Creators and retail media are complementary

Commerce media is at a definitional fork, and IAB's VP of Commerce and Retail Media Collin Colburn says creators and retail media solve each other's gaps: creators drive discovery and influence but struggle to prove purchase, while retail media networks prove purchase but lack upper-funnel reach. Colburn also flagged incrementality overtaking attribution as signal loss accelerates, and the need for ad-format standardization across the 100-plus retail media networks now operating.