When your own tech partners start publicly celebrating your struggles, you know the game has changed. In this episode, I unpack the fascinating shake-up happening in retail media, sparked by Criteo’s recent challenges — from high-profile client losses to a wave of nimble competitors seizing their moment.

What’s even more intriguing? Many of these challengers once relied on Criteo’s own infrastructure to get started.

We’ll dive into the irony of Criteo facing the very playbook it once used to disrupt the adtech giants of the past, the role of real-time bidding in eroding their moat, and the strategic crossroads they face today. Will they acquire their way back into the lead, or will a consolidation of challengers rewrite the rules entirely?

This episode is sponsored by Connected Commerce at Acosta Group

Timeline

[0:12] – Adweek article reveals Criteo’s client losses and competitive pressures
[0:51] – Competitors’ cheeky LinkedIn reactions and what they signal about the market
[2:00] – The irony: Criteo once played this disruptor role in adtech!
[3:18] – How real-time bidding is dismantling Criteo’s pricing power
[4:47] – The 'frenemy' effect: why partners are now becoming rivals
[6:05] – Two scenarios for how this standoff could end
[8:21] – The ticking clock: looming shifts toward AI-driven shopping

Links & Resources

• Kathryn Lundstrom's Criteo article on Adweek
• LinkedIn thread featuring Jon Flugstad from Moloco, Andreas Reiffen from Pentaleap, and Drew Cashmore from Vantage reacting to the Adweek Criteo article on LinkedIn
• AdExchanger article from 2015 that discusses Criteo's former ad tech disruptor status
• Retail Media Breakfast Club's real-time bidding visual explainer
• Kiri Masters' Forbes article DSPs Promise To Unlock Retail Media Demand. What’s Holding Retailers Back?
• Pentaleap and TEADS partnership announcement
• Skai and Koddi partnership announcement
• Retail Media Breakfast Club article Why Agentic Shopping Poses an Existential Threat to Retail Media (Part 1)
• Subscribe to Retail Media Breakfast Club's daily newsletter
• Follow Kiri on LinkedIn