ADWEEK names Surfside co-founder Michael Blanche to inaugural Commerce All-Stars list

By AI, Created 10:23 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – ADWEEK named Surfside Co-Founder and Co-CEO Michael Blanche to its first Commerce All-Stars list on June 9, 2026, recognizing leaders shaping commerce and retail media. The honor spotlights Surfside’s push to expand retail media infrastructure beyond the largest chains and tie advertising more directly to verified sales.

Why it matters: - ADWEEK’s inaugural Commerce All-Stars list highlights the executives influencing how commerce media grows, how retailers monetize data, and how advertisers connect spending to real sales. - Blanche’s selection signals growing recognition for retail media infrastructure built for independent, regional, and specialty retailers, not just the biggest chains. - Surfside’s model matters because the retail majority still represents a large share of consumer transactions but has historically lacked scaled access to retail media tools.

What happened: - Surfside announced on June 9, 2026, that Co-Founder and Co-CEO Michael Blanche was named to ADWEEK’s inaugural Commerce All-Stars list. - The list includes retail media leaders from Walmart, Target, and Sam’s Club. - ADWEEK created the award to recognize executives driving innovation and measurable impact in commerce and retail media. - The company pointed to Blanche’s work building a unified commerce media platform that extends advanced advertising infrastructure beyond the largest retail players.

The details: - Blanche has led Surfside’s platform development across data infrastructure, audience creation, media activation, and closed-loop measurement. - The platform supports onsite, offsite, and in-store media environments. - The system is designed to let advertisers reach high-intent consumers at the point of purchase and connect exposure to verified online and in-store sales. - Surfside says the platform also helps retailers monetize first-party data, personalize shopping, and drive incremental revenue. - Surfside now supports more than 8,000 retailers and activated more than 1,000 campaigns in the past year. - Between 2023 and 2025, Surfside’s commerce media revenue more than doubled. - Revenue grew 45% year over year in 2024 and 42% in 2025. - Onsite retail media grew more than tenfold over that same period. - Surfside’s data and identity infrastructure includes more than 25 million beverage alcohol transactions and a device graph spanning 1.8 billion connected devices across the U.S. and Canada. - The company says campaigns on the platform deliver an average 28% lift in total sales and 6–10x return on ad spend. - Before Surfside, Blanche was CTO at SITO Mobile, where he worked on engineering and product development in mobile advertising and location intelligence. - Blanche also contributed advisory work to the IAB focused on standards linking media exposure to real-world transactions.

Between the lines: - The recognition reinforces a broader industry shift toward commerce media models that make smaller retail networks measurable and addressable. - Blanche’s comments and Surfside’s growth suggest the company is positioning itself around infrastructure, not just media inventory. - The emphasis on closed-loop measurement reflects advertiser demand for proof that media spend is influencing purchases, not just impressions.

What’s next: - Surfside is likely to keep scaling its retailer network and campaign volume as commerce media shifts further toward measurable performance. - The company’s expanded data and identity stack suggests continued investment in audience precision and transaction-level attribution. - Blanche’s visibility on ADWEEK’s list may help strengthen Surfside’s profile with retailers and brands looking for alternatives to closed retail media ecosystems.

The bottom line: - Blanche’s ADWEEK honor underscores a bigger trend: retail media is moving from a handful of dominant platforms toward a broader, more measurable network built around real purchase behavior.

More information: surfside.io