
Loading summary
AdTech God
A word from our sponsors. You measured incrementality. Great. Now what? You know what worked, what didn't, maybe even what was cannibalizing your organic. But turning that insights into actual decisions, that's where most marketers get stuck. Incremental doesn't just measure incrementality, they help you operationalize it. Shift budgets, pause wasteful campaigns, double down where it actually matters. No tracking, no experiments, no just always on automated truth. So if you're done measuring for the sake of measuring and ready to act, visit Incremental the future of measurement. Because knowing is only half the battle, go to incremental.com that's incrmntal.com a word from our sponsors. Philo Ads brings performance focused CTV advertising to brands of every size. With over 900 million ad impressions each month, no minimum spend and a brand safe environment, Philo Ads makes it easy to scale your campaigns with confidence. Ready to see how Philo Ads can work for you? Head to Ads Philo TV. That's Ads P H I L O TV to get started today. Welcome to the AdTech Godpod. Your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, AdTech God. Welcome to the AdTech God Pod where we are joined by the retail media experts of our industry. Today I'm joined by Elizabeth Donovan, svp, Global Head of Commerce and Retail Media Networks at Kineso Axiom, IPG. Prior to Canesso, Elizabeth spent five and a half years at Marriott Media Networks, AccuWeather and Discovery. She's truly an expert in the retail media space and I'm looking forward to meeting her, learning about her prior experiences and what the industry has to look forward to as it relates to retail media overall. Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me today. Welcome to the pod.
Elizabeth Donovan
Thank you so much for having me. Atg. It's my pleasure.
AdTech God
And I have to say I love the photo you posted wearing the hat with the Beat tv. I think it was a zip up from Beat TV and it was a tech God hat. So thanks for doing that. That was great.
Elizabeth Donovan
Yeah, you kept me dry in the rain, that's for sure. Thank you so much.
AdTech God
I'm sending you more merch. I'll send you a voucher for mer merch. You can post that anytime you want.
Elizabeth Donovan
I'll post it everywhere. It'll be like ATG instead of like Flat Stanley we could have. I'll bring you wherever I go.
AdTech God
Amazing. You have truly an incredible background. So although you've only recently joined Kineso, you know Marriott Media Network for five and a half years. Accuweather, I think for eight years. Can you just give me a little bit about your background? What kind of enticed you to get into the retail media space overall, especially so early on with Marriott and then we can take it from there.
Elizabeth Donovan
I always get this question, especially more so now that I went on to the agency side supporting Axiom IPG so early in my career. I was always a hunter. I always loved the thrill of the sale, right? I started out as like sales enablement, account management. I just would love to see creativity at its finest aligned with curation data, et cetera. So for me I always read the trades in the morning. It's all about starting the day, right? So when you're like how did you get into retail commerce media early? I'm looking at the trends, right? And I've always been that first mover. Started my career in cable at Discovery and then more channels were emerging, digital, programmatic, et cetera. I had a great leader from discovery, Vincent McDonald who went over to Accuweather and he's like Elizabeth, you should really check out going into Programmatic from there. Accuweather did a great job at really supporting my growth from starting in account management, then being in sales and then leading sales and technology. By the time I left accuweather, I was really first to market with how first party data solutions. Marry that together with, you know, the data architects to for example get out the vote or how weather impacts your health. So working with partners like CVS et cetera. Funny thing, that's how I met Amy Owen and got my resume to ipg which is incredible. But when I had the opportunity, when Marriott reached out to me to create something, you know, top line revenue focusing on personalization and how to enhance the customer experience, it was a no brainer for me to enter this space because one, they have the scale and they have the loyalty programs and that's really the foundation of retail and commerce networks. And we speak a lot about this on stage but this community is strong. So we're all pioneers, we were all learning together as how to build this out. I'm part of the Ascendant Network which really brought all of our RMN and commerce teams together. We learned a lot together, what worked, what didn't work and we're continuing to thrive. But when this role opened up at ipg, I thought it was written in the stars for me. I said, wow, a way for myself to help the industry move forward. I'm kind of Like a unicorn. Because I've led sales, I've created products, I built technology infrastructures. Always was programmatic first, but then always data driven because that's at the core of everything the retailer or loyalty, et cetera, partners are looking to do to create not only an experience that'll enhance the customer, but also bring top line revenue in. So that's how I got here and I'm so excited to be here. I've been here almost six months and the industry is changing and I'm supporting and my team is just phenomenal.
