Artificial intelligence
fromDigiday
2 hours agoAI talk at retail events shifts to proving real results, defining a true strategy
AI has evolved from experimentation to a focus on proven strategies and increased productivity in retail.
"Everything in today's e-commerce environment is being driven by increased intensity of the research phase and true generational divides during the current macroeconomic environment," said Jaysen Gillespie, VP of product marketing and analytics at RTB House.
Weather impacts sales. Every retailer knows it. But for most, the likelihood that it might rain, snow, or sleet on the third of March somewhere in the Midwest is rarely used. Vendors such as Weather Trends have offered accurate, long-range forecasts for more than 20 years. But the opportunity is not predicting the weather; it's knowing what to do with the data. AI might change that.
Beginning on June 22, 2026, we will discontinue the use of Nielsen's Designated Market Area (DMA) for automotive model ads. Comscore Markets, which we introduced in August 2025, will serve as the replacement solution. After this date, campaigns still using Nielsen's DMA for automotive model ads targeting will be paused and require an update to Comscore Markets to resume delivery.
You don't need to pay for expensive software tools in order to analyze what people are saying about your brand online, according to Jazmin Griffith, the founder of social listening agency Que Lo Que. Social listening, or the act of tracking customer sentiment through social media comments and posts, is an important practice for any business with an online presence. "There's a lot of data out there," John Box, the CEO of Meltwater, a SaaS platform that provides social listening services, previously told Inc.
There's no doubt that we have all enjoyed the convenience of adding something to our basket on Amazon and having it arrive on our doorstep less than 24 hours later. But as shopping has moved online, something has been lost from the experience. The online experience is scroll, click and add to cart. But as shoppers, we want so much more. We want to explore other possibilities without feeling overwhelmed. We want to try stuff on, not just read reviews. We want to browse, not just buy.
Imagine you're selecting an influencer to work with on your new campaign. You've narrowed it down to two, both in the right area, both creating the right sort of content. One has 24.6 million subscribers, the other 1.4 million. Which do you choose? Now imagine you could find out the first had 8.7 million unique viewers last month, while the second had 9.9 million. Do you want to change your mind?
Regardless of whether a media channel is addressable or not, it's still reaching strategic and high-value audiences. So, understanding how these different media buys interact with each other [helps buyers] make better investment decisions.
In the first two weeks of January 2026, overall spend on health and wellbeing rose by 3.9% year-on-year, despite customer numbers falling by 2.8%. Spend per customer increased by 6.8%, showing that those who continue to prioritise health are committing more of their budget to it. The data suggests that January is no longer viewed as a reset period, reflecting how health and wellbeing is now prioritised within household budgets throughout the year rather than treated as discretionary spend.
Mike Pastore is the Head of Content & Media at Third Door Media, the publisher of the Martech and Search Engine Land websites and the producer of the SMX and MarTech Conferences. In nearly three decades in B2B marketing, Mike has worked as an editor, writer, and marketer. He first wrote about marketing in 1998 for internet.com (later Jupitermedia). He then worked with marketers at some of the best-known brands in B2B tech, creating content for marketing campaigns at both Jupitermedia and QuinStreet.
They were trying to get to the bottom of how to diminish catalogue distribution without having a negative impact on store and online sales. They were also keen to define the geographic areas where digital content would work best and how to profile those areas to classify digital purchase behaviour. Together with Analytic Partners they were able to uncover opportunities to eliminate 22% of catalogues with negligible sales impact and increasing digital support in high-performing topologies, preserving€ 294 million in sales.
You aren't short on data; you're surrounded by it. But when that data is trapped in disconnected systems and conflicting dashboards, it feels less like an asset and more like a "data prison." We know the frustration of having plenty of information but limited ability to turn it into trusted action. The upcoming March 4th MarTech Conference session, "Break out of data prison with a strategy to end the silos," addresses this head-on.
Key stat: 54% of US marketers plan to fully implement their generative engine optimization (GEO) strategy within three to six months, according to September 2025 data from Scribewise. Beyond the chart: Use this chart: Drop this into your next digital strategy review to show stakeholders the GEO timeline pressure. Use it to benchmark your team's implementation plans against the majority.
The digital advertising industry has always been eager to create standards that simplify complexity. Taxonomies-structured systems for labeling content and products-are one such attempt. And while the IAB Tech Lab's new guidance to connect Content Taxonomy 2.1 with Ad Product Taxonomy 2.0 represents progress, it also raises a fundamental question: Is this really the evolution we need? Or is it just a neater version of a system that no longer fits the reality of how people engage with content?