Peter Giordano, Head of DoorDash Ads at DoorDash, argues that retail media stopped being an ad channel the moment the gap between an impression and a delivered order collapsed to minutes. He and Greg Kihlström get into what that changes for enterprise brands.
Commerce platforms are becoming full-funnel media, not a lower-funnel add-on. DoorDash isn't a traditional retailer, and Espinosa explains what its data shows about consumer intent that a retailer's doesn't — and what strains first in an enterprise media plan built around flighting and frequency when the purchase happens in minutes.
"AI" hides very different decisions inside an ad system. Giordano draws the line between where a model is genuinely making the call — bidding, ranking, creative assembly — and where a person is still setting rules that a system simply executes faster.
Retail media's credibility problem is that the network grades its own homework. On the LiveRamp partnership, what an advertiser has to be able to verify independently before an incrementality number means anything, and where DoorDash draws the line on data collaboration.
When an AI agent places the order, there's no creative to persuade it. What has to be true about a brand's product data, pricing, and availability to get selected by a machine acting on the customer's behalf.
About Peter Giordano
Peter Giordano is GM of Platform & Growth Services for DoorDash Ads. In this role, he is responsible for a variety of initiatives including global expansion; agency partnerships; scaling platform operations and productivity; and developing external integrations and offsite expansion.
Previously he was COO at Seva, a venture-backed enterprise software business, where he led go-to-market for their early stage knowledge automation SaaS platform. Before Seva, he held various positions in Revenue Operations and Marketing at Simulmedia, a video advertising technology company, eventually serving as SVP of Sales Operations & Strategy. He started his career in various facets of the media industry in New York – including positions in strategy and marketing at Time Inc.; and roles in the network news division at NBC Universal, including that of producer on the “TODAY” Show.
Peter received his undergraduate degree in Government cum laude from Harvard University, and an MBA with honors from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He lives outside of New York City with his wife and two daughters.
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