AdTech God
Elizabeth, just a question for you. How, how does Kineso in particular position itself in market to your various clients and people that you work with?
Elizabeth Donovan
So especially in the retail and commerce space, I was hired specifically to support the retail and commerce networks from consulting from builds to actually managing networks as well as monetization. So when you're thinking about, you know, the whole picture. So Amy Owen leads an amazing commerce group focused working with all our brands and commerce partners. And when you think about my role, it's really focused on how can we drive those data outcomes, create and make sure that our groups are data ready. When brands are coming to market, especially the new RMN and commerce networks, they may not necessarily have all their data ready for activation, measurement, et cetera. So my group is really focused on ensuring that they're ready to run on their own and operated channels as well as off site opportunities. Really thinking about how we can build and support new technology infrastructures and growth, aligning that 360 approach within the agency. So think about it as the network side supporting the networks, but also the brands and making sure that they're reaching the opportunistic and the right customer at the right time. And that's the beauty of Kineso thinking about technology, the support from data from Axiom side as well as activation.
AdTech God
Okay, so in essence, you guys are the retail media experts. You're able to provide your insights to your clients and help them really understand what the right methodology is, what the right strategy is for them to roll out their retail media. Absolutely amazing when when you look at where things were with the Marriott Media Network going on almost six years ago and how things are at Kineso today. Have you seen this huge transformation in the market? There's obviously been a huge buzz around retail media and commerce media overall. How has that really impacted your drive and your conversations with your clients?
Elizabeth Donovan
I think we have to meet our clients where they are, right? As you know, there's like 240 retail and commerce Networks and they're still emerging, which they have a right to win. They have incredible first party data. They have their own owned and operated channels like their.com, their email, their app, you know, in flight entertainment, so digital out of home. So they have amazing ways to reach customers where they are through their purchase journ. It's funny because the way that the industry is moving, it's moving so quickly, but it's really just media and it's a way that we're personalizing and making sure that you're receiving the right tools and measurement solutions to go out and market. And I think that's something we pride ourselves in that we have the technology interoperable solutions, we have a way to support owned and operated. But then when you're thinking about the brand itself and, and how you're going to market, so we're focused not only on the retail media network, but the brands that are part of those retail media networks. We want to make sure that it's being additive to the customer experience. And that's what I think, you know, most retail media network and commerce media networks are doing. Right. When they're focusing on the customer and getting that right first party data, they have a really good right to win.
AdTech God
Totally. Are you finding that retail media, which I think historically has been a little bit more bottom of the funnel, are you finding that the full funnel retail media strategy is something that is resonating with with your clients and in the market overall?
Elizabeth Donovan
I absolutely do think that. I think we have seen, you know, obviously when retailers are going to market and when commerce media networks are going to market, they're really focusing on obviously from a retail one, they're focused on their merchandisers and those partners and how shopper marketing dollars goes into that jvp. But when we're thinking about commerce media networks, you're thinking about the loyal partners that you've had over the years. So whether it's travel, it's a hotel and the connections between rideshare, their airline partners, it's just a way to enhance the customer experience and bring value back. So if you can solve that in a way that doesn't feel like you're shoving ads down people's throats, there's a lot to be said on giving back to the client or the customer how.
