# S2 E14 Criteo _ Sherry Smith

S2 E14 Criteo / Sherry Smith 

[00:00:00] Sherry: the culture of the company I think is so important because. We all know we're on a transformation and it's not easy. It means the cheese is moving all the time and you know, there's, there's gotta be a certain transparency and a certain ownership to allow that to happen. It's not easy. And so, um, yeah, I'm really proud of that.  

[00:00:19]  

[00:00:19] Introduction & Background on Criteo 

[00:00:19] Tom: You are listening to the Middlemen podcast with me, Tom Limongello  

[00:00:25] Tom: and my co-host Todd Sawicki Our careers have put us in the middle between retail media and brands, but retail media is a closed loop. So we're here to open up the channel and let you listen in, join our discussions with the people who make retail media happen. Welcome to the Middlemen. Today we're gonna be talking with Sherry Smith. We were excited to have her join because she was the CEO of Triad, so super og retail media cred. But she's been at Criteo for five years and she's now, , the head of the Americas for the whole business. And, you know, I've got a lot of [00:01:00] history and understanding of Criteo on the retail media side. 

[00:01:03] Tom: But I don't really know it as much on, uh, the rest of the business. So I wanted to hear your thoughts 

[00:01:08] Todd: it. Interesting. You view them as og commerce media, retail media, and I've always viewed them as, as OG ad tech and I, to their credit, 

[00:01:17] Tom: of our two experiences. 

[00:01:18] Todd: yeah, this is, they're an interesting one in that regard and they really. Change their business. Right. Couple of key acquisitions, , and Sherry will talk about this, the, the Hooked Logic acquisition, which brings sponsored search into their business, the IPN Web, which brings a lot of core tech. 

[00:01:35] Todd: And so they saw, uh, you know, where the puck was moving in this move to retail media. Now, today, they're a foundational tech company in the retail media space. They're one of the big boys. And every retailer you talk to would mention Criteo as one of the players that if they're, they need to talk to, they, they need to consider adding them as, as a provider, um, to their stack. 

[00:01:58] Todd: Whether they do or not, it's a different story, but it's [00:02:00] certainly, you know, on a short list for every company that you talk to in the retail side of who are the vendors that they're gonna start the conversation with. And CRI is absolutely, so they really saw where the puck was going in a way that I don't think we give you kinda wake up today and they're kingpin for retail media attack, but they didn't start that way, but. 

[00:02:15] Todd: You know, good for them for getting there. 

[00:02:17] Tom: Yeah, I think, I think they got real tailwinds from the Hook Logic acquisition that at the time when privacy was being locked down. In, in the offsite world. media space was sort of greenfield and they picked up what was something like 225 out of 250 retail media networks that they were, that they call, you know, that that, that they characterize as retail media networks. 

[00:02:39] Tom: And I think over that time, what that means is that they're pulling in product feeds from a ton of retailers. And what they did, and you know, we talked a little bit in the, in the discussion about their head of product or Parsons, he talks a lot about entity resolution. 

[00:02:54] Tom: And so most retail media, it's all about identity resolution. How do you target the consumer? [00:03:00] But if you're looking at retailers and you can look across retailers and you can see. That this SKU this, you know, Coke SKU is showing up a bunch, uh, across a bunch of different retailers. How do you, you know, if you don't normalize that data, you're kind of missing a really key point of, where the brand spend is going in that view of the, of the consumer's journey across, all these retailers. 

[00:03:21] Tom: A lot of the offsite vendors can't really break into that because it, you know, if offsite is not a winner, take all the onsite part of it, especially the sponsored listing. Uh, it's, it's tough to unseat those, those relationships. 

[00:03:35] Todd: To your point, I think the entity resolution and the idea of targeting around that. Super interesting. There's a couple of, . Trends and, and threads that we've been talking about. You know, the shift in rise of retail media, their story mirrors that. 

[00:03:47] Todd: And, and now that, , we see the future of retail media for online media and the next, the, the next sort of threads that we talk about are, or wanna talk about or wanna explore the rise of cross retail [00:04:00] buying. They're already selling cross retail buying to agencies. So that's another thing, which is, can you. Get agencies to start buying retail media and they're making it happen today. 

