WHAT’S UP

This is the last full week of my working year. Next Tuesday I’m off to my hometown of Perth, Australia, for the holidays. The trip is not for the faint-hearted: a good 24-26 hours depending if you’re coming or going. I hope to work on one or two personal essays since I’ve let my personal writing lie fallow while taking on this insane pace of publishing nearly every business day in 2025.

Christmas in Australia is like vegemite: folks from the norther hemisphere usually don’t understand having Christmas on a hot summer’s day. And we don’t mind keeping all the benefits low-key: a morning swim, bbq for lunch, fresh seafood that you queued for yesterday.

Retailers are still treating sponsored listings and organic search like rival factions—and it’s tanking relevance. New data shows that the winners are those merging both into a single engine that optimizes for total margin, not ad slots.

The shift is already reshaping onsite search, and the laggards are being exposed. Read the full post

AMAZON
Tuesday: Amazon On Sponsored Product Ads: ‘Too Much Is Never Enough’

Amazon is now serving 25+ sponsored products per page—without hurting shopper engagement. New data shows that density isn’t the issue; relevance is. The real story is how Amazon’s tech keeps ads performant at a level most retailers can’t touch. Read here

RMN MARKETING
Wednesday: RMNs Have A Marketing Problem 

Retail media networks keep trying to scale without doing the one thing that actually works: marketing themselves to brands.

Drawing inspiration from the marketing strategy behind storied VC firm Andreessen-Horowitz, I argue that RMNs need to break their code of silence, rethink who their customer really is, and build direct channels that earn attention—not assume it. Read the full post

AGENTIC COMMERCE
Thursday: Amazon is playing agentic commerce chicken. Other retailers should not. 

Ad industry veteran Eric Seufert argues agentic commerce is dead on arrival without Amazon’s cooperation. I think he’s asking the wrong question. The real action is happening around Amazon—and retailers who wait for that bellwether are playing chicken with their own relevance. Read here

THE DRUM
From Walmart to Williams-Sonoma: retailers are going gaga for recipes

And finally in my column this week for The Drum.

Recipe-based advertising isn’t a new trend, but it is one that has captured the interest of some of the world’s largest retailers. In this column, I unpack why they suddenly care so much about what you’re making for dinner. Read here

Until next year (!!),
Kiri