Collin Colburn

VP, Commerce Center IAB

Collin Colburn serves as Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB where he leads the Commerce Center of Excellence. In this role, he drives innovation, education, and standards across the commerce ecosystem to help brands, retailers, and technology partners deliver better media opportunities, customer experiences, and business outcomes. Prior to IAB, Collin led Growth and Go-To-Market Strategy at Horizon Commerce and spent over a decade at Forrester, where he pioneered the firm’s performance marketing and retail media practice. He partnered with B2B and B2C CMOs to advance their marketing strategies, while also expanding Forrester’s Fortune 500 client portfolio. Collin’s insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Digiday, and MediaPost. A popular industry speaker, Collin has keynoted global industry events in addition to being a quarterly guest on Bloomberg TV.

Wednesday, February 25

2:40 PM Track 4: Fireside Chat: Rewriting the Playbook for Content Marketing in the era of AI Driven Search

Content marketing is undergoing a seismic shift as AI-driven search changes how consumers discover, evaluate, and engage with brands. Traditional playbooks built around keywords and static assets are no longer enough to capture attention or drive visibility. In this fireside chat, Robert Cardiff from Laundry Sauce will discuss how to reimagine content strategies for this new era—leveraging AI insights, dynamic formats, and smarter storytelling to stay discoverable, resonate with audiences, and deliver measurable business impact.

Leverage your tech stack for search insights and data to better understand customer motivations and optimize content
Empower content creators with AI tools like ChatGPT to enhance productivity without compromising authenticity or brand voice
Define your brand’s USP, integrate visuals and video alongside text, and write with intent and clarity
Adapt to closed environments like Instagram and TikTok, where high-quality content is driving early-stage searches and brand interaction
Continuously assess content performance across formats, copy, and channels to refine your strategy based on real-time results

4:20 PM Track 2: Panel: Retail Media Networks: Unlocking a High-Margin Monetization Channel for Retailers

Unlocking new revenue streams in retail goes far beyond traditional sales—it’s about leveraging data and audience insights to create powerful advertising opportunities that benefit both retailers and brands. Retail media networks offer a high-margin channel that transforms shopper interactions into profitable partnerships and personalized marketing experiences. During this panel, industry leaders unveil proven strategies to build and optimize retail media networks that drive incremental revenue, deepen brand relationships, and deliver measurable impact by

Leveraging first-party customer data and owned digital assets to deliver highly targeted ads for high-margin revenue
Enhancing customer experience and loyalty by serving relevant, personalized promotions both online and in-store
Strengthening retailer-brand partnerships and providing brands with direct access to consumers at the point of purchase, improving advertising effectiveness and ROI
Expanding beyond traditional on-site placements by integrating off-site and in-store media, maximizing reach and tapping into rapidly growing profit pools
Investing in robust technology infrastructure and transparent collaboration to scale retail media operations efficiently and build trust with advertising partners