CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF RETAIL MEDIA
The DIGITS Story: Ten Years of Bringing Retail Media Closer to Retail
DIGITS Agency marks 10 years of retail media expertise, growth, and niche specialization. Here’s what a decade of building at the intersection of retail and media has taught us.
Retail Media Wasn’t a Category When DIGITS Was Founded. It Is Now.
When Dave Glaza left Target in 2016 after 14 years as a merchant and digital marketing leader, retail media did not yet have a name. There were emerging ideas, fragmented tools, and a growing belief that the line between retail and marketing was dissolving. Dave saw it, built for it, and spent the next decade proving it.
Ten years later, DIGITS Agency is one of the most recognized independent retail media agencies in the country. The team has supported over $6 billion in annual sales at Target, served approximately 75 alcohol brands, helped regional grocers build retail media programs from scratch, and earned recognition on both the Minneapolis Fast 50 and the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies.
This is not a victory lap. It is a look at what a decade of focused, niche expertise actually looks like from the inside.
Why This Milestone Matters Beyond the Anniversary
Ten years is a meaningful number in any industry. In retail media, it is a long time.
The category itself is roughly seven years old by most definitions. DIGITS predates the terminology. Dave and his early team were doing the work before the industry had agreed on what to call it. That head start, combined with a deliberate decision to stay specialized rather than expand into adjacent services, has produced a compounding advantage that is hard to replicate.
The brands navigating retail media today face more complexity than ever: platform fragmentation, evolving measurement standards, new retail media entrants, and AI-driven discovery reshaping how shoppers find products. The agencies that will help them navigate that complexity are the ones that have been in it long enough to know what actually works.
DIGITS is one of those agencies. Ten years of evidence says so.
Key Milestones at a Glance
- Founded in 2016 by Dave Glaza following 14 years at Target, including leading the launch of Cartwheel (now Target Circle)
- Grew from a one-person operation to approximately 20 team members today
- Minneapolis Business Journal Fast 50: ranked #5 with 318% revenue growth from 2019 to 2021
- Inc. 5000 recognition in 2024 as one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country
- Certified as a Roundel Media Studio partner, one of a limited number of agencies to hold that designation
- Active member of the RMN Ascendant Council, an invite-only network of retail media leaders
- Named a Walmart Partner Agency in 2026
- Serves approximately 75 alcohol brands across retail media channels
- Supports more than $6 billion in annual sales at Target across its CPG client portfolio
- Operates the DIGITS Retail Media Network, providing regional grocers with retail media infrastructure and operations
- Launched convenience store retail media capabilities beginning in 2025
What Was the Starting Point for DIGITS?
DIGITS began as one person with a clear-eyed bet: that brands needed someone who understood retail from the inside.
Dave Glaza spent 14 years at Target, most of it on the merchant side. He ran businesses in video games to candy to grocery. He understood that a merchant with a 24-foot run of shelf space is not thinking in impressions or clicks. They are thinking in units sold, assortment fit, and finite physical constraints. When he transitioned to the digital side and helped launch Target’s Cartwheel loyalty platform, he saw how those two worlds were colliding.
When he left to start DIGITS in 2016, the mission was focused: help brands sell more product through retail by treating media as an extension of merchandising, not a separate channel. His first client advocate was Jodie Wing of Hain Celestial, a former Target colleague who took the call and signed the first contract.
That origin story still shapes how DIGITS works. The agency does not just run campaigns. It builds systems that align media investment with retail outcomes.
What Decision Made the Biggest Difference in the Early Years?
The most important strategic move DIGITS made in its first two years was expanding beyond Target Cartwheel support into full retail media.
Dave has described attending early GroceryShop conferences as a turning point. “I found my people,” he said. Seeing that other operators and strategists were thinking about retail media the same way he was gave him the conviction to build toward a broader capability set rather than staying narrowly focused on a single platform.
That decision opened three distinct client verticals that now define DIGITS: a deep specialty in Target and Roundel for CPG brands, a growing practice serving approximately 75 alcohol brands navigating a specialized and compliance-heavy retail media environment, and the DIGITS Retail Media Network helping regional grocers build and operate their own retail media programs.
Each vertical was built because DIGITS saw a gap before most agencies did. Alcohol retail media is roughly five years behind core grocery in sophistication. Regional grocers were generating loyalty data for years before anyone helped them monetize it. DIGITS planted flags in both places early.
How Did the Team Shape the Culture at DIGITS?
About halfway through the company’s life, something shifted in how Dave thought about what he was building.
It started as a practical reality. Dave had young kids, worked from home, and structured his days around flexibility. When he hired people, he managed them the way he wanted to work. Over time, his team began telling him how much they valued that approach. People built lives around work that actually fit those lives.
What started as a byproduct of one founder’s preferences became a pillar of the company’s culture.
Many of the current DIGITS team members have been with the agency for five to 10 years. That kind of retention in an industry moving as fast as retail media is not accidental. It reflects a deliberate decision to build a place where people want to stay.
Dave is clear that the 10-year milestone belongs to that team as much as it belongs to any strategy or client win. The spouses, families, and partners who carried early-stage uncertainty alongside the team are part of that story too.
What Has Staying Niche Made Possible?
DIGITS does one thing: retail media. Not brand strategy. Not broker sales. Not creative production.
That focus is a feature, not a limitation.