AdTech God
And sorry, I'm just throwing a bunch of questions at you because generally I'm interested in retail media and I think the amount of first party data out there, it's super powerful. And now retail media from I think the initial Perspective was we are using our first party data and now it's expanded beyond that into, you know, how do we work within store activations and signage and how do we do anything off site, whether that's running across various sites in a greater network or commerce media. What's a really positive trend that you're seeing the market overall move towards considering this massive growth that we've seen in retail media over the last 24, 36 months?
Elizabeth Donovan
I think that especially from the lens looking from Axiom and my role, we're really focused on supporting our brands and clients to be data ready. And with that comes confidence, making sure, you know, we'd like to say privacy by design, but making sure that they're comfortable with these activations and operating in more of outside of walled gardens, being, you know, connecting more with partner matches and where their data is accessible and ready to go to market. So I think brands are getting more comfortable, especially legacy brands that have been around 50, 100 years. They're seeing that this is an opportunity for them to help personalize their owned and operated, but also have expansive reach and being able to fuel other elements of digital at home, in store, in flight, et cetera. And that's what gets me really excited because all that first party data will then translate into a better experience and then that's when I think publishers and other partners, you're going to see more collaboration come through for content and streaming and social. So that's what keeps me up at night, those kind of partnerships on how to make the industry evolve, but in a way that you want to consume that media.
XD Ads Sponsor
This podcast is brought to you by xd looking to get more from every impression. Meet xd, the outcome based media platform built for results, powered by proprietary agentic AI. XD doesn't guess, it knows. By analyzing over 30 real time data signals across billions of daily impressions, XD predicts and automates what works and eliminates what doesn't. The result. Media campaigns tailored your KPIs optimized in real time for performance, efficiency and scale. Whether you're a marketer chasing ROI or a publisher looking to boost yield, XD's custom built decisioning models will work for you. XD predict, prediction, perform, repeat. That's E X T E X T.
AdTech God
You know, I feel like there are times that I look at retail media and I think about retail media and I poke a little bit of fun towards it. But when, when I think about the overall marketing funnel, from top of funnel all the way down to bottom of funnel strategies like it really is just a smarter way to utilize first party data to target the audience you want with the right messaging at the right time is how I view it. And considering the challenges that we have in measurement overall, that seems to be addressed and solved with retail media just because of its proximity to the end user, its proximity to the actual product and the conversion. A lot of the vagueness that happens in online advertising and performance kind of goes away.
Elizabeth Donovan
Right. Because you're able to connect to that person by their location. Right. Or meet them where they are, could be by the actual property or their retail store. Right. So if you know where they are, you know more about those demographics and what you should be sharing from that data standpoint. Like stores will then, you know, be able to carry different products in that, you know, may serve differently in Manhattan compared to maybe Minnesota.
AdTech God
Here's a question for you, Elizabeth, and I've asked this to a few of the real, like female leaders in the space. How has it been for you as a woman in this space to grow so much over the period of your career to lead up a large team at Kinneso, at an agency, at Marriott, rolling out products? You mentioned prior that you know, I'm a go getter. I just do it. I just go after the deal, I go after the product that I want to roll out. How has that played a big role in your transformation into an executive at a, at a major agency?
