Coverage of the ANA Media Conference

At the 2026 ANA Media Conference presented by A+E Global Media, leaders from Google and Kroger Precision Marketing explored how retail media is evolving into a core performance channel. The session showed how retail signals, cross-channel activation, and faster measurement are helping marketers drive accountability and growth.

At the 2026 ANA Media Conference presented by A+E Global Media, Jonah Goodhart, co-founder and CEO of Mobian, outlined a fundamental shift in marketing: Brands no longer control how they show up. Goodhart argued that marketers must move beyond content and targeting — toward designing for context — to drive meaningful brand growth.

Bayer is restructuring programmatic advertising around direct contracts with DSPs, SSPs, and verification partners to regain data control and transparency. The approach, discussed with the ANA, could reduce waste, improve portability, and reshape supply-path decisions.

Author Michael Farmer argues that collapsing agency pricing and rising complexity are undermining brand growth across major advertisers. Drawing on data, Farmer's book Madison Avenue Revisited suggests artificial intelligence savings and output-based fees could reshape client-agency economics.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Havas Media Network rethink portfolio marketing by aligning brand roles, audience signals, and travel occasions across 25 brands. The approach could reshape how large travel marketers balance brand building, precision media, and bookings at scale.

Retail media measurement is straining under rapid network expansion, with marketers citing standardization gaps as the top barrier to scale. ANA guidance, shared by Mondelēz and Kenvue leaders, could reshape cross-network comparability and incrementality decisions.

Walmart is reframing social platforms as a primary engine for commerce discovery, using creators, visual search, and fast delivery to collapse the path from inspiration to purchase. The strategy highlights how intent signals, shoppable content, and measurement models may reshape retail media effectiveness.

Nissan rewrites its media strategy after efficient buys stop translating into sales, cutting spend while improving performance. CMO Allyson Witherspoon explains how AI, data ownership, and algorithm-aware planning are reshaping automotive media effectiveness.

We are no longer in transformational times. We are in tectonic times. Rishad Tobaccowala shared the five tectonic shifts we are all going through, how the mediascape is being ruptured, and how marketing is being reshaped. Most importantly, Rishad shared how we can all thrive and lead today.

Andrew Lipsman argues retail media is becoming the future of all media, reshaping how brands think about reach, effectiveness, and growth. His 2026 ANA Media Conference session shows how closed-loop data, incrementality, and in-store display could redefine media strategy.

At the 2026 ANA Media Conference, P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard shares how marketers can thrive in a fragmented media landscape, balance AI with creativity, and stay grounded in brand-building fundamentals.

Morgan Stanley Research Chief Brian Nowak outlines how agentic AI will reshape e-commerce, search, and marketing workflows and what brands must do now to stay visible and competitive.

In her Global CMO keynote at the 2026 ANA Media Conference, General Motors' Shenan Reed explains why AI should be treated as an infrastructure shift — not a media shortcut — and outlines what marketers must demand of AI to reduce friction between insight and action.

At the 2026 ANA Media Conference, Tractor Supply outlined how loyalty data and localized media help the brand achieve national reach without losing its community-first identity.

At the 2026 ANA Media Conference, Dollar General CMO Tony Rogers explained how the retailer is upgrading first-party data, retail media, delivery, and measurement to drive measurable growth at national retail scale.

Bill Duggan, group EVP at ANA, chatted with Maria Givens, VP and head of media & digital platforms for consumer health at Bayer, ahead of the 2026 ANA Media Conference from March 25 to 27 in Nashville.

DJ Perera is CMO of the Ad Council. She will be speaking at the ANA Media Conference, March 25 to 27 in Nashville, Tennessee. ANA SVP of media practice Julie Weitzner recently sat down with DJ for a pre-conference interview to discuss how sports storytelling, and the media ecosystem that supports it, can destigmatize mental health and move culture forward.

During a session at the 2025 ANA Media Conference, Kalli Chapman, vice president and head of paid media and content strategy at Prudential Financial, shared best practices for discussing media investment with C-suites.

During a session at the 2025 ANA Media Conference, Jonah Goodhart, co-founder of and CEO at Mobian, discussed how AI is affecting context and brand safety.

During a session at the 2025 ANA Media Conference, Brian Nowak, managing director at Morgan Stanely, discussed the future of AI from a Wall Street perspective.