Nasser: 

Today on Shift Happens, I’m joined by Felicia Delvecchio, Vice President of Media at DAC, and our own media maven. Felicia works closely with brands navigating fast changing media environments where platform dynamics, competition and consumer behavior can shift almost overnight. 

In this episode, we’re looking at how Temu and Shein, the global low-cost e-commerce giants known for spending aggressively to win customers, are reshaping ad auctions in 2026. It’s not just because they spend big, but because their spend can change so quickly. We’ll talk about what that means for marketers and how teams can respond without overreacting. So welcome to the show, Felicia. 

Felicia: 

Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here. I feel like it’s a rite of passage for me, at DAC. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. 

Nasser: 

And when you say your whole life, you’ve kind of come of age here. How long has it been with us now? 

Felicia: 

I’ve been here for 12 years, so, yeah. Pretty much, I’d like to say my whole life. 

Nasser: 

12 years.  And in that time, And I know, you know, for anyone who’s listening on audio, they’re not going to be able to see this, but it always makes her blush. But it’s been a few years since she was “Search Marketer of the Year” and has grown with even further accolades since then. So welcome, Felicia. 

Felicia: 

Thank you for having me. 

Nasser:  

So, Felicia, I think a lot of marketers have had this experience lately. Like you come into Monday, nothing in your accounts has really changed. And yet performance and KPIs have moved. Costs are up, efficiency is down. And it feels like the auction changed around you. Is that the new normal? 

Felicia: 

Well, I love this because it feels like nothing is normal. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed, right? It’s like that is just the epitome of being a marketer. So that’s exactly what’s happening, right? It’s not that media has become more expensive. It’s that it’s become more volatile. And I feel like this is, you know, we’re in a world where it’s not a set it or forget it anymore, right? 

If you set it and forget it, you’re going to regret it. And so, you know, we’re seeing now that these major advertisers like a Temu or Shein, they’re ramping up, they’re pulling back quickly. And all the things that they’re doing right? They’re creating this ripple effect in the auction. So for all of these other brands out there, it feels like whiplash. And your strategy may be the same. You may be doing all the right things, but everything else is changing around you. That’s what’s tough. 

Nasser: 

So that’s interesting. And that’s a really important distinction because it’s really the volatility.  So how is that different from how things were before? 

Felicia: 

So I think it’s really… things are not permanently expensive, right? It’s that things are shifting really fast. You know, it was always shifting fast, but we can rely on the opportunity to dig into things. Take some time while competitors are moving out of the auction. There were less competitors, right? And so I think it was easier to dissect what was happening. 

But now I really think it means that media teams need to operate differently. You have to be faster. You have to make faster decisions. You have to be more disciplined around how you operate. It’s almost as if we’re the in the stock market, right? Rather than a media plan, we have to be traders instead of media buyers. That’s essentially what’s happening right now. 

Nasser: 

Okay. So as we’re looking at, you know, we’re at the front end still of 2026. What’s changed heading into this year? Why are these auction swings feeling more intense now than they ever have before? 

Felicia: 

Sure. So, I think first, you know, everybody’s feeling it. Business pressure is real, right? It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. Between tariffs, supply chain costs, return margins are tight. All of our clients are feeling that. The industry is feeling that. So in turn, marketers are feeling that.  

In the past, you know, everyone’s just so desperate to improve their business results, right? It’s grow at all costs. Do whatever you got to do. But what I think is changing and shifting is that we have to be really, really smart about your how you’re spending your dollars. So it’s not about growing at all costs anymore. It’s about, you know, what intentionally are we going to do? 

What are we going to do with a disciplined approach to make sure that those dollars go further, because it’s not a steady climb to the top. It’s spikes and dips, right? It’s back to the stock market, right. You’re constantly looking at all of these changes, and you have to move with the changes. 

Nasser: 

And do you see these changes as being uniform? Because you do mention things like for example, the macroeconomic environment, whether it’s tariffs or supply chain shocks or these kinds of things. Is this happening everywhere at the same time or is it, more specific? 

Felicia: 

No, it’s definitely specific to the industry and to the business, right? And so I think the other pieces to this, and what we’re finding is that agility is really important, right? Brands have to be agile. Brands aren’t locking in budgets and creating an annual plan anymore. 

You have to have a quarterly plan, and you have to look at that plan at a weekly basis, and you might be shifting your spend, market to market or category to category, week to week, right? So it’s become a really intense environment, but it’s important that we’re looking at all aspects of this. Because it is also not just global, right? 

I think the problem that some brands have is that they’re looking sort of widespread when it’s really geo-specific. And so it might not be stable in one region versus another, another region might be fine. And if you’re not looking at all those different levels, it’s going to feel completely random in in how you’re operating.  

Nasser: 

So I think that’s part of the big challenge here, right? And a few weeks ago we talked with Luke Reagan about this idea of static media plans versus dynamic. And you’re talking about this point around agility as well. 

Some of these brands are changing posture extremely quickly, but many brands are still measuring and adjusting too slowly. 

