mean anything negative about anybody else—4 p.m. has become a place where, as the cable landscape has changed, viewers’ habits are changing as well. It’s great to be in a time slot where you know people are reaching the end of their workday, probably the market has closed, but they’re still really engaged in the world. They haven’t shifted to going home and are looking for entertainment in the evening. I’m happy to be where I am and able to take advantage of that. 

Why has the show resonated so quickly with CNN’s audience?

You never know with these kinds of things. I switched networks, which is always a risk for anyone, as you’re meeting a new audience. I’m really grateful to Mark Thompson and the leadership at CNN for letting me do the show that I knew was going to be the best show from me. This has been something I’ve been working on, how to find my voice, my format, my place of being the most comfortable. It started with my first show (on MSNBC), which was Kasie DC, and a lot of the elements that you see on The Arena are things that I was trying out back then—in terms of having panels, trying to do big interviews, leaning into the strengths that I have as a congressional reporter and a political reporter, and taking the experience that I’ve had over many years.

I’ve had several different iterations at CNN. I came over for CNN+, and then I had a different role after that changed. I did the early morning show at five, and then we expanded. Those were all situations where either I was coming into a format that someone else had done originally, or there was a different vision. With The Arena, they’ve let me do my show, and that is something that I don’t take for granted. The only way I’m going to succeed is by being the person that I actually am and doing the things that I’m good at. The audience is either going to like that or they’re not. But I can’t be different than who I am. The audience will see right through that. I appreciate that they let me put on the air something that I came to them and said, “Hey, this is what I think I can bring to the table,” and they went for it, which was great. 

What speaks to The Arena’s ability to bring in big-time politicians to the show, as seen with former Governor Andrew Cuomo?

I hope that the reason why someone who is in “The Arena,” which is what we named the show for, wants to come on and talk to me is because they understand that I have put in the work as a reporter throughout my career to be able to bring to the viewers, but also bring to the newsmakers, a respect and understanding of what they’re doing—what they’re trying to do and what they hope to do, a relatively sophisticated understanding of what living in this world looks like, what it means to be an American politician, and an understanding of the pressures that they face and the way that they make decisions. I’d like to think that sometimes I ask tough questions that might not actually sound that tough when I say them, but hopefully, a sophisticated viewer or participant would understand.

West Coast burger chain The Habit Burger Grill has appointed Exverus Media as its U.S. media agency of record following a competitive review, the companies told ADWEEK.

The California-born fast casual chain worked with Connect, a Publicis Groupe media agency affiliated with Spark Foundry, for about a year before launching the review.

Run in-house, the pitch lasted around eight weeks and began with six agencies before narrowing to four finalists. The Habit was introduced to Exverus by its creative AOR Barrett Hofherr during the review process.

“We were looking for something quite bespoke,” Jack Hinchcliffe, chief marketing officer of The Habit, told ADWEEK.

With roughly 380 locations in 13 states—and about two-thirds of them in California—the Yum! Brands-owned chain was looking for a media agency that could help it grow awareness in new markets while maintaining momentum in its home state. The shift comes amid mixed business results for its parent company: same-store sales fell 4% in Q2, and Q1 revenues dipped to $128 million from $130 million a year earlier, according to Yum! Brands and Nasdaq.

COMvergence estimates The Habit’s 2024 U.S. media spend at $8 million.

Hinchcliffe said The Habit was looking for a partner it could work closely with on a daily basis, noting that proximity was key.

“One of the things that was important for us was appointing a West Coast agency,” he said, adding that he hopes the team can physically join in for important meetings and workshops.

Exverus’ pitch focused on building cultural relevance while tailoring media to local markets. “It’s so easy for consumers to just see another burger chain out there and not really understand what the brand stands for,” Georgia Schreiner, media director at Exverus, told ADWEEK. “How do we make consumers understand that as well? And how do we do that through things that we know consumers love and make them feel connected to a brand?”

The local approach was key, as The Habit’s marketing priorities differ by market. “Outside California, it really is an awareness challenge,” Hinchcliffe said. “Within California…it’s really about staying top of mind and continuing to drive that unprompted brand awareness.”

He added that Exverus’ local targeting capabilities allow the brand “to be super smart on a local level.”

“We need every single dollar to work so much harder for us,” he continued. “Rarely do you actually find a media partner who is just as fired up about that challenge as Exverus were.”

The first work from the partnership launches next week: a cheeky OOH placement outside of In-N-Out’s LAX drive-thru that updates last year’s “No. 2” ranking gag with a new jab at the chain’s drop to No. 4 in USA Today’s 10Best ranking. A larger strategic rollout is planned for 2026.

In July, Exverus was acquired by performance media agency Brainlabs, giving the London-headquartered shop a West Coast foothold and expanding its media buying capabilities full funnel. Exverus continues to be led by its founding team from Los Angeles.