By Jim Cooper  •  September 19, 2025  •

The commerce stage chat with Criteo CEO Michael Komasinski focused on the evolution of e-commerce, and its rapid growth at 2-3 times the rate of physical retail, driven by increased product depth and marketplaces. Per Komasinki, key drivers include interoperability, identity standards and AI’s impact on product search. Blockers such as measurement standards and fragmentation were noted by him as well, as was the importance of an agency mindset, which prioritizes full-funnel and cross-channel strategies and incrementality — prior to helming Criteo, he was CEO of Dentsu Americas.

Komasinski also shared his opinion that the open web is underappreciated, and he believes in the need to improve measurement standards. Finally, he also pointed to the potential of AI to enhance commerce experiences.

“I think it gives you the right perspective, because when you’re an agency, especially as an AOR, you really have a responsibility to your client’s business to drive it holistically,” said Komasinski, on adopting an agency mindset when approaching commerce. “The focus on incrementality as a long-time performance marketing platform is core to our value proposition, and I’d like to think that we’re one of the more ecosystem-friendly ad tech players out there, so all those things are transferable to the new role.”

The technology stage discussion with Julie Selman, Magnite’s svp and head of EMEA, focused on the evolution and benefits of programmatic curation in media buying. Selman shared her stance that curation involves offering high-quality, bundled inventory to advertisers, enhancing transparency and control. Per Selman, the shift from open exchanges to programmatic curation has increased efficiency and reduced carbon footprints. She also noted that AI tools simplify workflows and enhance ad creation, especially for smaller brands, as well as the importance of understanding inventory value and leveraging AI to optimize media planning and forecasting.

“I don’t think it’s super clearly defined, but when I think about curation, I think about unique inventory of high quality, that is bundled and available for advertisers to buy in an easy fashion,” said Selman.

The center stage interview with Dr. Mark Grether, svp and general manager of PayPal Ads, focused on the evolution of transaction data as a marketing tool, moving from third-party cookies to a transaction graph that includes PayPal data from 30 million merchants and 400 million consumers.

PayPal actually broke the news that it has struck a multi-year partnership with Google to bring new AI shopping and payment experiences to their users at the conference on Wednesday. The new initiative, per Grether, leverages that data to target users across the open web, enhancing reach and frequency.

The conversation also highlighted the importance of accurate payment data for marketing, the role of incrementality in budget allocation, and the potential of transaction data to provide closed-loop attribution. The PayPal friendly German market was noted for its role in testing new capabilities before being introduced to other global markets.

“The idea of our transaction graph is that we have basically transaction data from about 30 million merchants globally and more than 400 million consumers. So, we are basically sitting across the entire universe of commerce and have a very rich understanding of consumers,” said Grether.

And the other center stage session with Valentia Culatti, Snap’s global director of creative strategy and sponsored production, centered on the impact of AI and AR on creativity and consumer engagement, particularly among Gen Z. Culatti emphasized that AI enhances creativity by freeing up time for meaningful work, while AR lenses foster personalized, shareable experiences. Per Culatti, Gen Z interacts with Snap 30 times a day, preferring meaningful connections over broad reach, and that Snap’s platform, with 19 million users, leverages AI for personalized advertising and creative tools like Easy Lens. Culatti also pointed to Snap initiatives like the Creative Center for AI and team councils that are designed to keep pace with relevance and cultural resonance and adapt to Gen Z’s need for authenticity and transparency.

“I would say the platform is very much the operating system of the youth,” said Culatti, who recommended that brand marketers interested in showing up on Snap in an authentic way “[p]lay with it, get to know if, see how it works, chat, [and] follow a couple of creators.”