[00:04:11] Todd: And it doesn't necessarily come in the conversation with Sherry, but they, you know, they've moved away from, from, uh, in-store, sadly, as you and I look to that as being one of the big futures, but as other trends in terms of, you know, where does the puck go? I think those first two pieces are really interesting. 

[00:04:26] Todd: Can they, you know, can you get agencies to buy and can you enable cross retail purchasing? That's the thing that'll really start moving. I. Retail media to the next level of, of media and the fact that they're kind of a part of that and they're already looking in that and have experience with that. It's, it's, it's interesting part of this, the current landscape and, and story. 

[00:04:45] Tom: As we look at where retail media is going towards the end of the year, after can, we're definitely gonna see, , the interest in really. Moving the industry forward and moving the industry forward means, you know, breaking some eggs, it [00:05:00] means a brand, basically buying across retailers what you just said. 

[00:05:04] Todd: They are a big player and everyone needs to be aware of them. And if you're a retailer, you're gonna talk to them. And if you're a tech vendor, you're competing with them. And so I think everyone is, this is a good conversation to start to learn who are the people behind Criteo and really making it happen today. 

[00:05:19] Todd: And, and Sherry is one of those people I. 

[00:05:22] Tom: All right, let's get to it. 

[00:05:23]  

[00:05:24] Sherry Smith's Career Journey 

[00:05:24] Tom: Welcome to the Middlemen podcast. I'm really excited to have Sherry Smith on with us today. One of the reasons I'm really excited is not only have I've been following Criteo for a long time, , in the retail media space, but I. Sherry was the CEO of Triad, which is really sort of the, the OG we had Sean Chaney on a couple weeks ago. 

[00:05:44] Tom: , The first real retail media, , tech vendor and media partner to the big retailers. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background and, , the lead up into being, a big exec at, Criteo. 

[00:05:56] Sherry: Well, thank you so much. It's so nice to be on. I very much appreciate the [00:06:00] time. I'm really proud of, 

[00:06:01] Sherry: the work that Triad did. 

[00:06:03] Sherry: I, you know, the, the work that I had the chance to do there gave me a, a front row seat to. Really the early days of retail media. I started with Triad back in 2008 when Walmart was a year into their retail media program and we were working with Walmart and Sam's Club actually at the time. 

[00:06:20] Sherry: And so you think about those very early days. I think they did 5 million that first year when I first first worked with them. But you know, as you think about the. We were able to expand on, uh, there were several at Triad and, and really many of them doing more full funnel strategy, more omnichannel, so they were really ahead of its time. And one of the things I'm most proud of is, is honestly, there are so many former Triad employees, some of them here. But many at different retailers, some at competitors, some at agencies, um, others at tech platforms. 

[00:06:56] Sherry: So I'm just so proud of the number of people that actually were [00:07:00] embedded into the space to help further the retail media space. It's nice to. 

[00:07:05] Tom: Yeah. Well, thanks again for joining  

[00:07:07] Tom: us and, um, so you're now at Criteo and you've been there for the last five years. I it would be great to hear how you define  

[00:07:14] Tom: the products that are there. I know from the previous CEO, 

[00:07:18] Tom: Margaret, she always talked about, , this as a commerce media play rather than just strictly retail media. 

[00:07:24] Tom: I'd love to hear how the change in, in Criteo, uh, over the years, managed service to self-service, all those types of things. Like what is the Criteo team that you're, running now. 

[00:07:34] Sherry Smith, MD of Americas at Criteo 

[00:07:34] Sherry: my title today, I've had a number of different roles within Criteo in the, the five years that I've been here, and I'm really thankful for that. That's a sign of a good growing and healthy organization with a lot of opportunity. Uh, today my role is executive managing director over the Americas. 

[00:07:49] Sherry: So what that means is I oversee our retail media, our performance media. Grid, our agency work as well as our operations within, and I'll talk about [00:08:00] grid later, but within the, uh, Americas, so that's all of latam Canada and the us And then what drew me in, you know, to Criteo and why I was excited to come here is truly. It was the, this, it was a promise, honestly, of the vision of what we wanted to build for retail media. At the time. When I joined, um, Criteo had acquired HookLogic a few years before, 18 months prior to joining. They were building our retail media platform that happened to launch a day after I joined. 