Felicia: 

Yeah, that’s true. And I think the geographical piece of it is what’s missing, right? You have to understand geographically where your audience is, media consumption behaviors and market, market factors and changes. And it’s all signal drivel, signal-driven decisioning, right? The auction isn’t moving evenly anymore. There’s tons of pockets of opportunity. 

So if you react at that level, you’ll be successful if you react kind of at this higher level, you’re going to be falling a step behind, right? And I think too, if you’re looking at, let’s say, a national dashboard of how you’re performing, you might see at the highest level that you’re doing well. 

But then when you dig in, you’re like, oh, shoot, actually, maybe we’re not doing so great. Your national view is going to say, yeah, we’re pretty good. But it’s really different when you get down to that granular level. And those are the things that advertisers could be missing. 

Nasser: 

I think you may have just chanced on a completely new, or coined a new phrase, this idea of signal drivel. So speaking of signal drivel, when, when these brands change posture, where do media buyers usually feel it first? 

Felicia: 

So the obvious place that we would feel it first is we usually see that hitting search and shopping, right? That’s the highest intent environment, is where you’re going to see, the quickest return, the quickest growth in your conversions. So for example, talking about Temu and Shein, it was really that, you know, they’re pushing hard in categories nonstop, right? They’re just flooding the auction. 

Broad match, aggressive bidding. They’re putting lots of things out there in terms of volume. And with activities like that, you know, you’re going to dig in and say, oh gosh, what’s going on with my program? And you go in and you look at your CPCs are up and you’re like, cool. I love that for us. Great. That’s awesome, right? 

And so for a brand like that, that’s just constant flooding, it just creates that volatility for all groups. And you’re seeing that in that high intent environment. Now on the flip side, it was Shein, they’re a great example in the social space. They’re constantly making creative. They’re constantly refreshing that, they’re putting all these different assets out and testing into those things, right? 

And so I think that’s, you know, where you see just constant shifts that we’re really having a hard time balancing. 

Nasser: 

And so how do you go about balancing that? You mentioned like a day trader mentality almost, is this where you need to think like a long-term investor? Be less of a day trader and more of a (Warren) Buffet, essentially. 

Felicia: 

Yeah. I think, you know, you have to remember that, the system has a memory, right? And it takes time for that system to rebalance. It’s not going to just snap back when advertisers are making shifts. You have to be thinking more methodically around how to navigate that. And I think that’s the most important factor in being successful in a volatile market.  

Nasser: 

So just to shift gears a little bit, you were talking about Temu and Shein and a lot of brands think of themselves as direct competitors, but a lot don’t. So why is this a relevant conversation for people that are maybe indirect competitors to them? 

Felicia:  

Yeah. So, I think it’s relevant because these competitors show up, no matter if they’re competitor or not. I think this is where it gets really, really interesting too, because we’ve seen clients where, you know, a Temu or a Shein or another advertiser like that might show up next to your product and it doesn’t even feel comparable. 

But because they’re showing up and, you know, they’re putting all these sort of value ads out there, they’re competing for value perception. And so it creates a really unique experience, on the SERP and the market in which you have to react to, right? It’s another added layer of complexity that I don’t know that we’ve ever really had before. 

Nasser: 

So even if you think, well, we’re not really in their lane, you may still be sharing the same battlefield. 

Felicia: 

Absolutely. Yeah. So you might not be selling the same thing like you said, but you’re competing for their attention. You’re also competing for their expectations right? Consumers have an expectation of what they think your product is or what your product value is. And so when you’re putting something like a Temu next to you and it says, oh, it’s $5 or 75% off, you know, that’s how that offers landing next to yours. 

So it’s not necessarily an auction pressure, it’s an expectation pressure. So I think that’s one of the big things. The other thing is promotion fatigue, right? So if everybody’s putting your promotion out into the auction and I think everybody’s feeling this right now, right? It’s such a sensitive market, sensitive economy. And so everyone’s like, oh, I’m going to go on price. If all these sort of competitors out there, “flash sale 70% off”. If everything feels discounted, nothing’s discounted right? Nothing feels special. You’re all offering the same thing. And so then what is that value to your audience?  

Nasser: 

So what is the business impact of this? When this kind of volatility hits, what does it look like from a performance standpoint? 

Felicia: 

So, from a performance standpoint I think it’s really confusing for advertisers. You know you could say that, on the marketing team, we feel that right. You’re digging into everything and everything feels like you did all the right stuff. And it just doesn’t.  The numbers don’t make sense. Nothing makes sense, right? 

And your instinct is to just go fix something. And the pressures from clients are to go fix something. It might be my creative. It might be my website. It might be how much I’m spending. But sometimes there’s nothing broken at all. Sometimes it’s just the market has shifted from underneath you. And then I think this is where advertisers get in trouble and marketers get in trouble, is that they’re going to look to fix something. Maybe there wasn’t a problem, right? And they end up confidently solving the wrong problem. And that’s when you get into a lot of trouble. 

Nasser: 

I can fix them Felicia, it’s okay. So when this happens, does it show up as an initial spike?  Do you see it in your monthly reporting? Like where do you look for underlying issues like this. 

