Where did the name come from?
Bryan: Colosseum is a metaphor for how competitive commerce media is becoming. There’s no more iconic arena of competition than the Colosseum. Not only is it iconic, it’s European, and represents the fact that we have two partners in the U.S. and then we have two partners in London. We are, from the outset, very transcontinental, with capabilities that include EMEA.
What’s the value of having half your team in Europe?
Lipsman: What’s really cool is the complimentary skills of the four of us on the team. Not only do we represent multiple continents here, but Keith is the only person in his position who has been the GM of a major retail media network, and who has lived every challenge building an RMN within a large retailer. That perspective is unparalleled. Yara—early days HookLogic and Criteo—knows as much as anybody in the entire space on retail, media and ad tech. Daniel is chief economist of the IAB Europe, and if there’s a limit to his knowledge on digital advertising, I haven’t found it yet.
The U.S. has a lot to learn from what has worked overseas. The in-store retail media market is so much more advanced and mature in Europe and Asia and elsewhere—we have a lot to learn over here. But they’re just starting, in many cases, to figure out on-site and off-site, so they have a lot to learn from the U.S.
What gap in the commerce media landscape do you hope Colosseum will fill?
Bryan: A lot of the original challenges of launching a retail media network were very left-brain. They were knowable, they were about technology and data. Now, the challenges are becoming less about technology and measurement.
You’re seeing the silos of large retail enterprises needing to come down because they’re impeding the growth of not just the retail media network, but the actual market capitalization of retailers. This lack of communication, this misalignment of incentives, between the media enterprise and the merchant-driven organization—it’s very consistent that these things are impeding growth, and that impacts not just the retailer, but it impacts their tech partners and their media partners.
Two-thirds of working media dollars are lost either in the adtech stack or around MFA and invalid traffic. We are in a position to help reconfigure the flow of water to … move more efficiently with reduced costs and reduced waste.