[00:08:28] Sherry: And during that time, we had to move all of our advertisers and our retail partners from a managed service platform to a fully self-serve. So we are 90 plus percent. Managed service, uh, when I joined and we moved, , all of our retail partners and the advertisers to self-serve 90% at least of that total, um, advertising base over within the first year. 

[00:08:50] Sherry: And the other thing that got me really excited about it was that we make, we're making it easy. For retail media to buy. And that's where I really started at my roots with Criteo, was in the retail media [00:09:00] side. Now I manage the whole of, uh, Criteo from an America standpoint, but that's what drew me in. 

[00:09:04] Sherry: And an example of how we're making it easy, how we made it easy at the time 'cause we were thinking about launching the platform. We wanted to make it easy for retailers to have their own distinct, uh, entry point. 

[00:09:16] Criteo's Transformation: Managed Service to Self-Service 

[00:09:16] Sherry: That's what we call Commerce Shield today. So it is very much retailer by retailer solution. But in a platform like Commerce Max where you can access all of those retailers across one platform, and we have, you know, 13 plus API partners plus even some API partners at our brands um, as soon as we launch or light up a new retailer, they get access to that retailer right away. So there's no build and so on. 

[00:09:38] Sherry: And to my knowledge, we're the only ones doing that today. I think, you know, many are going out there and saying, Hey look, you can create your own, create your own. One thing they all struggle with is demand. And even though, you know, I think there's a lot of opportunity to continue to bring more demand. 

[00:09:50] Sherry: It's really making it easy for advertisers to buy across the ecosystem, and that's, that's what we've been trying to do, and so I've been very excited about that. I think as you think about. [00:10:00] Performance marketing and, and as we think about our supply side with grid and our, really, our big focus has been on commerce. 

[00:10:07] Sherry: Um, we're seeing those more siloed strategies start to come together and become more bigger and broader funnel, full funnel solutions. And so I, that's what our mission's all about from Megan to now Michael Kozinski as our, our CEO, that, that, um. Mantra really hasn't changed. It's really about connecting brands and shoppers together and making it easy for advertisers to access, um, and, and connect directly with 

[00:10:34] Todd: I think the core of what you just said is true in terms of the, what Credo is has been known for. Right. And I think it's an ama, it's really an amazing journey of a company. Given its roots in terms of working with retailers and originally the performance and the retargeting business and how that grew into really a, a modern liaison of, of retail media. 

[00:10:54] Todd: And I, I, I don't, if we were to look back, I. Five years ago and [00:11:00] the journey of, of retail media, of what Criteo has become, I don't think we would've, most people would've thought that Criteo would've been as successful and would be one of the titans of retail media from, especially from the tech and, and the delivery side and, and so forth. 

[00:11:12] Todd: I It's really an amazing story of from where it started to where it is today and. I think that's what one of the reasons we are interested in talking to you and, and Criteo, is that story is I think we accept it, but I don't know if everyone understands like, what a big change in, and, you know, that transition you're talking about the relaunching of the platform and, and building out a retail media tech business. 

[00:11:33] Todd: Which again, you are one of the, the titans at this point in that space. , It's a story that thinks really an interesting one and speaks to how businesses and the ad tech can evolve and grow and, , innovate in ways , from where you start to, to where you end up. 

[00:11:48] Todd: And I can't imagine retail media without Criteo at this point in time. In terms of like the hook logic acquisition and others are really fascinating to kind of dig into and how it helped build [00:12:00] this, this business, um, in, in a really thoughtful way, as in retrospect, right? At the time, I'm sure it was thoughtful to everyone inside Criteo outside we're all like, oh, okay, they're buying stuff, but now today you can look back and go, they really strategic about it and in a really impactful way. 

[00:12:12] Todd: And, and today, bear the fruits of that. 

[00:12:14] Sherry: Thank you so much for saying that, , you know, working behind the scenes, it, it certainly is not as easy as it seems out externally. Um, so there's a lot of work that went into that, a lot of transformation. know, I was saying earlier, but they're, they're just the smartest minds. 

