It’s not often a new revenue opportunity comes along for media agencies, as their traditional sources of income (commissions on planning and buying) dry up in the age of procurement.

That’s in large part why both holding companies and independent agencies have rushed to grow their commerce media units — it’s a new vein of revenue that happens to coincide with and take advantage of the rush of new retail media networks and e-commerce companies formed over the last two years.

IPG’s UM shop recently expanded the scope of its long-time UM Shopper offering to the broader UM Commerce, a tacit realization of the broader commerce media potential. Likewise, Omnicom earlier in 2022 tapped a commerce czar in Frank Kochenash.

Read more in Digiday.