Surfside Names Lars Djuvik Chief Revenue Officer as It Expands Retail Media Platform Beyond Cannabis and Alcohol

Former Crealytics and Pentaleap executive joins as Surfside expands its retail media platform across grocery, convenience and other fragmented retail categories.

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Surfside, the advertising operating system built for the retail majority, today announced that Lars Djuvik has joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer.

Djuvik joins Surfside as the company expands the infrastructure it built in cannabis and alcohol into grocery, convenience and other retail categories. Together these make up the "retail majority": the thousands of independent, specialty and regional retailers that account for the majority of consumer spending.

As Chief Revenue Officer, Djuvik will lead Surfside's revenue organization across both sides of that network: expanding partnerships with retailers while scaling the demand organization serving agencies, suppliers and advertisers.

"Lars understands something fundamental about retail media: the merchant, the media and the transaction have to work together, all in service of the shopper," said Michael Blanche, co-CEO of Surfside. "He has spent his career on every side of that equation. As we take the infrastructure we built in some of the most complex retail environments and bring it to a much larger market, there are very few people with his combination of retailer, brand, agency and adtech experience."

Djuvik brings more than 25 years of experience across advertising, commerce and retail media. He most recently held leadership roles at Crealytics and Pentaleap, the retail media technology company launched by Crealytics. He also held leadership positions at Shopkick, acquired by SK Planet and now part of Trax Retail; Interactive Media Holdings, which became the publicly traded demand-side platform Viant; and Freeosk, whose in-store sampling platform has operated across major retailers including Sam's Club and Albertsons.

Surfside built its platform in two of the most heavily regulated categories: cannabis and alcohol. Its technology connects onsite, offsite and in-store media activation with transaction data and measurement at the source, allowing retailers and brands to evaluate performance against point-of-sale outcomes while retailers retain ownership of their customer and transaction data.

The company has been extending that infrastructure to regional grocers, convenience stores, liquor retailers, gas stations, specialty retailers and other businesses that have often been excluded from retail media because of fragmented point-of-sale systems, loyalty programs and data environments. Surfside enables these retailers to participate in a unified, addressable network while giving advertisers a more efficient way to reach and measure custom audiences.

While Surfside also partners with the largest retailers, its core mission is this underserved retail set, which accounts for roughly 80% of consumers' everyday shopping.

"Surfside doesn't get paid on impressions or guesses; it gets paid on performance tied directly to point-of-sale data," said Djuvik. "The cash register, not a click, is the source of truth. That is the standard I've chased throughout my career. Surfside has built the infrastructure to give the retail majority access to meaningful advertising demand without requiring them to hand over ownership of their customer relationships."

Djuvik said Surfside's ability to connect advertising with the moments when purchasing decisions are made was another factor in his decision to join.

"The greatest opportunity is often the day or two before an event, when customers are filling their carts or planning their everyday shopping," Djuvik added. "Surfside helps brands, and especially their agencies, understand and act on those high-value moments while giving retailers a direct role in the media economics surrounding their customers. What sealed it for me, though, wasn't just the technology. It's the team. This is a group of retail media and adtech operators who've actually built and scaled this from the ground up."

Surfside has already expanded into grocery and convenience, with additional retail categories to follow.

About Surfside

Surfside is the Advertising OS for the Retail Majority. One platform connects brands, retailers, and shoppers across every channel, built on purchase data from thousands of independent and regional stores that standard retail media fails to activate. Brands get high-intent audiences and inventory they cannot buy anywhere else. Retailers turn transactions they already process into revenue. Every campaign is measured against real sales.

Media Contact

Nicole Baytala
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SOURCE Surfside Solutions Inc.