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WTF is commerce media?

This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →

This video is sponsored by Sovrn. Sovrn did not have any input or approval over the video’s editorial content.

In the decade-plus since Amazon started selling ads based on people’s purchase histories, retail media has ballooned into a $59 billion business in the U.S., per eMarketer. But that’s just retailers. Airlines, hotels, financial services companies and even gyms have also started to spin up ad businesses on the backs of their customer transaction databases, which has spurred a new term: commerce media.

Commerce media is honestly a pretty simple concept. It boils down to ads targeted and measured based on transaction data. And that simple concept helps to explain why commerce media has been expanding to turn seemingly any and every ad inventory type into commerce media, as executives from PMG, Profitero+, Tinuiti and WPP Media break down in this video.

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