CES + NRF: What Everyone Was Really Talking About

In this episode, hosts Nick Morgan and Paul Blackburn recap a very fast start to the year, jumping on planes and landing in the middle of two of the biggest moments on the commerce calendar: CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas and NRF (National Retail Foundation) in New York.

From ad tech decision-makers focused on turning plans into progress, to retailers getting real about agentic commerce, AI interoperability, and what it means to show up as a brand inside LLM-driven discovery, this is a grounded read on what’s hype, what’s happening, and what’s coming next.

If you’re planning 2026 strategy, building decks, or trying to connect the dots between retail media, creativity, and the new AI-led shopping front door, this one’s your practical reset.

Featuring highlights from:

• CES (Las Vegas): Ad tech and agency leaders signalling commerce media is now core operating rhythm (not a side quest), plus serious momentum around AI inside platforms, CTV, and consolidation chatter.
• NRF (New York): Retail at scale, with agentic commerce as the headline, plus a reality-check on trust, privacy, and bot-vs-bot infrastructure.
• AI, discovery, and brand anxiety: Brands grappling with how to show up inside LLM-led journeys without losing branded experience, differentiation, or the ability to introduce new products.
• AI commerce getting real: OpenAI’s positioning around brands building experiences inside LLM environments, plus clear signals the rails for LLM-native transactions are being built.
• Retail media’s next pressure point: Retailers feeling top-of-funnel traffic shifts and pushing harder into offsite/off-network to maintain delivery and outcomes.

About the hosts:

• Nick Morgan: Nick is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and eCommerce. He founded Vudoo in 2018, a platform that enables in-stream content commerce across articles, videos, and images. Nick's work transforms every ad impression into a potential shop front, offering a seamless eCommerce experience.

• Paul Blackburn: Paul is a digital media innovator with over 20 years of experience. At News Corp Australia, he launched the "Intent Connect" data platform and led innovation in shoppable video and the "Total Commerce" framework. Now as Chief Growth Officer at Vudoo, he helps brands, publishers, and agencies unlock new ways to monetise content through immersive, commerce-enabled experiences.
  
  

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