Elizabeth Donovan
I think about this question because I've been doing a lot of soul searching. So you're getting me on a very emotional day after. So yesterday was the anniversary of my dad's passing. He's an immigrant who came here from Czech. He had not a lot of money coming to America. He didn't speak the language. He learned to speak the language and he went to school at night. He went to Baruch College. My mother also went to Baruch and she comes from a line of very strong, driven women. And I think a lot of my background stems from the way I was raised and the ethics. Like, even though my dad did great, he became, you know, he was part of Wall Street. He then decided to go out on his own and work and become a jeweler and be in the diamond district. My mother, you know, retired as an accountant in a very male leading organization for like, it was like the Home Depot of Canada. It's called Richelieu and you know, that was very male driven for all of those types of products, etc. So. But when my dad, what he did was he came from nothing. He really Showed me, you know, what it's like to work really hard, but you have to be creative about how you're going to market, market yourself. So as a woman, especially like leading sales. Early in my career, the early 2000s were a lot different than they are now. I had to go above and beyond, not only with my thinking, but, you know, stay late. I stay late a lot of nights always. And I, I still, you know, I work. I struggle with the work life balance because I'm just so excited about my work. But I show my team that work life balance. But going back to why. So I started to work when I was 13, 14 at a restaurant. My parents didn't just throw things to me, despite me growing up in a beautiful home in Queens, having no needs or wants. So my parents did that heavy lifting, but they always made me work. So in college I had like two to three jobs at once. I always, they didn't pay those bills for me, right. I always had to pay my own, my own bills, which I think is a great thing to learn about because they didn't give it to me easy just because they could. But in the industry, I would say for women especially, I'm part of a lot of women's organizations. I'm on the board of the Women's alliance and Media, the vice president and co chair for social. And I've been part of. She runs it about a decade. So it's really important for me to send the elevator down. I think we learn from our best bosses and our worst bosses. And I've been lucky enough to have male and female allies throughout my career and even to this day, managers that I have had over the years, they're cheering for me. They are always showing up to my speaking engagements or they're even like, how can we partner? Because they've remembered how I have always delivered for them. And I think people take that for granted. Those, those relationships that you build and those that you have learned from, you really need to cultivate that at all levels. So I like to even learn from mentees. So I always take on a few mentees a year. And I feel like I learned so much as well.
AdTech God
It's really inspirational because hearing, hearing the background, where you come from, I think it's important, like when, when people look at their upbringing and the work ethic and the drive, I think people are innately born with drive and motivation, but it's really sometimes just the ability to take what you saw and what you experience and say, I either want to step it up one More level and be better, or I don't want to struggle the way I struggled or my parents struggled for my situation. I grew up, I would say, like middle class, but I had a father that was absolutely adamant that at one point it was done. Like, you gotta go live your life. And when that happened, I think initially it was a bit of a shock to me that suddenly it was like, look, you gotta go figure it out on your own son. Like, it's over. But it motivated me to work hard and just figure it out. And he jokes and says, I'm a cat with nine lives. Like, if I've been laid off, I land on my feet. If the job sucks, I land on my feet. If I can't close a deal or can't get a product rolled out, I figure it out. It's that upbringing and drive that you get from your parents. But it's different for me because I'm a male in a predominantly male dominant industry. You're a woman. And I think there is more challenges for women in the space. And especially hearing what I heard about in Cannes, I'm hoping that, you know, that doesn't ever happen again. But what I'm hoping is that, you know, women continue to lift each other up. With all these organizations that, that have.
Elizabeth Donovan
Been put together, it's really, I would say women like me are continuing to lift other women up and we just have to do more of that. But I've had amazing male allies who support me and my work and my team's work, and it's just really great. But I think if I could solicit free advice, I would tell people like, don't dream small, if. So that was put in your heart for a reason. But I. The way you have to get to where you want to be is to show up every day and do your best work. There are no shortcuts to life. Like, I think about this too, because I'm also a mother of two daughters and they're watching me. And it's very important for me to show them that, you know what, I'm a kick ass mom. I take you to the beach and we go on trips and you've traveled. But I also have to do things for work that may take me away from my children. But that's okay because they understand that I'm doing it for the benefit of our entire family. And they'll look back and say, wow. It wasn't always the quantity of time, but it was the quality of time. So really be present in your work when you're there and be present. When you're in your home environment, that could be anything. It doesn't mean necessarily having children, but it could be with your sisters or, you know, if you're a pet mom or dad. I think we too much just are distracted by technology from the sense of doom scrolling and other things. But for me, I love to connect with nature and be present and go hiking. That I think is making tremendous impact on my children and those guardrails that I put around our home time together.
AdTech God
Do you hope that your kids enter the advertising industry? Because I like the industry overall. Like, I think it has its challenges and sometimes it's a little stressful, but I would actually like my kids to be in the industry. I know some people would say no, but do you find that the advertising industry kind of pulled you in and that you'd like that for your kids or are you hoping that maybe they do something totally different?
