On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the main factors leading marketers to cut spending at the moment, how advertisers are adapting their approach to measurement, and what is happening in the industry as more marketers begin to embrace the opportunity to shift spend at a higher velocity. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Principal Analyst Max Willens, Nielsen's Head of Performance Marketing Alison Gensheimer, and SVP and Head of Advertisers and Agencies Matthew Devitt. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Media effectiveness platform DoubleVerify rolled out streaming TV products on Thursday designed to improve transparency and advertising quality in connected TV (CTV). DV’s new tools offer hope to marketers who are relying on CTV more amid shifting viewing habits but who struggle with placement and measurement.

LiveRamp CEO Scott Howe says marketers are now fighting a “war for signals”—a race to collect, clean, and connect data fast enough to prove every dollar’s impact. Speaking alongside Q2 earnings of $200 million (up 8%), Howe described marketing’s new reality as “precision and proof.” LiveRamp’s clean room tech now lets brands merge data across partners like Netflix, Uber, and PayPal to tie spend directly to transactions. With AI acceleration and data collaboration redefining performance, Howe says growth depends less on scale and more on signal speed: “Access to better data gets the flywheel going—and determines who wins.”

Successful retail execution requires making products more available, visible, and relevant to shoppers; it's a challenge that's grown increasingly complex in today's retail environment. For many retailers, leveraging image recognition technology has transformed how they approach in-store execution and display compliance.

Keeping shoppers engaged takes more than clever campaigns; it requires constant reinvention. In a recent Path to Purchase Institute webinar, experts from Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and Spark Foundry discussed how staying fresh, setting clear objectives, and moving quickly can help brands build lasting connections in a fickle marketplace.

This sponsored video by Awin will explore how affiliate partnerships are transforming influencer marketing.

Google has officially eliminated its Privacy Sandbox and removed the remaining 10 Sandbox technologies that were still available, marking an end to its yearslong plan to pivot away from third-party cookies on Chrome. Even as giants like Google step away from first-party initiatives, advertisers should prepare for continued change as many are pushing forward with post-cookie ambitions. Cookies may linger for some time to come, but that doesn’t negate broader consumer sentiments that favor data transparency.

Meta withdrew from Media Rating Council (MRC) brand safety audits last week, just months after its accreditation was officially issued, per Adweek. Despite its other brand safety moves, Meta’s step away from the MRC indicates that advertisers are now navigating a digital ad landscape that necessitates investment in platforms without stringent brand safety protocols—requiring marketers to strengthen their own brand safety monitoring and verification processes.

Walmart has expanded its Scintilla Digital Landscapes platform with new capabilities that give suppliers a clearer, data-rich view of how customers move from discovery to purchase.

This sponsored article by TransUnion® will explore why marketers’ trust in measurement is plateauing.

The growth of commerce media investments promises to connect brands with customers for longer stretches of the customer journey, especially when shoppers are close to purchasing. Though much of this extended digital journey leaves out the physical store, this strategy is changing.

In five years, Instacart’s retail media network (RMN) has transformed from a simple performance engine into a full-funnel, end-to-end marketing ecosystem.

For years, the commerce media conversation has centered around one theme: Measurement. But that may be changing. “We are finally moving past just talking about measurement,” said Collin Colburn, vice president, commerce and retail media at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). “It’s a horse that’s been beaten over the head a little bit too many times.”

As advertisers demand clearer evidence of campaign effectiveness, retail media networks (RMNs) are investing in advanced attribution tools. Loblaw Advance, the retail media network of Canadian retailer Loblaw Companies Limited, is taking this step with its new multi-touch attribution (MTA) solution.

Meta is planning on offering UK users paid, ad-free versions of Instagram and Facebook in the coming weeks. Privacy transforming into a priced option implies a growing consumer awareness of data use. Advertisers who make privacy a positive part of their brand messaging will better match emerging consumer mindsets.

In-store retail media has the “reach, quality, rent, safety, and cultural relevance that marketers traditionally want,” said Andrew Lipsman, founder and chief analyst, media, ads, and commerce at Colosseum Strategy, during IAB’s Connected Commerce Summit.

The news: Private equity firm Novacap will buy digital advertising measurement and analytics firm Integral Ad Science (IAS) for $1.9 billion, the companies announced Wednesday. The deal will take IAS private after four years of public trading and is expected to close this year. Our take: Measurement fragmentation and transparency concerns with leading ad firms like Google means third-party measurement and attribution companies have a lucrative opportunity to provide much-needed standards.