As one of retail’s hottest trends in recent years, retail media is not slowing down. On the contrary—it is still in growth mode. As more retailers recognize the value of their first-party data for advertisers, they’re finding selling media to be a profitable revenue stream.

Last month, Publicis Groupe revealed its spin on CitrusAd, a self-serve media platform for retailers to use for advertisers, following its purchase of it last summer. The new entity, CitrusAd powered by Epsilon, expands media offerings beyond a retailer’s on-site channels. Last week, Kohl’s said it was expanding its media network capabilities by offering new advertising opportunities for brands.

In mid-July, Forrester released a new report on the state of retail media—the research firm expects the size of the market in the U.S. to double in the next four years to exceed $85 billion by 2026.

Related: What to know about retail media networks 

Below,  Ad Age profiles a dozen of the retail executives behind the growth.

Colleen Aubrey

Senior VP, ad products and tech, Amazon Ads

Aubrey has been on Amazon’s ads team since 2008, when she joined the Seattle-based department after three years at Amazon UK working on the seller side of the business. Amazon credits the Australian native with helping to develop its sponsored products, sponsored brands and sponsored display programs for vendors. Amazon’s advertising business generates around $31 billion a year and has grown exponentially in recent years.

Kristi Argyilan

Senior VP, retail media, Albertsons

Not long after running Target’s media business—and rebranding it Roundel—Argyilan took her talents to Albertsons in order to launch the grocer’s own platform, which debuted this past spring. There, she is responsible for translating Albertsons' unique data on its 106 million annual shoppers visiting stores two to four times a week, into compelling opportunities for both endemic advertisers that sell at the grocery store’s brands and those non-endemic vendors that do not. Argyilan is focused on transparency and measurement in the work she provides for advertisers as a point of differentiation from other retail media networks.

Melanie Babcock

VP of integrated media, The Home Depot

After joining Home Depot nine years ago as senior director of social media, Babcock has spent the last three years changing marketing from a focus on products to one centered on customers. She also launched the home improvement store’s media business Retail Media+. In recent years, Home Depot has been scaling this program, leveraging its own customer data from store traffic and HomeDepot.com to offer ad insights for supplier and brand advertisers. The offering targets brands that sell at Home Depot as well as outside advertisers. Before Home Depot, Babcock worked at Cardlytics.

Keith Bryan

President, Best Buy Ads

Working for nearly two decades at Best Buy, Bryan has his finger on the pulse of what consumers—and advertisers—are looking for. As head of the ads business and senior VP of media strategy and CRM, he helped to modernize the electronics chain’s media strategy. Early this year, Best Buy’s 12-year-old media business got a reboot and rebrand to Best Buy Ads.

Related: What retail media networks mean for agencies

Norman de Greve

Chief marketing officer, CVS Health

In his seven years at CVS, de Greve has helped grow the brand side of the drugstore chain, navigated COVID-19, and launched the company’s consumer packaged goods digital media network. CVS debuted its media business two years ago for in-store and online campaigns. CPG brands are able to target certain customers with the campaigns de Greve helps run. Before CVS, he worked at Digitas for 14 years.

Lex Josephs

General manager, VP, Sam’s Club’s Member Access Platform

When Sam’s Club looked to build its own media business late last year, it hired Josephs from parent company Walmart, where she was one of the first leaders of Walmart Connect—called Walmart Media Group at the time. During her three years at Walmart, Josephs is credited with helping to build the media business by 400%. Now, she’s trying to replicate such success at the membership club, which has more specific data about its member customers. Last month, Sam’s Club unveiled a new ads platform in partnership with the Trade Desk, IRI and Liveramp.

Luke Kigel

VP media and omni-channel planning, Walgreens

As head of Walgreens Advertising Group, Kigel is responsible for incorporating Walgreens’ first-party customer data into both traditional and new-to-market media opportunities for advertisers. He spearheads media panning across channels and manages Walgreens’ agency partnerships and in-house strategies. He joined Walgreens in 2019 after nearly five years at Johnson & Johnson, and debuted WAG in 2020. Since then, the group has expanded its offerings to include linear TV and over-the-top media services. In February, WAG began offering a self-serve programmatic capability in partnership with The Trade Desk.

Rich Lehrfeld

Senior VP, general manager, Walmart Connect

A marketing veteran with stints at American Express and Wieden+Kennedy under his belt, Lehrfeld joined Walmart three years ago and worked on brand marketing for campaigns in 2019 and 2020. He transitioned to leading Walmart Connect, the retail giant’s media business formerly known as Walmart Media Group, in late 2020 and more than doubled its revenue and advertiser base. Earlier this year, Walmart said it hauled in $2.1 billion from its ads business. 

Cara Pratt

Senior VP, Kroger Precision Marketing

Responsible for launching Kroger Precesion Marketing in 2017, Pratt was one of the earliest to recognize the financial value in retail media. Now, she’s viewed as something of an expert as she navigates advertising opportunities for Kroger’s 2,000 participating brands. She and her team use 45 machine-learning models to delve into purchase behavior and data from Kroger’s 60 million households.

Abishake Subramanian

VP, Lowe’s Retail Media Network

Roughly four months after debuting its One Roof Media Network last fall, Lowe’s announced the hire of Subramanian, whose work as head of Sam’s Club Media Group helped qualify him for the new role. He oversees the growth of revenue, products and organization. Since Subramanian joined the home improvement chain, Lowe’s has grown its advertising capabilities to include sponsored products on both the company’s website and app, a spokeswoman said, noting that Lowe’s also now offers off-site media opportunities such as social media partnerships with Meta and Pinterest.

Sarah Travis

President, Roundel

After 13 years with Google, Travis joined Target last year to lead its media business Roundel, roughly a year after the departure of Kristi Argyilan, who had helped create the platform. The retailer was one of the first to recognize the monetary value of its data for its own vendors and also those brands that do not sell at Target. Six years ago, Target opened its platform beyond Target vendors to national advertisers after rebranding the platform to Roundel in 2019. In May, Target announced Roundel is now a $1 billion business and is expected to more than double in the next few years.

Melanie Zimmermann

VP, Macy’s Media Network

Zimmermann runs the in-house media business for both Macy’s and its upscale sibling chain Bloomingdale’s. Before launching the network in 2020, she led strategy and innovation and customer analytics at Macy’s, following a stint at Bain & Co. In its first year of business, Macy’s Media Network generated more than $105 million in net revenue, according to the company. In a statement, Zimmermann described her approach as “surgical” when it comes to targeting through data and insights to optimize media investments.