Elizabeth Donovan
I think I want them to do whatever sparks their interest. While I love this industry, data, technology, sales, you know, building opportunity. One of my children, she like loves to read and write 24 7, so I'm, I'm excited to see what she'd be interested in. And the other one is very, very sharp and witty, so she's still too young to say, but what I support them no matter what they'd like to do. Obviously this is a wonderful career and it's constantly evolving, so who knows, maybe they'll be like AI agents. Who knows what that'll look like then? But as long as they have this spark in their heart and they want to continue to be a good person and drive their future forward, I'll support that.
AdTech God
Amazing. Amazing. I, I have one that wants to be a lawyer. They constantly argue with me and I.
Elizabeth Donovan
Think he's gonna figure she'll be a good lawyer.
AdTech God
I'm like, this is perfect for you. You like to read and you will love it. Just let me just guide you on which one pays the best.
Elizabeth Donovan
And then exactly.
AdTech God
The other one is still like, I want to be a vet. And I'm like, hey, you can be a vet. But you know, I've heard that before too, from the first one. So same thing. But I just, you know, I do like the advertising industry. I think I've built a pretty strong network and I have a lot of friends in the industry. So I, if they decide to, then I'm like, you guys are set up, like, just let me know. I'll make some intros after college.
Elizabeth Donovan
That's awesome.
AdTech God
You mentioned you know, you work hard, there's time away from your family. On a personal level, how do you, how do you keep yourself balanced? How do you keep yourself happy day to day? I know it can also often get very difficult, but how do you keep yourself motivated every day to move forward and just do your absolute best? Like you had mentioned?
Elizabeth Donovan
Well, I would say I've been in the sandwich generation now, right. So, you know, recently taking care of my father who passed away from pancreatic cancer. But my mother has had an illness for on and off the last five to 10 years. So that is one thing you're in the middle of. You know, from my perspective, I'm a caretaker to my children. I have a husband who has a very demanding job. So our schedules are like, really opposite. And then caring for loved ones. So what I've been doing, and this has been like an evolution of self care for me. One I have like my own board of directors. I have a group of women and men and friends that I could tap into to support me. Just like through a text, right? I think Simon Sinek said it really well. Like that eight seconds, like, phone a friend. I do that. And then for me, like, I give myself, and it might sound corny, but I give myself an hour a day to do whatever I want with no interruptions. Sometimes that could be read a book. Sometimes that's going hiking, other times that's getting margaritas with my old colleagues. Right. But it's that conscious choice to show up for everyone. But also don't forget to show up for myself.
AdTech God
Amazing. Elizabeth, thank you so much for being my guest today. Thank you to Kiniso, Axiom, IPG for having you here. I'm really looking forward to talking to you soon. And if anybody's listening, she does have a podcast. Check it out. She posted on LinkedIn. Elizabeth. What's the name again?
Elizabeth Donovan
Unlocked with Austin and Elizabeth.
AdTech God
That's it. So if you want to listen, check it out.
Elizabeth Donovan
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you. And talk soon.
AdTech God
Talk soon.
