Lee Brown, vice president and global head of advertising at Spotify, will leave the company to become DoorDash’s chief revenue officer in late August.

Brown has spent six years managing Spotify’s advertising operations and will report to DoorDash president and COO Prabir Adarkar.

During his tenure, Brown significantly expanded Spotify’s ad business.

He launched the Spotify Ad Exchange in 2023, helped more than double ad revenue, and introduced new products for ad automation.

After his departure, Spotify’s ad division will be co-led by Per Sandell and Brian Berner.

The company will look for a permanent replacement both internally and externally.

🔗 Source: Axios

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ DoorDash’s advertising business shows rapid scaling momentum

DoorDash’s decision to hire an experienced advertising executive reflects the company’s impressive growth trajectory in retail media.

The delivery platform crossed $1 billion in annualized ad revenue in 2024, representing significant momentum since launching its advertising solutions in October 20221.

This growth contributed to DoorDash’s improved take rate, which increased to 12.9% with advertising revenue helping drive profitability gains2.

The company reported 40% revenue growth in Q1 2023, reaching $1.8 billion, while simultaneously improving its contribution margin to 3.3% of marketplace gross order value3.

Industry analysts estimate the digital retail advertising market could reach $250 billion, positioning DoorDash to capture a meaningful share as it scales its advertising platform4.

Brown’s track record at Spotify, where he more than doubled the ad business and launched programmatic advertising capabilities, aligns with DoorDash’s need to accelerate its advertising technology and expand advertiser relationships.

2️⃣ Delivery platforms are building advertising ecosystems beyond their core business

Recent DoorDash developments