[00:12:28] Sherry: Truly. There really are. It's, it, I feel like I'm working with the upper echelon. I really do of, of thought leadership from our C-suite to the 900 plus engineers and I probably have the number wrong, um, to just my counterparts. , Both, locally here in the Americas as well as globally. Everybody's really thinking and the culture of the company I think is so important because. We all know we're on a transformation and it's not easy. It means the cheese is moving all the time and you know, there's, there's [00:13:00] gotta be a certain transparency and a certain ownership to allow that to happen. It's not easy. And so, um, yeah, I'm really proud of that. And also to, in that process, acquiring different companies, bringing different talent in. 

[00:13:12] Sherry: I Icon Web was  

[00:13:13] Todd: Yep.  

[00:13:14] Sherry: and getting a group of smart minds. And so, you know, I will say we're, we're at the ne next cusp retail media. Even though you had, the star players that started 15 years ago, Amazon and, and, and Best Buy. Absolutely. Have to put them in that category and give a shout out to my friend Keith. Um, uh, and, and others. Sam's Club and Instacart. You know, you have so many, we're at, you know, 250 what globally? Um. Which Credio powers or is behind 225 of those retailers globally. Um, but you know, a lot of them are three years in two and three years in, so, and there's a lot of up and comers and there's a lot of promises. 

[00:13:49] Sherry: And so for us, the big thing that we have to do, and we have to do every, I would say couple of years I've been here five years, it's reassess. Go back, look at our vision and say, [00:14:00] on the right path? Do we believe in what we're doing? How do we help? How do we help others along that journey? Or do we need to change and adjust and we, the answer is all of those things, but I, I believe the core of where we're going is absolutely the right place, which is to make it accessible and easy. 

[00:14:16] Tom: What I've noticed of Criteo's evolution is that. The stronghold that you've had, especially in like sponsored products with retailers, I think you have something like 250 retailers, I think you said. 

[00:14:27] Sherry: Yeah. 

[00:14:27] Product Innovation & Data Advantage 

[00:14:27] Tom: Um, you've, it seems to me that the product team at Criteo has leveraged the, uh, the product feeds and the understanding of the data of the actual products themselves. a place where they really have an advantage, um, comparison with a lot of the other ad tech vendors that are just sort of coming with a sort of user identity perspective. And I, and I think that, you know, from the display world or the video world coming into the product. Uh, feed world is a harder move than it is, [00:15:00] um, moving the other direction. 

[00:15:01] Tom: And it seems from actually the webinar that I just watched today with our friend Mark Williamson from Costco. Um, you guys are showing that some of the new products that you have for onsite media display and even video, um, some of the new products I think that are on the roadmap are. Products that, you know, uh, uh, ads that have no product feature. 

[00:15:22] Tom: It's just a brand ad for category, uh, authority. And so for me, watching you guys move into those sort of higher funnel from the basis of a sponsored products foundation is really interesting. And we'd love to hear sort of, you know, more of the philosophy of like where you guys are going. 

[00:15:38] Sherry: Yeah. a. I can tell you that. Um, thank you very much for saying that. Just in terms of product, because what I, what I think is our roadmap is, is so long, we have so many things that we wanna do. And I've been in meetings all, all morning today because we're always thinking about what are the trade offs, what are the right things that we need to do right now? Um, because even [00:16:00] sponsored products continues to evolve and display, to your point, there's a new era. That we are entering, which is, you know, and how far will we will go? You know, we, can we, really make retail media display programmatic? We're not there right now, but we see a vision of where that's going and that's where we're heading. And so as we think about display and making that self-serve and available. Um, is, has, has been, has been one of the things, and within the platform and making it API Ready and things of that nature, those are the things that are all, um, there's a lot that goes into that. It's not just a simple product set. 

[00:16:36] Sherry: There's, there's so much. And then yeah, you know, we've been adding onsite video, which has had a very, very positive, um. Entrance, um, for us giving more of these shoppable formats and more of a digital shelf, making it more about storytelling. 

[00:16:53] Sherry: Um, and, and with a focus, we always have a focus on conversion and, you know, we've seen great [00:17:00] results with onsite video. 