Kate from Marketexture
Rebrands, makeovers and takeovers are the themes for this week's advertising news. I'm Kate with marketexture, and welcome to the Refresh, your weekly download on what went down in advertising. Today is Tuesday, August 26th, and this week on the Refresh, we're covering Target's Q2 earnings report, MSNBC's rebrand and Nexstar acquiring Tegna. So let's get into it. After another disappointing earnings report, Target is making big promises to make some big changes to help them once again be known and beloved by their customers as Target. Their most recent Q2 earnings beat analyst and Wall street expectations but still left them feeling disappointed as numbers were generally down year over year. The big box retailer brought in $25.2 billion in revenue during the quarter compared to an expected 24.9 billion DOL. This was still down 0.9% year over year from the $25.45 billion in revenue they generated during the same period in 2024. Comparable sales, also known as same store sales, which include both in store and online purchases, were down 1.9%. Alongside this, overall customer transactions were down 1.3% and transaction value was down 0.6%. On the other hand, digital comparable sales were a bright spot for Target. These were up 4.3% year over year. Another bright spot for Target was in their non merchandise revenues which includes their Roundel ads business, third party marketplace and membership programs. This business saw big gains with revenues up 14.2% year over year during the same period. A lackluster in store experience combined with boycotts of the retailer after they pulled back from DEI programs and in store efforts like their Pride Collection are big drivers of decreased store traffic and as a result, sales data from Placer AI found that foot traffic to Target stores has declined every single week since January. It's really no surprise then that Target finally announced that CEO Brian Cornell would be stepping down and his right hand man, COO Michael Fidelke, would be stepping up to the plate in February of 2026. This change in leadership may have been a long time coming, but many, including Wall street, hoped that an outsider would take on the role to truly shake things up or some might say add some diversity. Typically, the COO and CEO work hand in hand, leading to speculation over whether Fidelki will enact big enough changes to get Target out of the red. He briefly laid out his vision for Target's future on last Wednesday's earnings call, which fell into three core pillars, merchandising, an elevated in store experience and technology. Fidelki emphasized that Target focused too much on core products following the pandemic and lost their notorious flair for stylish, trendy products and joyful in store and online experiences. He also acknowledged that the company as a whole has been slow to adopt technology that would allow them to better manage supply chains and the guest experience from end to end. On the call he mentioned they recently deployed 10,000 AI licenses to assist with various tasks including forecasting. Can Target become Target once again? Right now they appear to have a long way to go to regain customer and employee trust. A recent Wall Street Journal report found that 40% of employees weren't confident in the company's future, and customers? Well, we kind of know how they feel. The evidence is in those earnings numbers. Regardless, expect to see Extreme Home Makeover Targets version coming to a store near you. Next up, MSNBC is losing its peacock and undergoing a major rebrand in the wake of Its split from NBCUniversal into spinoff company Versant. Moving forward, the channel will be known as Ms. Now, which is short for My Source News Opinion World. MSNBC isn't the only one getting a new look, though. Versant CEO Mark Lazarus confirmed that while NBCU will retain rights to its iconic peacock logo, Ms. Now and other channels will roll out new logos and visual identities to differentiate these properties from those that NBCU will retain. As an example, USA Network will merge with a Gulf channel under the name USA Sports. CNBC will also get a new identity as it uses that peacock logo. Any major rebrand, particularly one that has an actual name change looking at you, Twitter to X raises some serious eyebrows and concerns around retaining brand value. The Ms. Now rebrand is no exception, not just because of the decades spent building both brand equity and recognition among consumers, but because the name itself is confusing and the design is lacking. Ms. Is often associated with Microsoft or multiple sclerosis, and I'm no expert, but I'm not sure you want to be associating news so closely with opinion. MSNBC President Rebecca Cutler seems to be well aware of these concerns. She emphasized that they'd be making a major investment in awareness, promising a broad based marketing campaign unlike anything we have done in recent memory. Whether that campaign is successful or not, the network risks losing carefully cultivated brand equity, particularly at a time when trust in media and clear brand recognition are more vital than ever. Finally, TV consolidation is getting loco and local Local TV giant nexstar has struck a deal to acquire its rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, creating what will be the largest local TV conglomerate in the U.S. the deal still needs to clear the FCC, but pending it gets the go ahead there, Nexstar would gain control of 265 television stations in 44 states