Advertising Week Special: Who Wins When AI Runs Retail Media? | The 37

Conversions will double. Cost per click will drop 25%. Those are the claims from platform-run beta tests, and Joe has a name for them: controlled experiments designed to make the platform look good. Jayde Chiaravalle sits down with Joe Mefford, Senior Partner, Performance at Junction 37, fresh from Advertising Week in New York. They ask whether an AI agent can plan your kid’s birthday party (Jayde would let it get three quarters of the way), what guardrails to set before you hand an agent your budget, and why brand versus retail is turning into brand through retail. Joe explains why he thinks the platforms win when they take the controls. Plus the session that named an agency by dropping a vowel from a random word, and ads on robots, twenty years later. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 00:39 Joe’s role: retail media at Junction 37 01:18 Advertising Week: the good, the bad and the ugly 02:57 Amazon Unboxed, Prime Days and Walmart Deal Days 03:23 Would you let an AI agent do your grocery shopping? 06:39 AI agents for marketers: handing over the budget 07:34 What guardrails do you set before you hit spend? 09:26 The sessions that hit the mark, and the ones that didn’t 11:11 Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper and “brand through retail” 12:31 Amazon wants the controls: DVA+ and the full funnel 15:22 Who wins when platforms run the budget? 18:09 The ugly: platform beta tests and AI that won’t say why 20:03 Ads on robots: everything old is new again 21:50 Was it a successful Advertising Week? 22:57 Walmart’s moves: Vizio, Vibe.co and The Trade Desk The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day. Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.