[00:17:01] Sherry: Uh, you know, one study that we had, we had a 5.6. Um. Time lift in a new to brand customers. Um, it's a big deal for us. One of our retail partners had a 280% click through rate that they were seeing with onsite videos. So, you know, you see it in the numbers, but you also see it in the conversions that are happening, you know, and it gives retailers an opportunity to generate more revenue. 

[00:17:26] Sherry: They can create a more premium CPM, so. It's a, it's a win.  

[00:17:31] Sherry: It's a win across the board. It's more engaging for that customer. It's better for the retailer in terms of a premium CPM. It's better for a shopper. You think about beauty shoppers that really want something that will fashion, that is making retail media buying fun. 

[00:17:45] Sherry: You know that? 

[00:17:47] Tom: well, I mean, I, you know, for me, I'm seeing it 'cause a lot of the, the case studies that you're putting out there, it's adding video plus display, plus sponsor products and together that all, you know, lifts, uh, to a [00:18:00] higher degree, hopefully. Um, but do you have friction or, or, uh, challenges in terms of the way the buyers are measuring or where the budgets are? 

[00:18:09] Challenges in Measurement & Agency Buying 

[00:18:09] Tom: Is that, is that still a challenge? 

[00:18:11] Sherry: You know, I think it's, I think, it's an opportunity because you think about, , in electronics, advertiser's gonna look at how they measure it very differently than a, you know, food, , in the grocery space. And we try to give that flexibility in our platform. But it comes with a lot of education the lookback windows and the right customers to target. And that is a big piece that our demand side. So that's the other. Nuance that Criteo brings to this is we have a demand side sales team that is really, really important in that process. That works with our API partners that 

[00:18:42] Sherry: works with the, the agencies, works with the, brands direct to help give some of that guidance. 

[00:18:47] Sherry: We also do the same with retailers to help them understand what, what are brands and agencies, 

[00:18:52] Sherry: in particular agencies. 'cause that's where retailers really. Yearn for more is to know more of what is gonna be appealing to the agency. [00:19:00] I think you know, the opportunity, the green space is there because you know, you right now you've got brands that are buying still, retailer by retailer. 

[00:19:08] Sherry: You hear 'em. I can't do more than five to seven retailers. Well, we've gotta get to a world, it is easier to buy across more of a SKU based buying, and that's one of the features that we've released is that ability to go in and enter a SKU and see globally. Where is that SKU available and how can I buy that means actually going to a different buyer. 

[00:19:28] Sherry: It's likely not gonna be a, uh, shopper marketing buyer. That is interested in that, that really is gonna meet like a JBP spend or is thinking about, you know, how do I work best with X, y, z retailer? It's more thinking about e-commerce or innovation or, you know, tapping into new budgets. That to me is where I, when we think about this ecosystem of retail 

[00:19:49] Sherry: media and where it can go, it's gotta be getting into these type of budgets and thinking about new ways to buy, where it's 

[00:19:56] Sherry: not just tied to, you know, true truly just a JBP or a shopper [00:20:00] marketing budget.  

[00:20:00] Todd: Well.  

[00:20:01] Sherry: so I think that's green space. 

[00:20:02] Todd: One of the things that, um, there's sort of two things that come outta your comments about SKUs versus, you know, Tom Identity. And I think that's actually one of the interesting ones is as retail media ultimately in our point of view becomes the layer of the open web, right? We don't, we see publishers, plus retailers as peanut butter and chocolate and you know, there's retailers bring identity. 

[00:20:22] Todd: But I think this idea of. SKUs as another layer of identity is really fascinating, right? In a world where identity is, is challenges with regulation and other things, even SKU based approaches offer a new way of targeting. And you the, to your point of what Tom was saying and you were saying having that product feed approach and having the ability to, as you were pointing out across, uh, retailer SKU targeting is I think really interesting. 

[00:20:46] Todd: And another piece of how is the world going to evolve, like from a media buying standpoint, more SKU based is another. Way to think about buying versus pure identity, which I think good, like we need more ways to buy and we need more ways to target. And that approach is [00:21:00] interesting. I think the other side of that, um, is to, with the other, you, you also touched on a point that we've been speaking to a lot, which is for retail media to, to continue to grow as, as much as it has over the last five years. 