Full-funnel media agencies often have a retail media team or a retail media person, not an agency fully focused on those winning strategies and capabilities. This feature extends to how DIGITS thinks about its proprietary capabilities. The agency has built a dedicated Target promotional analytics engine with deep history in Cartwheel and Circle performance data. That history is not something a generalist agency can replicate.
The same logic applies to alcohol retail media. Selling beer, wine, and spirits through retail channels involves compliance complexity, age-gating requirements, and state-by-state variation that most agencies are not equipped to navigate. DIGITS built that expertise intentionally because the opportunity was real and the competition was sparse.
What Does the Next Decade Require?
Dave’s bet on the next decade is straightforward: niche expertise will become more valuable, not less.
AI is raising the floor for everyone. Information that used to require specialized knowledge is increasingly available to anyone who asks the right questions. But what AI cannot replicate is the judgment that comes from years of operating inside a specific category, on a specific platform, with a specific set of constraints.
The agency that has managed Target Circle promotions across hundreds of CPG brands knows things that no language model can surface. The team that has worked through compliance requirements for alcohol retail media at scale knows things that a generalist cannot fake. That depth is the moat.
At the same time, DIGITS is building toward an AI-integrated operating model. Dave has said directly that if he were launching the agency today, he would launch it as AI-first, building every workflow around automation and AI-driven processes from day one rather than retrofitting them onto an existing structure. That retrofitting work is underway. It is harder than starting fresh, but it is necessary.
The other bet is on continued expansion of retail media beyond the platforms that defined the first decade. Convenience store retail media is five to ten years behind grocery. The DIGITS team started that work about a year ago and sees significant runway. Regional grocers continue to mature their programs. And as AI-driven product discovery tools develop paid placement capabilities, DIGITS expects to be among the first agencies operating in that space.
The goal in year eleven looks a lot like the goal in year one: be the smartest retail media team in the room, wherever that room is.
FAQs
What does DIGITS Agency specialize in?
DIGITS is an independent retail media agency focused exclusively on retail media strategy, execution, and optimization. The agency specializes in Target and Roundel, alcohol retail media, and regional grocer retail media networks. DIGITS does not operate as a full-service agency, which allows its team to maintain deep platform expertise across every engagement.
How long has DIGITS been working with Target and Roundel?
DIGITS was founded in 2016 by a former Target merchant who helped launch the Cartwheel loyalty platform, which later became Target Circle. The agency has operated at the intersection of Target’s retail and media ecosystem for the full ten years of its existence and holds Roundel Media Studio certification.
What makes DIGITS different from other retail media agencies?
Most retail media capabilities inside larger agencies are one team among many. DIGITS is built entirely around retail media, with proprietary analytical tools, deep category expertise in alcohol, and an operating model designed to bring media strategy into alignment with merchant and retail outcomes rather than treating media as a separate channel.
Does DIGITS work with alcohol brands?
Yes. DIGITS works with approximately 75 alcohol brands and has developed specific capabilities for navigating the compliance, targeting, and channel complexity involved in alcohol retail media. BevAlc retail media is roughly five years behind core grocery in sophistication, and DIGITS has built expertise in that gap intentionally.
What is the DIGITS Retail Media Network?
The DIGITS Retail Media Network aggregates regional grocers and provides them with the infrastructure, operations, and brand sales capabilities needed to run retail media programs. DIGITS acts as agency of record for these retailers, enabling them to offer paid search, off-site media, and coupon programs without requiring enterprise-level internal resources.
Ten Years In. Still Just Getting Started.
DIGITS was built on a simple belief: that retail media works best when it is treated as an extension of retail, not a layer on top of it. That belief has held up across a decade of platform changes, industry shifts, and category growth that no one fully predicted.
The team that built this agency, the clients who trusted it early, and the retailers who partnered with it along the way all contributed to what DIGITS is today. The next ten years will be shaped by what comes next in AI, in c-stores, in regional grocery, and in the continued fragmentation of how shoppers find and buy products.
The question worth asking: as retail media continues to mature, does your brand have a partner with the depth to navigate what comes next?
References
- Minneapolis Business Journal Fast 50, 2022: DIGITS Agency ranked #5 with 318% revenue growth (bizjournals.com/twincities)
- Inc. 5000, 2024: DIGITS Agency named one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States
- Target Corporation: Target Circle platform launch history and Roundel media network capabilities
- Grocery Dive: Regional Grocer Retail Media Trends, 2024
- eMarketer: U.S. Retail Media Ad Spending Forecast, 2025
- RMN Ascendant Council: Retail Media Network Leadership Forum, 2024 and 2025
Ready to Work with a Team That Has Been Here for a Decade?
DIGITS has spent ten years building at the intersection of retail and media. If your brand is navigating Target Circle strategy, alcohol retail media, or regional grocer programs, we are ready to put that experience to work.
About DIGITS Agency
DIGITS is an omnichannel retail media agency specializing in Target, regional grocers, and alcohol retail media. As a Target Managed Services partner, Roundel Media Studio Certified agency and Walmart Connect Partner, DIGITS helps CPG brands navigate retail media with strategic planning, hands-on campaign management, and proprietary analytics. Learn more at www.digitsagency.com.
Dave Glaza, Founder & CEO of DIGITS, remains committed to bringing digital capabilities to physical stores!
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