{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Retail Media Breakfast Club","title":"Retail Media's Four Eras (Part 1 of 2)","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/6c685384\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":655,"description":"Retail media technology has already gone through several major reinventions. From retailers building their own ad tech stacks, to point solutions, cloud-based composable technology, and now AI-ready data infrastructure.\nIn this episode, I’m recapping my recent article for The Drum, and exploring the four eras of retail media tech. More importantly, why these eras aren’t necessarily sequential. Across retail media networks today, you can find very different technology architectures operating at the same time, and I dig into what led up to this moment. \nTomorrow, in part two, I’ll look at another framework for thinking about retail media technology investment and what all of this means for the brands actually buying retail media.\n\nThis episode is sponsored by GrowthLoop\nTimeline\n00:00 — Why legacy ad servers are still holding retail media networks back\n02:35 — The four eras of retail media technology\n03:25 — How economic cycles influence build vs. buy decisions\n04:22 — The rise of cloud and composable retail media technology\n04:51 — Why AI is changing the requirements for retailer data\n07:18 — Why the four “eras” are actually happening simultaneously\n08:40 — The budget clock vs. the career clock in retail media\n\nLinks & Resources\nA version of this piece originally appeared in my column at The Drum last week. I've split it into two parts for RMBC; this is part one of two.\nOn 20 August 2026, current RMBC sponsor GrowthLoop launched an end-to-end commerce media network solution that's pre-integrated with The Trade Desk, Moloco, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and identity provider Audience Acuity.\nRead my related articles:Costco Is The First US RMN To Reveal Its Entire Tech Stack\nAce Hardware's RedVest Media: Notes From My Interview With Molly Hjelm\nHow an RMN's tech stack impacts your advertising results\nCheck out Basket Case, a project I’m part of with The Drum and QSIC, an irreverent and lively podcast series where we talk shop.\nI'm sharing comedy skits on...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/leXjG3eX2Oionus255cCT4ARULtDc4JRA6cGjzbnYvM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hNDU3/ODBmMzkwODY0NDEx/ZGJhNDk2NDc0MWY4/NzcwMS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}