Jill Cruz

Jill leads commerce media strategy for Publicis Commerce and has over twenty-five years of experience in the advertising/shopper/media space, spending the past decade in eCommerce.

She started her career in National Brand Media Buying, moving to Account and eventually Agency Leadership, servicing a wide range of marketers, including blue-chip clients such as Frito Lay, Peterbilt Motors and Dell. After 10+ years she made the decision to pivot to Shopper Marketing, understanding the importance to get closer to the sale, and she was driven by a curiosity to see how emerging tech would continue to evolve this part of the industry. She held various leadership roles in Shopper for the better part of a decade, leading all customer-specific initiatives and specializing in all classes of trade.

While most of her background has been on the agency side, in 2013, again following the industry, Jill shifted to Retail Media, and she credits the years spent as VP of Sales for one of the early retailer media networks (MyWebGrocer) as some of her most valuable – understanding both the advertising sales and data platforms, as well as the retailer software side.  She has led various agency teams across many different verticals but driving success for CPG brands like P&G, Tyson, GE, Mars and Hershey’s has been a focused sweet spot (no pun intended).  

She is a multi-Effie and Reggie award winner and has been recognized as a Campaign US 40 over 40 honoree, received the Outstanding Retail Media Contributor Award from IAB and the Path to Purchase Retail Media Award. While she is proud of the accolades that she and her teams have won, she cares most about being #1 mama to her two young daughters.  She resides in New York City but hasn’t let go of her proud Texas roots.