The Media Buyer's POV: RMNs, Ad Load, and the Agentic Shift with Lee Dunbar

Lee Dunbar, SVP and Head of Retail Media at Starcom, joins the show to provide a crucial agency and brand-side perspective on the evolving retail media landscape. Having seen retail media transform from old-school shopper marketing to a critical part of modern advertising, Lee discusses what major brands like P&G and Kraft Heinz truly seek from Retail Media Networks (RMNs), emphasizing the need for consistency, full-service capabilities, and audience-based incremental reach, especially in non-endemic and in-store environments. He argues that RMNs must mature into a media "layer" that integrates seamlessly with national media plans, rather than remaining siloed "channels". Looking ahead, Lee highlights that the biggest strategic shift for both agencies and brands is managing fragmented ad spend across numerous retailers while preparing for the impact of Agentic Commerce, which threatens to move discovery and media opportunities from retailer sites to AI agents who will act as "super shoppers".