Best Buy Taps Disney’s Lisa Valentino as President of Its Ad Business

Best Buy has hired Lisa Valentino as president of its advertising arm Best Buy Ads—a move that signals how retailers are increasingly looking to hire execs with strong relationships with advertisers to steer their retail media businesses.

Valentino had been executive vice president of client and addressable sales and solutions at Disney since April 2019, leading the media giant’s streaming ad sales and adtech development. Prior to Disney, Valentino served as chief revenue officer for industry and agency at publisher Condé Nast for nearly five years, and as senior vp of multimedia partnerships at ESPN for over nine years.

At Best Buy, she will oversee retail media sales, product development, and reporting for Best Buy Ads. Valentino fills the role as leader of Best Buy’s ad business that has been open since last year when Keith Bryan, a longtime Best Buy exec who launched the ad business in 2010, stepped down from the role. Bryan cofounded a retail media consultancy called Colosseum Strategy last year.

Valentino’s hire is indicative of a larger trend in retail media. As retailers grow their advertising ambitions, they’re hiring execs with backgrounds in traditional media like Valentino. For example, Amazon hired former NBCUniversal ad exec Krishan Bhatia in April to lead Prime Video’s ad business.

Expanding the electronic retailer’s ad business

Retail media is a surging sector, with eMarketer estimating that ad spending will reach $140 billion globally this year. Econsultancy pegs the number of retail media networks at 216 globally.

After launching its initial ad business in 2010, Best Buy rebranded its ad business to be called Best Buy Ads in January 2022. In March 2023, the electronics retailer rolled out a self-serve advertising platform called My Ads that gives advertisers real-time information about their campaigns.

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