Writing in The Media Leader in February, Manning Gottlieb founder Nick Manning argued that digital commerce will change the face of our industry. Against the backdrop of massive growth for retail media platforms, Nick pointed to the need for specific retail media specialism in brands and agencies, arguing that, compared with the immediacy of digital commerce, brand-building will have to work harder to compete. Compared with the time it takes to build marketing mix models and to assess their accuracy, digital commerce shortens customer journeys, flattens funnels, and makes selling easier and quicker. And ultimately, that will prove too alluring for most brand owners and agencies to ignore, changing the relationships between agencies, brands, and partners. With only 11% of major advertisers reporting that their agency model fits their future needs, is there a future where brands are built without recourse to traditional advertising? Will brand-owners themselves execute ‘advertising’ within a series of walled and ‘fenced’ gardens? Will the mix of creative, production and media execution be automated? Will in-housing become easier as a result? Are the big agency groups at risk? Will digital commerce reshape advertising as we know it?