Observed Signal · Feb 24, 2026 · Podcast Interview · Source: Adweek · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
DoorDash's Espinosa: Bridging National Media with Local Demand
In an episode of Brave Commerce published by Adweek, Toby Espinosa, vice president of ads at DoorDash, discusses how DoorDash scaled a fast-growing retail media network and the next phase of growth for commerce media. Espinosa highlights the need to make performance comparable across platforms, partners, and budgets to unlock national media spend, and describes tension between local trade dollars and national marketing budgets and how CPG organizations split ownership of those dollars. He also explains that aligning trade and media around shared outcomes and delivering consistent, comparable reporting builds trust and long-term investment. Espinosa argues that AI can speed integrations, reduce the cost of connecting data, and raise targeting and outcome standards across commerce media.
Insights from DoorDash (a major retailer/marketplace) on scaling retail/commerce media, aligning trade and media budgets, and applying AI to integrations and measurement are practically relevant to advertisers, RMNs, and platform strategy.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Toby Espinosa is vice president of ads at DoorDash.
- DoorDash has built a fast-growing retail media network.
- Growth in commerce media depends on making performance comparable across platforms, partners, and budgets.
- Aligning trade (local) dollars and national media budgets around shared outcomes unlocks larger national spend.
- Espinosa says AI can accelerate integrations, lower data-connection costs, and improve targeting and outcomes for commerce media.
Connected Companies & Entities
3 Entities mappedOntology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
DoorDash GM Discusses Retail Media and Dish-Level Targeting
Katie Daleo, GM of DoorDash’s CPG ads business, appears on the AdTechGod Pod to discuss how DoorDash helps CPG brands reach consumers through its marketplace and retail media platform. She describes dish-level targeting (reaching users by meals and cuisines), closed-loop measurement that ties campaigns to DoorDash purchases, and off-site audience activation using DoorDash data. Daleo traces her career from Right Media and Unilever to building retail media at Jet and DoorDash, and highlights the need to simplify increasingly complex retail media networks. She also discusses the growing role of AI and data science in faster consumer discovery, measurement, and ad decisioning, and shares leadership lessons about curiosity and deliberate career moves.
DoorDash Ads Launches Global Commerce Media Platform
DoorDash Ads announced a global expansion of its commerce media platform with new ad formats, offsite reach via Symbiosys, campaign automation, and privacy-forward measurement through a LiveRamp partnership. The launch introduces Spotlight, a premium homepage ad format that tested with double the click-through rate of banners, expanded offsite capabilities powered by Symbiosys across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, and enhanced Smart Campaigns and auto-bidding features (including minimum ROAS). DoorDash, Wolt and Deliveroo together support over 400,000 advertisers. Early test metrics cited include high proportions of new customers reached (over 80% in some LiveRamp clean-room tests) and merchant performance case studies such as Pubbelly Sushi and Magnum Ice Cream Company.
All Media is Commerce Media: The Infinite Storefront
The Drum's documentary series explores the convergence of brand, media, and commerce, arguing that retail media is evolving into 'commerce media' across all channels. Industry leaders from The Trade Desk, DoorDash, dentsu, Albertsons Media Collective, Roku, Cint, Roundel, and Mars Pet Nutrition discuss how shopping is expanding beyond retail sites to social, TV, hotels, and airlines. The shift is driven by first-party data, attribution, and the ability to connect media investment directly to sales. However, measuring across fragmented touchpoints remains a challenge. The episode highlights the breakdown of silos between awareness and conversion, positioning commerce media as the future of all advertising.
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