Felicia: 

Yeah, so I think you look for those underlying issues. I think the natural inclination is to look at tactical, right? You’re looking at making a bunch of tests. You’re looking at, you know, changing things in the tactical levers. The campaigns, the bid strategies. And then you get in this sort of loop of panic and change and panic and change, and you get all these false learnings, and it makes a mess of everything. You’re reacting so quickly. And if you just stayed the course and dug into the right layers, you could avoid all of that mess. 

And so I think mentioning monthly right? Monthly is good. But monthly also is sort of smoothing out larger scale. It’s kind of like the national and geographical. It’s at the monthly level things might look good, but when you start digging in things start to look, look a little bit wonky, right? 

So you got to have weekly. You got to have daily. You have to have real time visibility. And so I think those are the levers that we look to pull to understand what’s happening in the market. What’s happening with your audience, what’s happening with your geography, what’s happening in the media consumption trends and behaviors and the channels, all of those things combined are what are going to make us successful. 

Nasser: 

So from a very practical perspective, I know you and our friend Jenna have worked on a playbook for media in 2026. How do you operate on a really practical basis? What should you actually do differently in 26 as a result of these kinds of changes? 

Felicia; 

Yeah, I think, what you can do differently in 2026, is build in an approach that is panic free, right? We have a tendency to panic, around the results that are happening because things are changing fast, because they’re confusing. And so I think having an operating plan for what you do in certain situations, right, build that all up front. If you understand market consumption behaviors, you understand the media landscape. If you understand your client’s business goals, you should be able to create “if-then” statements right. 

If this happens, I do this. If this happens, I do this, I activate this. And so you’re leaving a little bit of that uncertainty out of the equation. It doesn’t mean again that you set it and forget it with this “if-then” plan, but you’re giving yourself a little bit more breathing room to understand what you should be activating. And then you can evolve that. So that you’re prepared and not panicking, and you’re tightening that plan, and you’re thinking about all of the aspects of your media activation, not just one little piece of it. 

Nasser: 

So could you give me a couple of examples, a couple of actual practical examples of what that looks like in practice? 

Felicia: 

Yeah, for sure. So, I think one example of what that looks like in practice, as you know, local business, right? We specialize in “enterprise-to-local”, bringing sort of that national scale and that overall branded footprint down to the local level where you might have a retail footprint. And so having an understanding geographically. Where your audiences are, who your audiences are at that geographical level. Where they index from a media perspective, what your specific objective is, do I have enough awareness? Do I have enough low funnel activation? Do I need to build up the brand? Do I need to get more conversions? 

Having all of that at our disposal, is so beneficial. And I think, you know, DAC has invested in that in terms of our tool kit and our tech, right? Bringing all of those data points together so that we can understand that landscape so that we can be agile. And we’ve done that for clients where they have specific needs in local areas. We’ve said, hey, you know, operationally you can’t handle this much business, so we’re going to pull back in these areas. But like, hey, let’s work on brand reputation over here because you might need, you know, some additional support with trust.  

In this region over here, you know, you’re doing great from a brand perspective, but you can’t drive conversions. We need to put more search in. So, it’s been really successful to have those layers and levers to pull with our data and our approach, and helping businesses be agile to meet the consumer’s needs and meet the market needs. 

Nasser: 

And when you say consumers and market needs, because of course, we’re responding to, these spikes, either by staying calm or when the pullback happens, being ready to address it. And we’re doing it through the mechanisms of media planning, media strategy, individual tactics, as well as promotional messaging at the local level. 

So, underpinning all of this, though, is this kind of playbook and this, this, you know, first do no wrong media approach and, you know, keep calm and carry on essentially right? 

Felicia: 

Yeah, absolutely. And the playbook I think is just it’s a guideline for what’s shifted in the landscape on whole, and what those levers are that we should pull. We know AI is huge. Everyone’s talking about AI. We’re talking about AI. Where do all of these things converge? Right from a paid perspective, from a SEO perspective? AIO, GIO… what are the things that we need to look at collectively as a group from an integrated performance standpoint to be more successful? 

We have to bring all those pieces together. We have to recognize that it is not just contextual, it’s also video. It’s reviews. There’s so many other elements that are at play today that were not here a few years ago. And if you’re missing just one piece, that could be the one piece that’s bringing it all down. 

Nasser: 

And for those listening today, if you want to download the playbook, and delve more into this, the link will be in the description below and will be able to get hold of that for you. 

So here’s the shift. In 2026, it’s not just big spenders reshaping auctions. It’s how fast they surge or pull back. For media buyers, that means success comes from reading the market well, staying disciplined and being ready for both pressure and opportunity. 

Now make it happen. Follow Shift Happens. Leave us a review and share this episode with your team. If you have any questions for the podcast, please email us at shifthappens@dacgroup.com. We’d love to hear from you. 

Felicia, thank you very much for joining us today. 

Felicia: 

Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure. 

Nasser: 

I’m Nasser Sahlool, and thank you for joining us on Shift Happens.