Brian Monahan exits Albertsons Media Collective amid leadership shake-up
Brian Monahan exited Albertsons Media Collective after ~14 months; the SVP role may not be refilled, with retail media now folded under CMO Emily Turner reporting into merchandising. Agency sources say the RMN failed to hit growth targets.
Smaller RMNs that can't achieve scale are getting absorbed into core marketing functions — consolidation pressure will push ad dollars further toward Walmart Connect, Amazon DSP, and Kroger, widening the gap between tier-1 and long-tail retail media networks.
Albertsons folding retail media into merchandising signals the network is deprioritizing standalone ad growth — budgets you're running there face organizational instability and slower product innovation. Agencies should audit Albertsons Media Collective campaign performance now and stress-test whether incremental ROAS justifies continued spend.
Operational Impact
This story may require teams to revisit workflows, monitoring, or platform assumptions.
Bottom Line
Albertsons retail media leadership collapse signals RMN instability heading into Q4.
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Industry Context
Useful background context, but lower-priority than direct platform, community, or operator intelligence.
Impact Level
medium
Albertsons retail media leadership collapse signals RMN instability heading into Q4.
Key Stat / Trigger
Digital sales up 13% but identical sales down 0.8% at Albertsons most recent earnings
Focus on the operational implication, not just the headline.
Full Coverage
Retail Media Landscape // October 6, 2026 Brian Monahan exits Albertsons Media Collective amid leadership shake-up By Kimeko McCoy Ivy Liu This story was originally published by Modern Retail’s sister site, Digiday. Brian Monahan, brought on to head up Albertsons Media Collective retail media business late last July, has left the company.
Effective immediately, Albertsons Media Collective will now report to CMO Emily Turner. Turner reports to evp and chief merchandising officer at Albertsons Michelle Larson. Business partners were informed Friday of the move. It was also confirmed by a company spokesperson and two agency executives today.
Albertsons did not say if Monahan’s position as senior vp of Albertsons Media Collective would be filled in the future. It’s also unclear why Monahan’s position is being folded. “Brian played a key role in building Albertsons Media Collective into an important and growing part of our business.
We thank him for his leadership and contributions and wish him continued success,” said a company spokesperson. In the release on Friday last week, Larson reassured business partners around the leadership changes and decision to bring media and marketing capabilities within the same organization as merchandising.
Monahan spent just over a year at the company. According to his LinkedIn account, Monahan joined Albertsons from Dentsu, where he served as head of retail media solutions. Monahan also did a stint at Pinterest, leading the platform’s retail vertical strategy.
Under Monahan’s leadership, Albertsons launched its Retail Media Incrementality-Based Multi-Touch Attribution measurement solution, and a scripted branded entertainment offering. His time at Albertsons was marked as a “pivotal moment” in the company’s ambition to accelerate the growth of its retail media business.
For one agency exec who spoke to Digiday on the condition of anonymity, the leadership changes are not expected to impact client ad spend. It is, however, perhaps a larger indicator of the crossroads long tail RMNs find themselves.
“Our sense is that the RMN side hasn’t grown at the pace they had hoped,” said another executive who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. “Brian was brought in to help build that part of the business, but based on what we’ve seen from the outside, it doesn’t appear to have reached the scale they were aiming for.”
Albertsons’ retail media business is a bright spot in its otherwise gloomy financial outlook, based on its most recent earnings. While its digital sales increased by 13%, its identical sales decreased by 0. 8%. (Identical sales, or same-store sales, measure the change in revenue from existing retail locations over a specific period.)
The grocery chain does not explicitly break out separate income or specific dollar earnings for Albertsons Media Collective. Monahan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Copy link
Pull Albertsons Media Collective campaign incrementality reports now — if ROAS is marginal, reallocate to Kroger Precision Marketing or Instacart Ads before Q4 planning locks.
Set a 30-day check-in with your Albertsons account rep to confirm new contacts under Turner's org and whether roadmap commitments (attribution tools, branded content) remain intact.
Original Source
This briefing is based on reporting from Modern Retail. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
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