It’s 2026. New budgets. New pressure. New expectations.
And before diving headfirst into the chaos, we’re hitting pause with a rewind.
In this special episode, hosts Nick Morgan and Paul Blackburn look back at some of the most influential conversations from Commerce Media Matters — the ideas, debates, and perspectives that will matter even more in the year ahead.
From the explosive growth of commerce and retail media, to the realities of trust, privacy, and governance, to global shifts in how creativity and commerce collide — this episode is your warm-up lap for 2026.
If you’re building decks, shaping strategies, or gearing up for planning conversations, consider this required listening.
Featuring highlights from conversations with:
Jason Westcott (Global Head of Commerce Solutions, WPP): On the scale and maturity of commerce and retail media, why it’s now core to the media mix, and what needs to change as it continues to grow.
Gai Le Roy (CEO, IAB Australia): On trust, privacy, and governance, and why strong frameworks are critical to building confidence and scaling responsibly.
Kiri Masters (Journalist and podcaster of Retail Media Breakfast Club): Bringing a global, practical lens to how fast the space is evolving — and why learning, openness, and collaboration still matter.
Colin Lewis (Co-founder of Retail Media Works): Challenging the industry on creativity, effectiveness, and differentiation, and why commerce media needs its own language, thinking, and execution.
Soundbites to listen out for:
On holistic planning across teams and breaking down silos (Jason Wescott):
"(Retail Media) can’t afford to remain siloed from the rest of the marketing mix. Long gone are the days where you’ve just got a commerce team working on a retail media campaign and they have no idea what the broadcast team is putting out there."
On IAB’s priority themes (Gai Le Roy)
"Privacy is our number one theme. Transparency… measurement… sustainability… and then we’ve got the last bucket, which is really preparing for the future, which is a bit of a cover all, but AI sits firmly in there."
On retail media as its own channel (Colin Lewis)
"Retail media is an entity of its own. It’s its own language. It’s its own channel. It’s its own thing."
On commerce media vs retail media (Gai Le Roy)
"The trend seems to be, and I know you guys have been sort of on this bandwagon, that commerce is an umbrella term. I don’t know if eventually the word commerce goes away and it’s media again."
On how new the category of commerce media really is (Kiri Masters)
"Retail media was only a term that I certainly started hearing in like 2020, when Instacart rolled out their self-serve ad platform."
On what “creativity” actually means (Colin Lewis)
“When I talk about creativity in retail media, I’m not talking about an amazing ad that won an award in Cannes.“What I’m referring to is creativity in terms of an approach, in terms of thinking through how you could structure and hire for your retail media network, creativity in terms of your propositions in your market, but also creativity in terms of the actual communications.”
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