[00:21:13] Todd: It has to knock on the door and solve the agency buying problem. And you move outta shopper marketing and get buyers like you hear, you know, that new platforms getting launched, trying to help agencies, you know, um, buy, you're hearing about other approaches to make it easier for agencies to buy. And I think that's one of the things is we have to move beyond the shopper marketing team. 

[00:21:32] Todd: We have to move into the brand and the regular media buying teams and anyone who can help do that is, is really at the cusp of helping. Expand this, and obviously Criteo's been selling to your exactly your point, right? It's, it's an interesting lens to what Criteo has been doing in terms of it's been selling to performance buyers ad agencies for forever. 

[00:21:48] Todd: And so it has an interesting perspective on how do we continue to help agencies evolve and move more spend into quote unquote retail media. 

[00:21:57] Sherry: yeah. You know, there's, you know, for [00:22:00] us, you know, it's control the controllables. We say that all the time. Um, and for us, we're trying to make it, we're trying to make that world easy. I think externally, 

[00:22:08] Sherry: you know, their remit has to extend beyond just. Hey, buy across these three retailers. So I think that's, that's one I think, um, we know. That, and I mean, it's not just, we're not the only ones that know this, but brands are changing the way that they are structured as well. You know, to be able to think about how to best buy retail media. And in fact, an initiative we put in place a couple years ago was to have a couple of global. Brand ambassadors to work across. 

[00:22:36] Sherry: We've got 15 brands that we work across today, big global brands in the CPG space, um, because that's the way they wanna interact with us. They wanna understand how is buying happening over in Europe versus in apac. And honestly down to how we hear, how should we structure, what's the best way, how do we educate? At upper levels that maybe are more traditional in their buying format. So there's [00:23:00] a lot that has to be done to catch up to. I, I really believe where we are, where we believe it's going, but, but it's where we need the industry to go. But I do see it moving and that I think is exciting. Um, but, but back to the agencies, I think that's a big piece. 

[00:23:16] Sherry: You know, we've, they've gotta be able to expand their remit and looked at a bit differently just in terms of how to measure their, know, they're, their, the work they're doing, um, for retailers to be able to capture those  

[00:23:27] Todd: Is the, is it the, the brand pushing the agencies to change in how they buy this? Or is it the agencies doing it themselves and leading the brands? I think that's been one of the questions, right? It's sort of the, the chicken or the egg kind of problem. But I think that's an interesting one 'cause everyone wants to unlock these dollars. 

[00:23:42] Todd: I. Especially quote unquote non-endemic. And that means all of this. And so is it the agencies have to lead it or is it the brands, to your point, they're evolving and these, these brand ambassadors are, you know, a, a good, I think, story around that. And so I think that's one of the interesting questions is who's going to force the change at the [00:24:00] agencies? 

[00:24:02] Sherry: Yeah. I think, you know, to me the answer is both. I, I do see it happening both ways. So, I mean, you think about, I've gotta give a, you know, there's, the agencies are doing a lot of really good work, so I, I  

[00:24:13] Todd: Oh no, this isn't a criticism. This is sort of like, how do we, you know, they, they, we all, they all wanna do better and more and what have you. It's more of a, huh, this evolution is going to ha has, we want this all to happen, and who's going to be the one to help push it? Who's gonna be that environmental pressure to, to make that change? 

[00:24:28] Sherry: I think agencies that are doing it well, and we are seeing this with many of our partners, and that's, this is what what I was, was, was meaning by this, is that they, are all hungry to connect what's happening on the traditional advertising side with what's happening on retail media. And you see that internally with 

[00:24:43] Sherry: commerce experts or expertise that they've set up within their own agencies. We have many deal structures in place. To help educate agency partners and, and make sure that they have, they are connecting those two worlds. I think brands are thinking about how do they not in these different buckets and it's been very siloed. 

[00:24:59] Todd: Right. [00:25:00]  

[00:25:00] Sherry: so you, you think about the customer's, not though We're seeing between both is how do you meet that customer across that. You know, that journey that is up, breaking it down. But I think getting the right expertise , the right framework in place, and I do see that happening between both sides. It, it takes time, but I see it happening and, and um, you know, and I'm encouraged to see that. 