and Washington, DC. On the Tegna side, they currently control 64 TV stations and overlap with Nexstar and 35 market areas. That overlap could open the deal to regulatory scrutiny, as critics of the deal say it would eliminate the current competition in those markets and give nexstar too much control over local tv. As a whole. Nextar CEO Perry Sook spoke to some of the potential criticism of the deal in a CNBC interview, saying they were trying to compete with the likes of big tech giants like Meta and Google, as well as legacy big media companies who have, quote, unchecked reach and vast financial resources, end quote. He also addressed concerns that too much control by local TV owners over local stations could result in certain programming or content being mandated by those owners. Mr. Sook responded by saying they don't dictate content and quote, no one's handed a script and said, here, read this and it goes across all of the markets in which we operate, end quote. Nexstar wasn't the only one who is eyeing Tegna. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier last week that another rival, Sinclair, has also reportedly proposed a merger. It sounds like they may have lost this one, but Sinclair stated earlier this month that its board had authorized a review of its broadcast business, including potential sales acquisitions or spinoffs. TV consolidation is happening across the board, especially in the traditional TV space. Local TV stands to see an increase in dealmaking given the current environment of deregulation, including a recent ruling by the Court of appeals for the 8th district that relaxed rules that barred one company from owning two of the top four TV stations in any given market. The FCC is also revealing a rule that limits ownership of TV stations that in aggregate would reach more than 39% of the country. And as it stands right now, the Nexdar Tagna merger would very likely exceed that. All in all, expect to see more TV pieces moving around in this lucid regulatory environment. That's it for this week. Thanks for joining us for the refresh and we'll catch you next week.
Elizabeth Donovan
Sam.
Guest: Elizabeth Donovan, SVP, Global Head of Commerce and Retail Media Networks at Kinesso (Axiom, IPG)
Host: AdTech God
Date: August 26, 2025
This episode spotlights Elizabeth Donovan, a pioneering leader in retail media and commerce at Kinesso, Axiom, IPG. The conversation dives deep into the evolution of retail media networks, first-party data strategy, and the challenges and inspirations of executive leadership, particularly for women in adtech. Elizabeth’s compelling personal story and industry expertise provide practical insights for navigating the rapidly changing adtech landscape.
Early Career & Entry to Retail Media:
Retail Media at Marriott:
“It was a no brainer for me to enter this space because… they have scale and loyalty programs and that's really the foundation of retail and commerce networks.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (04:32)
“Think about it as the network side supporting the networks, but also the brands and making sure that they're reaching the right customer at the right time.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (07:32)
Change in the Market:
Full-Funnel Approach:
“If you can solve that in a way that doesn't feel like you're shoving ads down people's throats, there's a lot to be said on giving back to the client or the customer.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (10:48)
“Brands are getting more comfortable, especially legacy brands… this is an opportunity for them to help personalize their owned and operated, but also have expansive reach.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (12:22)
“A lot of the vagueness that happens in online advertising and performance kind of goes away.”
— AdTech God (14:31)
“I've been lucky enough to have male and female allies throughout my career… those relationships that you build and those that you have learned from, you really need to cultivate that at all levels.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (18:05)
“Don’t dream small… The way you have to get to where you want to be is to show up every day and do your best work. There are no shortcuts to life.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (21:10)
“Give yourself an hour a day to do whatever you want with no interruptions.”
— Elizabeth Donovan (25:43)
"I'm kind of like a unicorn. Because I've led sales, I've created products, I built technology infrastructures."
— Elizabeth Donovan (05:29)
"There are no shortcuts to life... I show my team that work-life balance."
— Elizabeth Donovan (21:17)
"As long as they have this spark in their heart and they want to continue to be a good person and drive their future forward, I'll support that."
— Elizabeth Donovan (23:35)
"For me, I love to connect with nature and be present and go hiking. That I think is making tremendous impact on my children and those guardrails that I put around our home time together."
— Elizabeth Donovan (22:10)
Elizabeth Donovan brings insight, drive, and empathy to adtech leadership. Her story is a blueprint for resilience, mentorship, and the pivotal role of first-party data in shaping the future of retail media. She encourages industry professionals not just to keep pace with change, but to lead it—always with an eye toward lifting others up and living authentically.
Listen to Elizabeth’s podcast: Unlocked with Austin and Elizabeth
Elizabeth Donovan on LinkedIn