Rokt brings Wayne Gretzky and major retail and airline executives to Advertising Week New York, with Mastercard at the table

Rokt, a commerce and advertising technology firm that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to tailor online shopping experiences to individual customers, returned to Advertising Week New York (AWNY) 2026 with a line-up that mixed sports celebrity with senior industry executives. In a report carried by Yahoo Finance, Rokt highlighted a series of leadership and technology discussions that it said took place during the week, including panels featuring Wayne Gretzky along with executives from Fanatics, Lowe’s, Southwest Airlines and Mastercard.

The company’s participation underscores how the advertising industry is reframing targeting and measurement. Rokt’s stated focus, as described in the same AWNY coverage, is applying AI and machine learning to make commerce content more relevant to shoppers, rather than treating advertising as separate from the purchase journey.

Alongside its own product positioning, Rokt’s AWNY programming put “commerce media” and leadership themes at the center. Commerce media generally refers to advertising and measurement that are tied to retail platforms and consumer purchasing indicates, including sponsored placements and retailer-backed ad products. Rokt’s inclusion of major retailers and travel brands in the event agenda reflects the growing push to connect marketing spend with measurable outcomes across digital commerce.

Executives from Fanatics and Lowe’s represented retail and branded commerce, while Southwest Airlines brought a travel perspective that is increasingly relevant as airlines and other service providers expand their use of personalized offers and shopping-style funnels. Mastercard’s participation, according to the AWNY coverage, added a payments and financial services viewpoint to the discussions around how ad ecosystems can use richer data streams while navigating privacy and governance concerns.

Mastercard, whose shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker MA, sits at the intersection of consumer spend and merchant networks. While the Yahoo Finance report did not outline specific partnerships or product announcements between Mastercard and Rokt as part of AWNY, its presence in panels indicates continued industry attention to how payments platforms and commerce ad networks may collaborate in ways that improve relevance for consumers and performance for marketers.

Rokt said it held eight panel discussions during AWNY 2026, according to the same report. However, the coverage did not provide granular details about which individual panelists spoke on which topics, the exact questions asked, or any quantified outcomes such as revenue impact, new customer wins, or contract sizes. It also did not specify whether Rokt used AWNY to announce new product releases, new retail integrations, or new commerce media offerings.

For Mastercard, the practical takeaway from attending the event is less about any one headline and more about positioning within a broader shift in marketing technology. As more advertising budgets move toward formats that promise direct conversion and measurable performance, payments companies and retailers are increasingly viewed as key infrastructure that can make those promises credible, through transaction-linked insights and channel reach.

What to watch next is whether the AWNY participation translates into concrete commercial steps that Rokt or its partners choose to disclose. Future filings, investor communications, and company announcements would be the most reliable places to confirm whether discussions around commerce media and AI lead to new product deployments, data-sharing agreements, or customer deployments, rather than remaining event-focused programming.