At Cannes Lions 2025, commerce media partnerships once again reigned supreme. Once the domain of digital shelf tactics and retail data, commerce media is now reshaping how brands show up across social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and in-store displays. This year’s festival offered a glimpse into a more integrated, AI-driven future—one where conversational ads, programmatic pipes, and real-world touchpoints blur the lines between media and purchase.

Target’s retail media arm Roundel even leaned into relationship-building, hosting a “Women in Leadership” brunch on the Riviera headlined by relationship expert Esther Perel, underscoring how commerce media networks now sell culture as much as clicks.

From tech giants unveiling tools that promise precision at scale, to unexpected partnerships between platforms, the message was clear: The category is maturing fast—and everyone wants in. Here are the top takeaways.

1. Tech platforms lean into AI and programmatic

“There was no shortage of agentic AI hype, but also some real substance,” said our analyst Sarah Marzano, where newly announced innovations blend editorial content and personalization into conversational interfaces.

While not strictly a commerce media update, the changes are indicative of trends to come as commerce gets more conversational. “I personally much prefer this more human, story-driven vision of the future to a dystopian one where purchases happen anonymously and retailers lose their reason for being,” Marzano said.

2. Platforms double down on social media

Commerce media and social media have been working hand-in-hand for several years, but the line between the two is blurring even further as new partnerships appear. These partnerships solve for measurement challenges in social media advertising while providing new channels for retailers to reach shoppers.

CVS Media Exchange (CMX) launched a collaboration with Reddit, combining CMX’s data with Reddit’s community engagement to help brands reach consumers within conversations. The move comes as Reddit has been working to build out its own advertising business.

“Reddit is a goldmine of consumer engagement, and health and beauty is a smart category fit,” said Marzano. “It’ll be interesting to see how Reddit continues scaling ads without compromising user trust."

Meanwhile, Instacart partnered with Pinterest to make the social platform’s ads shoppable via Instacart, and creator commerce platform Button launched Creator Media, which allows brands advertising with retail media to connect performance budgets with creators.

3. Commerce media dives deeper with CTV

Amazon Ads and Roku unveiled an integration enabling Amazon's DSP to access Roku's logged-in audience. Amazon brings its retail data alongside Roku’s streaming audience, enabling brands to link viewing behavior to purchase intent—a true commerce-driven media model.

Comcast also launched an integration with Mastercard, allowing purchase data to prove TV ad impact on sales lift. The move shows how non-retail commerce media players like Mastercard are following the commerce media playbook.

Both partnerships demonstrate how CTV can help boost commerce media networks’ reach, while commerce media allows for more precise CTV targeting and measurement.

4. Non-retail commerce media networks crowd the field

Beyond Mastercard, several other non-retailer commerce media networks made moves at Cannes.

Paypal launched shoppable ads for publisher sites while Marriott had a full rebrand, relaunching its Marriott Bonvoy Media Network, which has been around for years, as MARRIOTT MEDIA. There don’t appear to be many tangible changes to the network beyond the name, but considering how crowded travel media has gotten over the past two years, it’s no surprise Marriott is eager to stand out.

This was originally featured in the Retail Media Weekly newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.