[00:25:20] Tom: Great. Well, I want to be, cognizant of the time. Is there anything else you wanted to tell us about where retail media is going 

[00:25:26] Sherry: Yeah. 

[00:25:27] Tom: you know, on the product side, ai, anything that you'd like to tell us? We're, we're here for you. 

[00:25:31] Sherry: Well, you know, thank you so much for, again, for the opportunity. you. 

[00:25:34] The Role of AI in Criteo's Platform 

[00:25:34] Sherry: you know, you touched on AI and I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about that. Everybody's talking about it. AI we've had an AI lab since 2018. It has been a big, it's  

[00:25:42] Todd: AI has been a part of, of ad tech for a long time, you know, at various levels. Right. Automated targeting has been a part of this for and that's, I always laugh, like I've been talking about Ai, for 10 years.  

[00:25:51] Sherry: yes, yes, exactly. And so, but I will say, uh, a couple things that we are doing is we're, we're really leveraging [00:26:00] ai, for example, with sponsored products and our search capabilities. So making sure that we make search more predictive, more relevant, more effective, um, leveraging AI over our models to make sure that we've got, you know, you think about the massive amounts of data that's available. And being able to help us with our predictions, which Critio is pretty good at. But being able to leverage AI on top of that in real 

[00:26:23] Sherry: time, to, uh, be able to, to maybe reach a customer that, that we wouldn't have before. Making faster, smarter decisions. We're also using AI of course, with creative. When we think about, no longer is it more of the a and b testing, it's more of, okay, what's working? 

[00:26:38] Sherry: And you can instantaneously look at, okay, how do we change creative to make sure that we are best reaching that customer? Those are just a few things that we're doing. You know, I think that it's going to, I not, I think I know, um, that is going to continue to power the tools and the platform that we have and, uh, do more around discovery. Uh, and that's, that's what we're really [00:27:00] trying to do is think about, okay. Uh, what's the best way to do it? Do it carefully. but do it with speed and make sure that we can, we can measure it. Um, because at the end of the day, for us, it, it, and, and for any of our brand partners, agency, partners, retailers, it is about conversion, but it really is about that customer loyalty and how do you develop a stronger, a connection with that customer. 

[00:27:21] Sherry: And so anything we do, whether it's sponsored products, how that's placed, relevancy, ai, creative, those are all the things that go into, you know, our thinking each and every day is, is, is making sure that, uh. the right brand ambassadors or platform ambassadors, I should say, for retailers, brands and, and agencies.  

[00:27:40] Looking Forward: The Future of Retail Media 

[00:27:40] Todd: I think to that last point, um, just a, a quick comment, Tom, about the, the touch on the AI and the creative. I think one thing is, gets to the roots of Criteo and as a, a quick comment about Criteo is, has been doing dynamic ad creatives for. A decade plus. Right. And in terms of, and I think that history of, of, again, the [00:28:00] technological roots of Criteo, I think are deeper and broader and better than than I, we all sort of have just, it's so much a part of the fabric of our lives within the ad tech space that we don't give enough credit to the innovations and things and knowledge and depth. 

[00:28:12] Todd: Like to your point about data and training and learning how to make great creatives. You guys have been doing that for so long. That. It's like if there's a company that knows how to do it, you guys would be one of those companies that I think is well positioned for this creative optimization and, and using AI and for targeting and all because of the roots of where you started as a, as a company. 

[00:28:27] Todd: It's always been a part of what the offering you guys have had. 

[00:28:30] Sherry: Thank you. Thank you. Well, we've got, we've got some bright lines that, uh, we've been fortunate enough to, to keep with us for a long time and we keep adding great talent to make sure that we stay at the forefront, but I really appreciate that. Thank you. 

[00:28:42] Tom: Well, thanks again. In for, for joining us and we're, we're gonna look to see what you're doing in the back half of the year in terms of, you know, moving this to be a, a fuller funnel proposition. Um, really exciting stuff. Thank you. 

[00:28:54] Sherry: Absolutely. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. 

[00:28:57]  

[00:28:57] Tom: You are listening [00:29:00] to the Middlemen podcast with